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THIS PAGE IS COPYRIGHT 1997 BY CORNERSTONE CREATIVE COMMUNICATIONS. Capitalization We all know the basics. Capitalize the first letter of a
sentence and the first letter of full sentences within quotation marks or after colons. But things get murky after that, and opinions differ quite widely. Newspaper writing differs from government writing and from much
business writing. The two biggest problems are job titles (is she the president or the President?) and short forms (is the Federal Capitalization Policy also the Policy or just the policy?). Businesses tend to
capitalize far too often, leaving everything sounding puffed up and self-important, until you get to "The New Project Team discussed the Quality Assurance Report at the Weekly Managers Meeting." Not bad if
you're writing in German, but in English it makes every sentence look like the title of somebody's book. In Editing Canadian English, produced by what is now the Editors' Association of Canada, the authors
argue that British and Canadian writers favour more capitals than Americans because capital letters "confer authority and importance [and we] are traditionally more predisposed toward authority." Perhaps,
but there is more charm in understatement than there is in overtly trumpeting something's importance with a lot of Heavy Capital Letters. Always use your own organization's style preferences, but if you are looking for
guidance, here are our opinions of capital letters, opinions heavily influenced by Canadian Press style. Personal names and nicknames This is easy. Let me introduce Jane "Scarface" Ohara, who works
with Joe "the Butcher" Smith. Capitalize personal names and nicknames, even if the people don't really exist (Jack Frost, the Grim Reaper, Father Time). Foreign names, however, can be troublesome. It's
Manfred von Richthofen, but Martin Van Buren. Usually, though, little names that mean of, such as de and van, are not capitalized in names. Some names mix upper and lower case in strange ways. "I'm
Joe apSimon and this is my friend Joe MacIntosh, who is not related to Jane Macintosh." Some people, for whatever reason, decide to do weird things with capitals to make proper nouns stand out. Singer K.D. Lang
prefers k.d. lang and the Canadian Real Estate Association calls one of its members a REALTOR. Computer companies are also notorious for this. Odd capitalization gets out of hand quickly. Our overwhelming inclination is
to avoid these strange formats in the first place, but if you must use a name in all caps, at least don't pluralize it in all caps. It should be REALTORs, not REALTORS. DIY: Where I write, we prefer ...
REALTOR Realtor (Cornerstone prefers Realtor.) Job descriptions: formal titles This is simple. Capitalize formal titles only when they come directly before the title-holder's name and only if they
are not modified in any way. Here are some examples of what we mean. It is Premier Mike Harris, but Mike Harris, premier of Ontario. (Premier is a title, so it is only capitalized before the person's name.)
Write "a prime minister selects ministers for each department." (Prime minister can be a title for a particular person, but in this instance the sentence refers to every prime minister, not a particular one.)
It is Aunt Mary, but my aunt Mary. (My modifies aunt.) It is Prime Minister Jean Chrtien, but former prime minister Brian Mulroney and Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin. (Former and Newfoundland modify the
title.) It is President Bill Clinton, but presidents Clinton and Chirac. (President is another title, but because it is plural, it acts as a modifier.) Beware, though. In a sentence such as, "We greeted the
president, Nelson Mandela, at the airport," the P in president is not capitalized. Blame it on the commas. Some job titles are part of nicknames, and are therefore capitalized. It's Jack the Ripper, but Joe the
butcher. (Okay, so "ripper" isn't really a job title ...) Some editors defer to high authority by always capitalizing certain titles. We'd advise not making any exceptions, but if you are so inclined, three
suggest themselves. "Today the new Pope met Britain's Queen to talk about possible Governors General." The Queen in this case is the one in London. The king in Madrid gets to be capitalized in his own
country, but not here, unless you're discussing him by his full name: "King Juan Carlos." Likewise, we have Her Highness, the Crown and the Royal Family, although mercifully most other uses of royal are not
capitalized. Finally, try to avoid "front-loading" long titles before names. You often see government news releases that (correctly) begin "Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Joe Smith, in
co-operation with Minister of Public Works and Government Services Jane Ohara..." Get to the point as quickly as you can. "Joe Smith, minister of citizenship and immigration, and Jane Ohara, minister of public
works and government services..." Job titles: in the office So far, we've been talking about formal titles. But not all titles are formal, and the titles you have on your rsum are all informal (unless
this little volume has made its way to Buckingham Palace). Therefore, it is President Bill Clinton, but president Joe Smith of XYZ Corporation. Formal titles refer only to elected politicians (except for members of
Parliament), professionals such as doctors and professors, military officers and religious figures (and, incidentally, to family relationships, such as Uncle Vanya). Interestingly, in its own internal documents,
Canadian Press makes the same exceptions you probably do. It allows such capitalizations as Vice-President, Marketing. This is bad enough, but CP also allows itself to use Head Office and Personnel. This brings us to
the official federal government style. According to The Canadian Style, "the [capitalization] style chosen depends on the degree of importance and amount of respect the reader may be expected to accord the person,
position or institution in question." Hence, "The Prime Minister talked to Mike Harris, Premier of Ontario, about what our manager did last week." The federal government style also capitalizes short
forms of longer titles; "Prime Minister" in the above example is a replacement for the longer term "Prime Minister Jean Chrtien." Happily, the government still doesn't let you get away with
capitalizing modified titles, examples of which are given in the bullet points above under "Job descriptions: formal titles." And the government does not extend this generosity to titles that are really
professions, such as professor, doctor and priest. This may sound simple, but even with the government style, we're still left with the awkward problem of setting down an objective standard for who is worthy of the
respectful capitalization and who isn't. Does the President talk to the Janitor? Nobody would want to plunge into that can of worms. Our own preference is for modesty in titles, but if CP can't even bring itself to
follow its own rules, you can certainly feel free to excuse yourself from following ours. DIY: Where I write, we prefer ... to capitalize all job titles, even when modified
to capitalize all job titles, except when modified to capitalize only formal titles, even when modified to capitalize only formal titles, except when modified (Cornerstone recommends the last option --
strongly. Another compromise is to capitalize if the title obviously refers to one specific person.) Organizations The formal name of an organization is capitalized: the John Smith Company, the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans, the Board of Directors. Note that the Government of Canada is the legal entity that governs Canada, but it is only capitalized when you use the title in full. Otherwise, use lower case: "The
government announced a tax cut today." Don't capitalize any part of a title that is modified: "The former department of labour is now Human Resources Development Canada." See "Job descriptions:
formal titles" for more examples of modification. And don't capitalize organizational terms when you are using them generally: "Each department must produce a business plan." We'd also suggest
capitalizing either all divisions of an organization, none of them, or only those at the highest level. In the latter case, capitalize the names of those bodies that make the rules, and don't capitalize the names of
those bodies that follow the rules. However, making these distinctions may prove difficult, especially given the Byzantine nature of some office politics. Some organizations insist that their names always be
capitalized, regardless of grammar. So be it. To be consistent, you might capitalize all parts of all organizations all the time, if you can stand how that looks. The government style is permissive about capitals,
perhaps because government employees share that deference to authority noted by the Editors' Association of Canada. Nevertheless, The Canadian Style makes exceptions to its pro-capitalization policy for government
bodies, particularly "when used in a non-specific sense, when preceded by a possessive, demonstrative or other type of adjectival form." And no, we're not sure exactly what that means, either.
DIY: Where I write, we capitalize ... all organizations, even if modified all subdivisions all high-level subdivisions the short forms of organizations (i.e. the Company)
(Cornerstone recommends checking none of these boxes.) Short forms of important things We've touched on this already, when talking about organizations. The problem comes in a sentence like this: "The
department produced the policy, which covered translation." Let's say the department in question is Grammar Canada, also known as the Department of Grammar. The Canadian Style, says that short forms of formal names
should also be capitalized. Hence: "The Department produced the policy, which covered translation." The difficulty is that you may not know when a noun is a short form for a longer name. For example, if the
policy in question is called the Federal Capitalization Policy, we have to wonder whether our sentence should now read: "The Department produced the Policy, which covered translation." It doesn't take long
for this kind of thing to get out of hand and soon you find yourself capitalizing all the nouns. In the government style, the problem is aggravated by the fact that a noun is never capitalized when it is modified, when
it refers generically to a position, when it is pluralized, or when it acts as a title but falls anywhere but before a person's name. DIY: Where I write, when it comes to short forms ...
we don't use capitals at all we follow the government style we use capitals, no matter what (Cornerstone recommends the first option -- very strongly.) Titles of books, publications and creative works
For books and other titles, capitalize the first and last word, as well as all the nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Also capitalize any conjunction or preposition that is at least four letters long.
Foreign titles are easier. Always capitalize proper names and the first word. For French, also capitalize the second word if the first is an article (le, la, les, de, de la, des). For German, also capitalize all the
nouns. For Latin, capitalize every word. Better still, translate into English. Turn A la recherche du temps perdu to Remembrance of Things Past. Avoid translating titles in quotations, reviews or awards, however.
For more information on titles, see "Quotation marks" under "Punctuation." Trademarks and company names Trademarks are capitalized, but the generic product is not. It is Post-it notes, not
Post-it Notes. Unless you work for 3M, you do not have to write Post-it (R) notes. The little circled R warns competitors that Post-It is a registered trademark, so back off and call your knock-off version a
self-removable adhesive note! Another symbol is (TM), which means that a company is claiming a name or slogan as a company identifier, but that it has not registered this trademark. Many trademarks come to mean the
generic product (and then don't need capital letters). Failure to protect a trademark from generic use endangers the trademark, so corporations want you to use those capital letters. Try to use the trademark as an
adjective; spray with Lysol disinfectant, not with Lysol. Some companies have trademarked idioms to identify specific products. That doesn't mean that you can't use the idiom. If we think you are wasting your time
improving your choice of words, we can say that being word perfect is a trivial pursuit, without violating the trademarks of either Corel or Parker Brothers. (And just because something is a trademark or a company
name doesn't mean that you have to obey the increasingly bizarre typography some companies are using to identify themselves -- unless you work for them! It is Remax, not RE/MAX, and iStar, not iSTAR. However, moderate
intercapping, such as WordPerfect, is fine.) A good source for trademarked names is The Canadian Trade Index, published the Canadian Manufacturers Association. Here are some common trademarks and their generic
alternatives, along with some examples of words that have lost their trademark.
DIY: Where I write, we would call uCAN!Compute Incorporated ... uCanCompute Incorporated uCAN!Compute Incorporated (Cornerstone recommends the first option, for crying out loud.)
More words to capitalize? Having fun yet? Here are more types of nouns that should be capitalized. We can't stress enough that we don't mean generic examples of these categories. We mean specific things, named in
full. Write Bill 101, but a bill. Alliances: the Warsaw Pact Artistic movements and styles: Art Nouveau, Impressionism Astronomical names: Milky Way, Jupiter, the Big Dipper, and, when used astronomically,
the Earth, the Sun and the Moon, but the moons of Saturn Awards, honours and prizes: the Giller Prize, the Academy Award for Best Actor Buildings: the Centre Block, the Empire State Building
Companies: but always abbreviate Co., Ltd., Inc. and Bros., and don't capitalize the Compass directions: if they refer to specific places (the North, the East Coast, West Vancouver, but southern Ontario and
western Canada) or if abbreviated (N, NW, E) Courts: the Supreme Court of Canada Government departments and other bodies: Health Canada, the Ontario Human Rights Commission
Historical periods or events: Confederation, the Yalta Conference, the Middle Ages Holidays: Christmas, Easter, Labour Day Languages: French, Spanish, Japanese Legislative bodies and specific acts and
bills: the Government of Nova Scotia, Bill 101, the Charter of Rights, the Income Tax Act Military units, bases and conflicts: the Royal 22nd Regiment, CFB Petawawa, the Second World War
Nationalities, races and tribes: Italian, Caucasian, Cree Nicknames: for people and places (the Windy City is Chicago, Scarface is Al Capone) and for certain objects (the Union Jack)
Numbered objects: except for pages and lines (Channel 5, Volume 6, page 3) Organizations: but not the word the (the United Way, the Red Cross) Parliamentary terms: Parliament, the House, the Speaker, Question
Period, the Crown, the Speech from the Throne, the Budget, the Opposition, the Government of Canada and, when referring to the party in power, the Government, but parliamentary, business plan, federal government and
member of Parliament Places: the Pacific Ocean, the Rocky Mountains, but the ocean and the mountains Political parties: but not political philosophies unless they come from proper names (the Liberal Party isn't
very liberal; communism and Marxism are in the same scrap heap as Nazism) Religions: as well as their believers and certain sacred things they believe in, including books (Judaism, Moslems, the Bible) Schools,
universities and colleges: but not subjects or departments, although specific courses, such as History 101, are capitalized (Brampton Centennial Secondary School, Carleton University) Scientific classifications:
biological and botanical Latin names except for the specific species (Branta canadensis) Sports: events, trophies and teams, even in short form (Stanley Cup, the Cup)
Vehicles: HMCS Halifax, Avro Arrow, Dodge Neon, the Spanish Armada French fries, Canada geese and boy scouts Sometimes, capitalized words will become part of other names. This gets tricky. If the
capitalized word stands alone, leave it capitalized. This gives us Canada goose, Achilles tendon and oysters Rockefeller. But the rule doesn't always hold. Consider scotch whisky, plaster of paris, brussels sprouts
and french fries. Many words that actually come from people's names are no longer capitalized: cardigan, sandwich and watt, for example. Moreover, a member of an organization isn't capped, even if the organization is.
I'm a boy scout who belongs to the Boy Scouts. The or not The, that is The Question Finally, a few words about the. Strictly speaking, you capitalize the whenever it is part of a formal name, title or
so forth, unless it comes at the beginning of a company name. I sent a copy of The Ten Ways to Write Better to Jane Smith of the Johnson Widget Company, who read about it in The Ottawa Citizen. It isn't always
easy to tell when the is part an official title. But who wants to research every name and masthead to look for capitalization? Our advice is to leave the uncapitalized everywhere except at the beginning of titles of
creative works, such as The Agony and the Ecstasy, or in a few very short and very famous periodical names, such as The Times (but not the Citizen or the Globe and Mail). The other time that the gets a capital t is
when it is used to confer importance or emphasis, as in "Jane popped The Question at the meeting." Do this sparingly, though. It can be really annoying. When we hear Donald Trump called The Donald, we want to
hit The Roof.
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