Capitalization

If you’ve seen Forrest Gump, then you know the iconic simile: “My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” We’ll use this example to explain exactly what it is. First, a simile is a phrase… continue reading

A metaphor is a figure of speech. They help to explain an idea or make a comparison. They describe an object or action in a manner that isn’t literally true, but gives the reader a clearer view of the author’s perspective. Here are some things to know… continue reading

Full Sentence Direct Quote – Capitalize The First Word: When considering capitalization in quotes, the first rule to remember is – when quoting a complete sentence, you should capitalize the first word, no matter where the quote is placed within the larger sentence.  For example:… continue reading

I received a good question by email today. A reader wanted to know my views on capitalizing words that are followed by numbers or letters, for example, Step 1 vs. step 1, Section A vs. section A, and Line 2 vs. line 2. How would… continue reading

Recently, a question from one of our readers regarding our Business Writing Tune-Up class came up: in a hyphenated compound word, shouldn’t a little word like up be lower case? As is often the case with capitalization, it depends what part of speech up is. In tune-up,… continue reading

Lately I have been seeing a lot of odd capitalization in titles, headings on websites, and subject lines. So I would like to be helpful and provide some easy rules. Here is what to capitalize: All words of four or more letters, no matter what or where… continue reading

Here is a topic that comes up often: Do we capitalize department, as in “Finance Department”? And how about department by itself? These sentences illustrate standard capitalization of words such as department, committee, team, unit, lab, division, and company: Jamie works in the Finance Department.… continue reading