Since all sentences should begin with a capital letter, I figured it was only right for our first discussion about grammar to be focused on capitalization. Though this skill is one of the the most basic in writing, it's something that can trip up even the most experienced of writers every once in a while. There are three basic, never-to-be-broken rules of capitalization.
1. The first word in piece of writing should be capitalized.
2. Any word that comes after a period should be capitalized.
3. Proper nouns should always be capitalized.
Within the rule of capitalizing proper nouns is the cause of confusion for many people. This note only includes proper nouns, but adjectives derived from proper nouns. For example, in the phrase, "I ate dinner at the Chinese place downtown", "Chinese" is an adjective, but it still must be capitalized.
Another area of great confusion is the capitalization rules when writing titles. In a title, it is more helpful to remember what should not be capitalized instead of what should be. When writing titles, all words should be capitalized except articles (an, an, the, etc), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or), prepositions (like, on, by), and "to" in an infinitive.
I hope these rules were a helpful review. If you struggle in the area of capitalization, or would simply like to improve in this area, be looking for my "Capitalization Practice" post. Also, if you have any capitalization questions, don't hesitate to ask. This is English class, after all!
1. The first word in piece of writing should be capitalized.
2. Any word that comes after a period should be capitalized.
3. Proper nouns should always be capitalized.
Within the rule of capitalizing proper nouns is the cause of confusion for many people. This note only includes proper nouns, but adjectives derived from proper nouns. For example, in the phrase, "I ate dinner at the Chinese place downtown", "Chinese" is an adjective, but it still must be capitalized.
Another area of great confusion is the capitalization rules when writing titles. In a title, it is more helpful to remember what should not be capitalized instead of what should be. When writing titles, all words should be capitalized except articles (an, an, the, etc), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or), prepositions (like, on, by), and "to" in an infinitive.
I hope these rules were a helpful review. If you struggle in the area of capitalization, or would simply like to improve in this area, be looking for my "Capitalization Practice" post. Also, if you have any capitalization questions, don't hesitate to ask. This is English class, after all!
Kristen