Booher's Rules of Business Grammar - Dianna Booher 2009

A branding issue
Miscellaneous matters

CAPITALIZATION RULES FOR THE ROAD

To emphasize a word, you can bold it, italicize it, underline it, uppercase it, or change its font. But don’t capitalize its initial letter. Capitalizing words randomly without a reason creates a grammar error. Capitalization signals the beginning of a new sentence or a proper noun (the specific name of a person, place, or thing—examples: Harvey Humpperdink, O’Hare Airport, Kleenex).

When applied improperly to random words, capitalization confuses readers and slows them down.

Basically, there’s a simple way (analogy) and a more complex way (rules) to master capitalization. The simple analogy method will help you deal with most of the situations that surface.

Analogy Method:

Ask yourself if the term is a “brand name” or generic. If you’re calling a noun by its brand name, capitalize it. If you’re using its generic name, don’t. Examples:

The judge awarded the company $55,000 as a settlement.

The judge awarded Adrico, Inc., $55,000 as a settlement.

Are you driving a new car today?

Are you driving a new Chevrolet today?

Winnifred works in the building where our engineering group is located.

Winnifred works in Frazier Tower, where Engineering is located.

You need a requisition form to get shelving in your office.

You need Form 23HZ3 to get shelving in your office.

Rule Method:

For the few situations that this “brand name” analogy doesn’t cover, here are the standard capitalization rules:

Capitalize proper nouns, the names of specific places or regions. (Capitalize city, state, or federal only when the word is used as part of the actual name.)

the Dallas—Fort Worth Metroplex

Detroit

the Sabine River

the Tennessee Valley

the Northeast

Research Triangle

the Sahara Desert

the Antarctic

the Pacific Rim

Capitalize races and languages.

Malay, Hindu, Russian, Finnish, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish, Vietnamese, Egyptian

Capitalize days of the week, months, and special days.

Tuesday, August, Christmas, Valentine’s Day

Capitalize historical periods and events.

the Great Depression, the Information Age

Capitalize trade names, company names, organizations, divisions, and agencies.

Microsoft

Region 12 Auditing

Starbucks

Lexus Link

Homeland Security

The Salvation Army

Capitalize the first word of a direct quotation (except when the quotation continues rather than begins a sentence).

The report states, “The project will end May 31.”

“The project will end,” according to this report, “by no later than May 31.”

Capitalize the first word, the last word, and all principal words in a heading or title.

Operating Costs for March (slide title)

The Exhaustion Cure: Up Your Energy from Low to Go in 21 Days (book title)

The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know (book title)

Note: Occasionally, you’ll find words such as company, institution, bank, organization, employee, or buyer capitalized in formal documents like policy statements or contracts. These common words have been substituted for the “brand names” after the complete name has been identified at the beginning of the document. For example, a real estate contract may identify “Mr. and Mrs. Bruno Trumpston, Sellers, and Dr. and Mrs. Diego Guiterrez, Buyers” at the beginning and then later refer only to Sellers and Buyers (capitalized to replace the specific names of the buyer and seller throughout the contract).

Memory tip

Think “brand name” or generic. Capitalize accordingly.