English Grammar for the Utterly Confused - Laurie Rozakis 2003
Most Common Capitalization Errors
Chapter 6 The 25 Most Common Usage Problems
Part 2 Usage and Abusage
23. Proper nouns not capitalized.
Incorrect: louisa adams, Wife of john quincy Adams, was the first (and only) foreign- born First Lady.
Correct: Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, was the first (and only) foreign- born first lady.
Here are the basic rules of capitalization:
• Capitalize all proper nouns. These include names, geographical places, specific historical events, eras, and documents, languages, nationalities, countries, and races.
• Capitalize the first word at the beginning of a sentence.
See Chapter 11 for a complete discussion of capitalization.
24. Errors in titles
Incorrect: The Wind In The Willows
Correct: The Wind in the Willows
Capitalize the major words in titles of books, plays, movies, newspapers, and magazines.
• Do not capitalize the articles: a, an, the.
• Do not capitalize prepositions: at, by, for, of, in, up, on, so, on, to, etc.
• Do not capitalize conjunctions: and, as, but, if, or, nor.
See Chapter 11 for a complete discussion of capitalization.