Capitalization
Plurals
Abbreviations
Numbers
Capitalization
- proper nouns --- Robert F. Kennedy
- proper adjectives --- American, Asian, Canadian, Roman
- historical events --- World War II, the Bill of Rights, the Middle Ages,
the Jurassic Era
- abbreviations --- U.S.A., FBI, NATO, Ph.D.
- organizations, associations, and teams - Holmdel Parent-Teacher
Organization, the New Jersey Nets, American Heart Assosciation
- names of specific courses (NOT the names of general subjects EXCEPT for
all languages) ---- French, Trigonometry I, math, science, Biology I
- first word of a sentence --- Rocks don't do much.
- particular sections of the country --- He grew up on the West Coast.
- names of languages, races, nationalities, and religions --- Arabic,
Hispanic, Turk, Judaism
- words used as names (such as uncle, aunt, mom, dad
when they do NOT follow a possessive pronoun [my, his, our])
--- Uncle Jim was yelling, but then my aunt came into the room, and Uncle
zipped his lip.
- days, months, holidays (NOT seasons) --- Thursday, October, Groundhog Day
- official names --- The Gap, Crest toothpaste, Microsoft Internet Explorer
- titles used with names or the abbreviations for those titles --- Pres.
Grover Cleveland, Senator John Glenn, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- titles:
- capitalize the first word of a title, the last word, and every word in
between except articles, short prepositions, and coordinate conjunctions ---
Motor Trend (magazine) "Year Round School?" (magazine article)
"The Shot Heard 'Round the World" (song title)
Plurals
- for most nouns ending in a consonant, just add an s --- player -
players
- for nouns ending in ch, sh, s, z, and x,
add es --- business - businesses dish - dishes
- for nouns ending in o with a vowel before the o, just add
s --- radio - radios
- for nouns ending in o with a consonant before the o, add
es --- hero - heroes
- exceptions - musical terms --- alto - altos solo - solos
- for nouns ending in ful, add s at the end of the word ---
two cupfuls
- for common nouns ending in y with a vowel before the y, just
add s --- donkey - donkeys
- for common nouns ending in y with a consonant before the y,
add es --- fly - flies
- for proper nouns ending in y, just add s - There are three
Best Buys in this area.
- for compound nouns, add s or es to the main word in the compound ---
sisters-in-law --- secretaries of state
--- maids of honor
- Some words have irregular plurals --- child - children ---
goose - geese --- hippopotamus - hippopotami
- for symbols, letters, figures, and words discussed as words, add an
apostrophe and an s --- I earned three 100's in a row. --- There are two
t's in that word. --- You have too many except's in
your essay.
Abbreviations
- the following abbreviations are acceptable in any kind of writing:
- Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., a.m., p.m., A.D., B.C., B.A., M.A., Ph.D., M.D.,
Ed.D.
- DO NOT abbreviate the names of states, countries, months, days, or units
of measure in formal writing; also, do not use symbols (%, &) in place of
words
- acronyms do not use periods between the letters --- SCUBA, IVAN CAPP
- initialisms are the same as acronyms, except that they do not form words
--- MTV, FBI, PBS
Numbers
- write out any number smaller than ten in words --- eight
- numbers larger than ten may be written as numbers --- 12 ---
106
- for very large numbers, you may use a combination of numbers and words ---
7 million
- use words, not numbers, to begin a sentence --- Twelve people shared the
prize.
- use numbers to express money, decimals, percentages, chapters, pages,
time, telephone numbers, dates, identification numbers, ZIP codes, addresses,
and statistics
- when comparing numbers, write them all as words or all as numbers ---
Students from 9 to 14 years old are invited --- Students from nine to fourteen
years old are invited.
- numbers that come before a compound modifier that includes a numeral
should be written as words --- We need fifty-three 8-foot long planks to build
the tree house.
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