English Grammar for the Utterly Confused - Laurie Rozakis 2003
Capitalize the First Word of
Chapter 11 Capitalization and Abbreviations
Part 4 A Writers Tools
1. A sentence
The shortest presidential inaugural address was George Washington’s, at 135 words.
The longest was by William Henry Harrison, at 8,445 words.
2. A complete sentence after a colon
Only two U.S. presidents and their wives are buried at Arlington National Cemetery: John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and William Taft and his wife Helen Heron Taft are buried there.
3. A quotation, if it is a complete sentence.
The teacher said, “Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections for various offices before winning the election in 1860.”
but
“Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections for various offices,” the teacher said, “before winning the election in 1860.”
4. A line of poetry
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Quick Tip
In poetry and old-fashioned novels, words are sometimes capitalized for emphasis. In this Shakespearean sonnet, for example, “Death” is capitalized to personify it: to make it seem like a living being. Today, however, words are capitalized for emphasis only in e-mail.
5. The greeting of a letter
Dear Mr. Plotnick:
To Whom It May Concern:
Dear Mom,
6. The complimentary close of a letter. Notice that only the first word is capitalized, not subsequent words in a phrase.
Yours very truly, Sincerely yours,
7. Each item in an outline
I. Greek architecture
A. Greek temples
B. Greek theaters and amphitheaters
C. Greek colonnades
8. Each item in a list
1. Evaluate the performance of our new meters
This report is designed to:
2. Expand the data base
3. Evaluate data
4. Make recommendations