Editing for Mechanics

Capitalization

496.1 Proper Nouns, Adjectives

Capitalize all proper nouns and all proper adjectives. A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place, thing, or idea. A proper adjective is an adjective formed from a proper noun.

Common Noun

country, president, continent

Proper Noun

Canada, Andrew Jackson, Asia

Proper Adjective

Canadian, Jacksonian, Asian

496.2 Names of People

Capitalize the names of people and the initials or abbreviations that stand for those names.

Sharice Davids, George R. R. Martin, Timothée Chalamet, Martin Luther King, Jr., Olivia Rodrigo

496. Historical Events

Capitalize the names of historical events, documents, and periods of time.

the Iraq War, the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta, the Middle Ages, the Stone Age

496.4 Abbreviations

Capitalize abbreviations of titles and organizations.

M.D., Ph.D., B.A., Dr., CTO (Chief Technology Officer), FBI, NJHS (National Junior Honor Society)

496.5 Organizations

Capitalize the name of an organization, an association, or a team and its members.

Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Red Cross, Natural Resources Defense Council

the Miami Dolphins, Republicans, the Democratic Party

496.6 Names of Subjects

Capitalize the name of a specific course, but not the name of a general subject. (Exception: The names of languages are proper nouns and are always capitalized—French, Hindi, German, Chinese.)

Mr. Zach is teaching a ceramics course called Cookin’ with Clay.

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497.1 First Words

Capitalize the first word of every sentence and the first word in a direct quotation. Do not capitalize the first word in an indirect quotation.

The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, “There is no greater education than one that is self-driven.”

(sentence with direct quotation)

Tyson noted that the best education of all is self-driven.

(sentence with indirect quotation)

“We are part of this universe; we are in this universe,” he pointed out, “but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us.“

(Notice that but is not capitalized because the word does not begin a new sentence.)

“Kids should be allowed to break stuff more often. That’s a consequence of exploration,” Tyson said. “Exploration is what you do when you don’t know what you’re doing.”

(Exploration is capitalized as the beginning of a new sentence.)

497.2 Capitalize Geographic Names

Planets and heavenly bodies

Earth, Jupiter, Milky Way

Continents

Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, Africa

Countries

Mexico, Haiti, Greece, Chile, United Arab Emirates

States

New Mexico, Alabama, Wyoming, Delaware, Iowa

Provinces

Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario

Counties

Sioux County, Kandiyohi County, Wade County

Cities

Montreal, Baton Rouge, Albuquerque, Portland

Bodies of water

Delaware Bay, Chickamunga Lake, Indian Ocean

Gulf of Mexico, Skunk Creek

Landforms

Appalachian Mountains, Bitterroot Range, Death Valley

Public areas

Tiananmen Square, Sequoia National Forest, Constitution Gardens, Eiffel Tower

Statue of Liberty, Black Mountain Open Space Park, Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Roads and highways

New Jersey Turnpike, Interstate 80, Central Avenue, Chisholm Trail, Mutt’s Road

Buildings

Pentagon, Globe Theatre, Notre Dame Cathedral

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498.1 Particular Sections of the Country

Capitalize words that indicate particular sections of the country; do not capitalize words that indicate just a direction.

the West, the East Coast, the Deep South, the Midwest, the Far North

northern region, eastern shore, moving south, traveling west

Also capitalize proper adjectives formed from names of specific sections of a country. Such adjectives usually describe the section’s culture or experience.

Southern hospitality Northern winters Midwestern accent

498.2 Names of Languages, Races, Nationalities, Religions

Capitalize the names of languages, races, nationalities, and religions, as well as the proper adjectives formed from them.

Arab Christian tradition

Burmese African art

Spanish Irish linen

Judaism Mexican food

498.3 Words Used as Names

Capitalize words such as mother, father, aunt, and uncle when these words are used as names.

Uncle Marius started to sit in his chair.

(Uncle is part of the name “Uncle Marius.”)

But Uncle stopped in midair.

(Uncle is used as a name.)

My aunt was calling him.

(The word aunt describes her but is not used as a name.)

Then my dad and mom walked in.

(The words dad and mom are not used as names.)

“Hi, Mom. Is this a family meeting?” I asked.

(Mom acts as a name.)

Note: Words such as aunt, mom, dad, grandma, and so on, are not capitalized if they come after a possessive pronoun (my, his, our).

498.4 Days, Months, Holidays

Capitalize the names of days of the week, months of the year, and special holidays.

Friday, Saturday July, August Independence Day, Earth Day

Note: Do not capitalize seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall.

Capitalize the names of businesses and the official names of their products. (These are called trade names.) Do not, however, capitalize a general descriptive word like bandage when it follows the trade name.

The Gap, Volvo, Microsoft, Levi’s jeans, Band-Aid bandage

499.2 Titles Used with Names

Capitalize titles used with names of persons and abbreviations standing for those titles.

President Xi Jinping Dr. Seuss

Gov. Katie Hobbs Mother Teresa

Senator Cory Booker Sir Ian McKellen

499.3 Titles

Capitalize the first word of a title, the last word, and every word in between except articles (a, an, the), short prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions. Follow this rule for titles of books, newspapers, magazines, poems, plays, songs, articles, movies, works of art, pictures, stories, and essays.

The Dragon and the Girl (book)

The Times of India (newspaper)

National Geographic (magazine)

“The Hill We Climb” (poem)

Hadestown (play)

“Champagne Problems” (song)

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (movie)

Boulevard of Broken Dreams (work of art)

Capitalize	Do Not Capitalize
American	un-American
January, February	winter, spring
the Ohio River	the Missouri and Ohio rivers
The South is known for its hospitality.	Turn south at the stop sign.
Duluth Central High School	a Duluth high school
Governor Josh Green, M.D.	Josh Green, M.D., our governor
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau	Justin Trudeau, prime minister
Ford Mustang GT	a Ford automobile
Planet Earth rotates.	The earth was dark and fertile.
I’m taking History 101.	I’m taking history.

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Plurals

500.1 Nouns Ending in a Consonant

The plurals of most nouns are formed by adding s to the singular.

cheerleader — cheerleaders wheel — wheels

The plural form of nouns ending in ch, sh, s, z, and x is made by adding es to the singular.

lunch — lunches dish — dishes fox — foxes

mess — messes buzz — buzzes

500.2 Nouns Ending in o

The plurals of nouns ending in o with a vowel just before the o are formed by adding s.

radio — radios studio — studios rodeo — rodeos

The plurals of most nouns ending in o with a consonant letter just before the o are formed by adding es.

echo — echoes hero — heroes tomato — tomatoes

Exception: Musical terms always form plurals by adding s.

alto — altos solo — solos piano — pianos

500.3 Nouns Ending in ful

The plurals of nouns that end with ful are formed by adding an s at the end of the word.

three platefuls four cupfuls

500.4 Nouns Ending in f or fe

The plurals of nouns that end in f or fe are formed in one of two ways: If the final f sound is still heard in the plural form of the word, simply add s; if the final sound is a v sound, change the f to ve and add s.

roof —roofs chief — chiefs (plural ends with f sound)

wife — wives loaf — loaves (plural ends with v sound)

500.5 Nouns Ending in y

The plurals of common nouns that end in y with a consonant letter just before the y are formed by changing the y to i and adding es.

fly — flies jalopy — jalopies

The plurals of common nouns that end in y with a vowel before the y are formed by adding only s.

donkey — donkeys monkey — monkeys

The plurals of proper nouns ending in y are formed by adding s.

There are three Best Buys in our metro area.

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501.1 Compound Nouns

The plurals of some compound noun are formed by adding s or es to the main word in the compound.

brothers-in-law maids of honor secretaries of state

501.2 Irregular Spelling

Some words (including many foreign words) form a plural by taking on an irregular spelling; others are now acceptable with the commonly used s or es ending.

child — children

goose — geese

cactus — cacti or cactuses

501.3 Adding an s

The plurals of symbols, letters, numbers, and words discussed as words are formed by adding an apostrophe and an s.

#’s, &’s, $’s, +’s, =’s

p’s and q’s, MP3’s, rpm’s, Ph.D.’s

3’s, 8’s

Grandma lived into her 90’s.

Manny used a lot of cool’s and dude’s in his report.

For information on forming plural possessives, see 495.3.

Abbreviations

501.4 Abbreviations

An abbreviation is the shortened form of a word or phrase. The following abbreviations are always acceptable in any writing:

Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., a.m., p.m. (A.M., P.M.)

B.C.E. (before the common era), C.E. (common era)

B.A., M.A., Ph.D., M.D.

Caution: Do not abbreviate the names of states, countries, months, days, or units of measure in formal writing. Also, do not use signs or symbols (%, &) in place of words.

501.5 Acronyms and Initialisms

Most abbreviations are followed by a period. Acronyms and initialisms are exceptions. An acronym is a word formed from the first (or first few) letters of words in a phrase (NASA). An initialism is the same but can’t be pronounced as a word (HDTV).

URL — uniform resource locator

WHO — World Health Organization

PBS — Public Broadcasting System

HDTV — high-definition television

NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration

SADD — Students Against Destructive Decisions

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Numbers

502.1 Numbers Under 10

Numbers from one to nine are usually written as words; all numbers 10 and over are usually written as numerals.

two seven nine

10 25 106

502.2 Very Large Numbers

You may use a combination of numerals and words for very large numbers.

1.3 million 17 billion

You may spell out large numbers that can be written as two words.

two thousand; but 2,001

502.3 Sentence Beginnings

Use words, not numerals, to begin a sentence.

Twenty (not 20) out of twenty-four students said they spent two or more hours online each day.

502.4 Numerals Only

Use numerals to express money, decimals, percentages, chapters, pages, time, telephone numbers, dates, identification numbers, ZIP codes, addresses, and statistics.

$2.39 26.2 serial no. 1721AX

July 6, 1942 8 percent 44 B.C.E.

chapter 7 79 C.E. pages 287–289

a vote of 23 to 4 4:30 P.M. 34 mph

2125 Cairn Road 1-800-555-1212

502.5 Comparing Numbers

If you are comparing two or more numbers in a sentence, write all of them either as numerals or as words.

Students from 9 to 14 years old are invited.

(or)

Students from nine to fourteen years old are invited.

502.6 Numbers in Compound Modifiers

Numbers that come before a compound modifier that includes a numeral should be written as words.

We need twelve 10-foot lengths to finish the floor.

Within the last year, Jing-Ho wrote twenty-five 12-page reports.

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