PROOFREADING ( CAPITALIZATION )

Remember, proper nouns, pronouns, and proper adjectives are capitalized, and the first word in every sentence is capitalized. Working through these carefully selected exercises will improve your writing skills as well as your capitalization and proofreading skills.

A proper noun is a name given to something to make it more specific (e.g., Johnathan, Ollie, New York, Monday). Proper nouns are written with capital letters regardless of where they appear in a sentence.

"Proper adjectives" also describe people, places and things, but they are based on names and therefore need to be capitalized, like the names. For example, Spain is the name of a country and starts with a capital letter. The adjective based on Spain (Spanish) must also start with a capital letter.

The seasons—winter, spring, summer and fall—do not require capitalization. Some people think these words are proper nouns and capitalize them using the capitalization rule for proper nouns. But seasons are general nouns, so they follow the capitalization rules that apply to other general nouns.

Rule 1: Capitalize proper nouns and proper adjectives (July, Buddhist). Rule 2: Capitalize geographical names (Haiti, Atlantic Ocean).

Rule 3: Capitalize a person's title only if followed by their name (doctor, Doctor Smith).

Rule 4: Capitalize the pronoun I.

Rule 5: Capitalize the first word in a sentence, not in a phrase.

Rule 6: Capitalize the main words in the name of an important document.

Rule 7: Capitalize the names of ships, planets, monuments, awards, and any particular places, parks, things, or historical events.

Rule 8: Capitalize the names of nationalities, races, and religions.