Punctuation and
Capitalization
Capitalization rules
Capitalization
• Begin every sentence with a capital letter.
• You’re not supposed to begin a sentence with
a numeral. If you need a number in that spot, you
have to write the word and capitalize it.
• $10,000,000 per game is not enough. ❌
• A mere $10,000,000 per game is not enough. ✅
• Ten million dollars per game is not enough. ✅
• Capitalize the letter “I”
• Capitalize names
• Capitalize words that refer to the deity
• God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.
• The ancient Greeks built temples in honor of Zeus and other gods.
• Rules for capitalizing a person’s titles:
• Capitalize titles when they function as part of the name. Do not capitalize titles when they
follow the name.
• “Allow me to introduce my friend Eggworthy. He’s Mr. Eggworthy Henhuff, director of
poultry at a nearby farm. Next year, Director of Poultry Henhuff plans to run for state
senator, unless he cracks under the pressure of a major campaign, in which case he’ll run
for sheriff.”
• Director of Poultry is capitalized when it precedes Eggworthy’s last name but not
capitalized when it follows Eggworthy’s name. Director of Poultry Henhuff functions
as a unit. If you were talking to Eggworthy, you might address him as Director of
Poultry Henhuff. So the first Director of Poultry in this paragraph functions as part of
the name.
• When the title follows the name, it gives the reader more information about
Eggworthy, but it no longer acts as part of Eggworthy’s name. Hence, the second
director of poultry in the paragraph is in lowercase.
• You may need to capitalize very important titles, even when they
appear without the name of the people who hold them.
• President of the United States
• Secretary General of the United Nations When capitalizing a two-word
• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court title, capitalize both words (Chief
• Prime Minister of Great Britain Justice) or neither (assistant
secretary).
The following titles are often — but not always One exception to the rule is for
— lowercase when they appear without a name: exes and elects:
ambassador ex-President
cabinet secretary President-elect
consul
judge
mayor
representative
Family titles:
• If you’re labeling a relative, don’t capitalize (kinship labels here: aunt, sister, son, and so
on)
• If the titles take the place of names (as in Uncle Bart and Grandma), capitalize them.
• Lulu’s stepsister/Stepsister Sarah took care to pour exactly one cup of ink into every
load of wash that Lulu did.
• Lulu’s stepsister Sarah took care to pour exactly one cup of ink into every load of
wash that Lulu did. (stepsister = label)
• Sarah told mother/Mother about the gallon of paint thinner that Lulu had dripped over
Sarah’s favorite rose bush.
• Sarah told Mother about the gallon of paint thinner that Lulu had dripped over
Sarah’s favorite rose bush. (Mother = name)
• I was surprised when my father/Father took no action; fortunately, aunt Aggie/Aunt
Aggie stepped in with a pail of bleach for Lulu.
• I was surprised when my father took no action; fortunately, Aunt Aggie stepped in
with a pail of bleach for Lulu. (father = label; Aunt Aggie = name)
• Tip:
• If you can substitute a real name for the reference to the person in the
sentence, you probably need a capital letter:
• Original: I told Father that he needed to shave off his handlebar mustache and put
it on his bicycle.
• Substitution: I told Jonas that he needed to shave off his handlebar mustache and
put it on his bicycle.
• If the substitution sounds strange, you probably need lowercase:
• Original: I told my grandmother not to shave off her mustache.
• Substitution: I told my Mabel not to shave off her mustache.
Race and ethnicity
• White and Black (or white and black) are acceptable descriptions, but, be
consistent. Don’t capitalize one and not the other.
• Always capitalize Asian because the term is derived from the name of a
continent.
• European American, Asian American, and African American are all in capitals,
as are other descriptions of origin derived from place names, such as Mexican,
American, and Polish American.
• Locations and languages
• In general, you should capitalize the names of countries and languages.
• Capitalize locations within a country — cities or regions
Events and eras:
• Capitalize the names of specific time periods and events but not general
words
• Capitals: Middle Ages, Industrial Revolution, Civil War, Fourth of July,
Battle of Gettysburg
• Lowercase: war, nineteenth century
• Capitalize abbreviations for titles and end the abbreviation with a period.
• For example, Mrs. Snodgrass, Rev. Tawkalot, Sen. Veto, and Jeremiah
Jones, Jr.
• Capitalize geographic abbreviations when they’re part of a proper name and
put a period at the end.
• Appalachian Mts. or Amazon R., for example.
• Capitalize the first word in the title.
• Capitalize verbs and other important words.
• Lowercase unimportant words:
• articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (words that connect,
such as and, or, and nor), and prepositions (of, with,
by, and other words that express a relationship
between two elements in the sentence).
PUNCTUATIONS
Apostrophe
• Used to
• indicate possession
• form the plurals of abbreviations, characters, and signs
• indicate omitted characters in contractions.
Possessive case
Form the possessive of a singular or plural Form the possessive of a singular or plural
noun not ending in s by adding 's. noun ending in s by adding an apostrophe
only (after the s).
Man’s Horses’
Horse’s Jones’
Men’s Joneses’
Indicate joint possession by adding 's to the Form the possessive of a compound noun by
last element of a series; indicate individual adding 's to the end of the compound
possession by adding ‘s to each element:
Wayne and Tom’s office (one office) sister-in-law’s home
Editor’s, proofreader’s, and typist’s tasks John Doe, Jr.’s report
patent counsel’s decision
• If two people own things separately, as individuals, use two apostrophes:
• George’s and Martha’s head
• He has his head, and she has hers
• Hyphenated compound words:
• the doctors-of-philosophy’s study lounge
• The study lounge is owned by all the doctors-of-philosophy.
Apostrophe for Contractions
I have- Will not-
I’ve won’t
Did not- They are- We have-
I am- I’m they’re we’ve
didn’t
Contractions Contractions
She Who is- We are-
would- I will- I’ll who’s we’re
she’d
You
Does not- would-
doesn’t
you’d
• It indicates time or quantity:
• In one week's time • It also indicates plurals of words:
• Four yards' worth • What are the do's and don't’s?
• Two weeks' notice
• It indicates the omission of letters:
• It indicates the omission of figures • We can't go to Jo'burg (We cannot go
in dates: to Johannesburg - perhaps because we
• The summer of '68 can’t spell the middle bit)
• She'd've had the cat-o'-nine-tails, I
s'pose, if we hadn't stopped 'im
• It indicates the plurals of letters:
• How many f's are there in Fulham?
Period
• Used to show the end of a sentence (imperative
and declarative sentences)
• Used with certain abbreviations formed from the
first part of a word:
• Govt.
• Jan.
• p. 278
• etc.
Do not use full stops with acronyms such as UN and BBC
Comma
• After introductory words or phrases:
• However, further studies are required to ascertain the viability of the drug.
• Around examples or comments:
• Certain investments, for instance shares, are highly volatile.
• These are phrases that can be left out without loss of meaning.
• After each item on a list
• I ate cereal, eggs, and fruit
• The list of descriptions may provide two or three separate facts about
the word that you’re describing, but the facts don’t deserve equal
attention.
• Jill just bought that funny little French hat.
• If the items aren’t of equal importance, don’t separate them with a comma.
Jill just bought that funny, little,
French hat.
Gives equal importance to “funny,” “little,” and
• If a description is essential to the meaning of the sentence, don’t put commas around it.
If the description provides extra, nonessential information, set it off with commas.
• Taxes, which are a hardship for the people, are not acceptable.
• Taxes which are a hardship for the people are not acceptable.
Oxford comma
• Also known as a serial comma, the Oxford comma is placed immediately before the
conjunction—usually “and,” “or,” or “nor”—in a series of three or more terms.
• With: I have invited my parents, Prem, and Rani.
• Without: I have invited my parents, Prem and Rani
Colon
• Colons brings the sentence almost to a halt. It has a separating force similar to that of a
period. It should be used only after a complete sentence.
• The function of the colon is to separate and introduce lists and quotations.
• The scatterometer is separated into three assemblies: a gimbal, a transmitter-
receiver assembly, and rack-mounted electronics.
• General Parker needed quite a few things: a horse, an army, a suit of armor, a few
million arrows, and a map.
• Use a colon to introduce a list whose introductory statement contains
the words as follows or the following:
• The rack-mounted electronics consist of the following: power supplies, the
gimbal controller, . . .
Colon should not be used after introductory phases like
that is, for example, and such as
• Use a colon to introduce a list that amplifies an introductory sentence:
• The purpose of this report is twofold: to evaluate the performance of the
instruments and to expand the data base.
• When the introduction to a displayed list is not a complete sentence (the
items of the list complete it), no colon is used.
• The purposes of this report are
1. To evaluate the performance of the instruments
2. To expand the data base
• Colons sometimes also join one complete sentence to another. You may use a
colon this way only when the second sentence explains the meaning of the first
sentence, as in this example:
• Lola has refused to take the job: She believes the media will investigate every aspect of her
life.
• A colon may be used between two clauses when the second amplifies or
restates the first.
• He had one major flaw: he was always late.
• A colon may be used to introduce a direct quotation, particularly if the quote is long
(more than one sentence) or not built closely into the sentence.
• Parker explained: “The media has been entirely too critical of my preparations for
war. Despite the fact that I have spent the last ten years and two million gold coins
perfecting new and improved armor, I have been told that I am unready to fight.”
• In reference 6, he states this conclusion: “Thermal neutron fluxes up to 1020 might be
required.”
• However, a comma is usually sufficient for direct quotations (section 3.5.1):
• In reference 6, he states, “Thermal neutron fluxes up to 1020 might be required.”
Semicolon
• The semicolon is used to join phrases and sentences that are
thematically linked without having to use a conjunction.
• Grover was born in Delaware; he moved to Virginia when he
was 4.
• AP exams are more than three hours long; a petition to shorten
these tests is circulating.
Semicolons can also be used instead of commas to separate items
in a list when the items themselves already contain commas.
The conference will cover several critical topics: the impact of
climate change on coastal ecosystems, including rising sea
levels and increased storm frequency; strategies for
sustainable agriculture in urban areas, focusing on vertical
farming and community gardens; and innovations in
renewable energy sources, such as solar panel technology
and wind turbine advancements.
The narrator urges his reader to visit Paris, France; London,
England; and Madrid, Spain.
Quotation
• If the quotation doesn’t have a speaker tag, don’t capitalize the first
word of the quotation. Also, you don’t need a comma to separate the
quotation from the rest of the sentence.
• When Michael said that the book “wasn’t as exciting as watching paint dry,
Anna threw a pie in his face.”
• Michael said, “The book wasn’t as exciting as watching paint dry.”
• The quoted words are questions. If you quote a question, put the
question mark inside the quotation marks.
• “May I have a bite?” she queried.
o Did he really declare, “It was just a piano”?
o Did he say, “I can’t give you a bite of my sandwich
because I ate it all”?
• To show that a word refers to the word itself:
• “Impossible” is not a word I like to use.
• To signify so-called or alleged: • A quotation inside
another quotation gets
• Pete’s “friend” left him on the mountain to die.
single quotation marks.
• Archie said, “Al had the
nerve to tell me, ‘Your
• Never use quotation marks for emphasis. pocket protector is nerd-
• “Congrats” on your baby. city and dumpster-
ready.’”
• Congrats on “your” baby.
• Congrats on your “baby”.
Hyphen
• Hyphens separate parts of compound words
• ex-wife, pro-choice, mother-in-law
• If two words create a single description, put a
hyphen between them if the description comes
before the word that it’s describing.
• A well-placed hyphen
Don’t hyphenate two-word descriptions if the first word ends in -ly:
• nicely drawn rectangle
• completely ridiculous grammar rule
Short dash (en dash)
• Short dashes show a range.
• From May–September, the convicts prune commas from literature written over
the winter.
• Short dashes also show up when you’re omitting the word to between
two elements:
• The New York–Philly train is always on time.
• A short dash links two or more equal elements when and is implied:
• The catcher–pitcher relationship is crucial.
Long dash (em dash)
• A long dash’s primary job is to tell the reader that you’ve jumped tracks
onto a new (though related) subject, just for a moment.
• After we buy toenail clippers — the dinosaur in that exhibit could use a trim —
we’ll go to the bakery.
• The curator painted the dinosaur orange — everyone hates the color — because she
wanted to “liven the place up.”
• The information inside the dashes is off-topic.
• The words between a pair of dashes may or may not form a complete
sentence.
• Mary A. McCaskill. Grammar, Punctuation,
and Capitalization: A Handbook for
Technical Writers and Editors.
• Geraldine Woods. Grammar Essentials for
References Dummies.
• Cecilia Watson. Semicolon.
• Lynne Truss. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
• Harry Shaw. Punctuate it Right.