did not have a distinction between uppercase and lowercase, and at best had embossed or decorated letters indicating sections. Middle English capitalization in manuscripts remained haphazard, and was often done for visual aesthetics more than grammar; in poetry, the first letter of each line of verse is often capitalized. With the development of the printing press in Europe and England capitalization of initial letters and proper nouns became more regularized, perhaps partly to distinguish new sentences in a time where punctuation remained sparse and irregularly used. The plays of Shakespeare show capitalization both of new lines and sentences, proper nouns, and some significant common nouns and verbs. With the influence of continental printing practices after the English Restoration in 1688 printing began to favor more and more capitalization of nouns following German typography. The first lines of the U.S. Constitution of 1787 show major capitalization of most nouns: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." But by the end of the 18th century with the growth of prescriptive dictionaries and style manuals for English usage, the practice faded in Britain so that by the beginning of the 19th century common nouns were only occasionally capitalized, such as in advertisements. Yet the style lasted as late as the Civil War era in the United States, as some of Emily Dickinson's poems still capitalize many common nouns.
When to capitalize
are used:
at the beginning of a sentence. This in printing is known as sentence case, where the first letter of the sentence is capitalized, and all others are lower case with the exception of proper nouns. In printing normal sentence case may be substituted by UPPER CASE or "all caps", and Title Case. Capitals are sometimes used and sometimes not used after a colon, although they are used in some citation systems such as APA style when beginning an independent clause.
with some nouns and adjectives, usually if a noun indicates a proper noun.
* pronoun "I". One theory for this unusual usage is that in early printing lowercase i was confused with words using or first letter.
* personal and place names: "John", "Mr. Smith", "Amsterdam", "Europe", "Mount Everest", "the Ganges".
* compass directions when referring to geographical regions: "Western Canada", "I was raised in the South", but not for points on a compass: "London is west of Berlin".
* national and regional adjectives: "an American", "an American man".
* religions: "an Anglican curate", "a Catholic church", but not "a catholic gesture" in the sense of "universal."
* the Supreme Being, deities and personifications: "God", "Providence", "Fame".
* reverential pronouns: "His, Him" when referring to God or Christ
* days and months: "Monday", "January", but not seasons such as "autumn".
* brand names: "Toyota", "Nike", "Coca-Cola", unless the brand itself is purposely not capitalized or unusually capitalized: "iPhone", "eBay".
* royal titles: "King George III" but "kings and queens of England", but only sometimes 'sir' or 'madam'.
* planets and other celestial bodies: "Jupiter", "the Crab Nebula"; and "the Earth", "the Sun", or "the Moon" should be capitalized according to the International Astronomical Union based on its manual of style, but style guides may suggest differently.
* words which change their meaning between capitalized and uncapitalized usage, such as "liberal" and "Liberal", are called capitonyms: Compare "A man of liberal tastes" and "The leader of the Liberal Party".
* in legal documents, where the full name of an individual or body is later referred to in short form, in order to avoid ambiguity: "John Smith ", "Exxon-Mobil Corporation ".
Title capitalization in different styles
Depending on which style guide is used for capitalization, certain rules regarding specific words, such as prepositions, nouns, and pronouns, apply. In titles, the following words need to be capitalized according to each of the following style guides:
APA/MLA
Capitalize words that are four letters or longer.
Capitalize nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns.
Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions.
Lowercase articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.
Associated Press (AP)
Capitalize words with three or more letters.
Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions.
Lowercase articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.
Capitalization of multi-word place names, institutions, and titles of works
English usage is not consistent, but generally prepositions and articles are not capitalized: "the Forest of Dean", "Gone with the Wind", "University of Southampton". With some publications "The" forms part of the title: "reading The Times". For a more detailed explanation see.
Generally acronyms and initialisms are capitalized, e.g., "NASA" or "SOS." Sometimes a minor word such as a preposition is not capitalized within the acronym, such as "WoW" for "World of Warcraft". In British English, only the initial letter of an acronym is capitalized if the acronym is read as a word, e.g., "Unesco."
