Grammar: Capital Letters - Upper Case or Lower Case?

1 1 Copyright 1978-2003 Robert B. Parkinson All Rights Nouns and Common of Ad Hoc Documents ..9 Nicknames ..9 All Capitals in Titles and and Short 1978-2003 Robert B. Parkinson All Rights If in doubt use Lower case unless it looks absurd. The Economist Style GuideINTRODUCTIONWe often overuse capitals sometimes out of fear of offending important people,sometimes to show that a certain word is important to us.

2 However, overuse ofcapitals, particularly when addressing outside readers, can convey the image of abureaucracy that is overawed by its own concepts and rules on capitals can be bewildering, and they often vary over time and fromone organization to another. For example, The Constitution Act, 1867 is full ofpassages such as this:The Constitution Act, 186795. In each Province the Legislature may make Laws in relation toAgriculture in the Province, and to Immigration into the Province; and it ishereby declared that the Parliament of Canada may from Time to Time makelaws in relation to Agriculture.

3 Today, words such as "province", "laws", "agriculture", "immigration" and "time"would not be the styles found in legal documents are confusing, those found in popular presscan be equally so. For example, for many years Time magazine capitalizedmodifiers preceding people's names thus giving them the appearance of formaltitles. Here s a gem from the January 13, 1975 edition:TimeAmong those on skiing holidays were the Aga Khan, Audrey Hepburn,Roman Polanski and Jack Nicholson.. In Gstaad, Novice Nicholsonwas struggling with the subtleties of wedeling.

4 "He loves zoomingdownhill," sighed Temporary Instructor for the English language, Time has now abandoned that 1978-2003 Robert B. Parkinson All Rights government, we are tempted to capitalize concepts that are enshrined in law. Yet it is often surprising to find that the very law in which those concepts areenshrined does not capitalize them. Here are some examples from The Income TaxAct:The Income Tax Act6(8) .. and a particular amount is paid to the taxpayer in a particulartaxation year as a rebate under the Excise Tax Act in respect of any goodsand services tax included in the amount of the expense, or the Capital costof the property.

5 13(22)(b)(i) .. the amount of its 1975-76 excess Capital cost allowancewith respect to property of the particular prescribed class of the insurer ..66(15) .. flow-through share means a share (other than a prescribedshare) of the Capital stock of a principal-business corporation that is issuedto a person under an agreement in writing .. (5) .. Canadian oil and gas property expense of a taxpayer meansany cost or expense incurred after December 11, 1979 that is ..The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act follows a similar practice:The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act14.

6 The environmental assessment process includes, where applicable,(a) a screening or comprehensive study and the preparation of a screeningreport or a comprehensive study report;(b) a mediation or assessment by a review panel as provided in section 29 andthe preparation of a report; and(c) the design and implementation of a follow-up so many conflicting styles, it is not surprising that there is confusion overwhen to use capitals. I hope the guidelines on the following pages will help to reduce the confusion forbriefing notes and memos to your minister. But if you remain bewildered, don tdespair.

7 Capitals can be one of the most vexing issues, even for 1978-2003 Robert B. Parkinson All Rights NOUNS AND COMMON NOUNSP roper nouns take Capital Letters . "Canada", for example, is a proper noun and isalways capitalized. Common nouns take Lower -case Letters . For instance,"country" is a common noun and is not capitalized, even when it is used as asynonym for a proper noun such as "Canada":I enjoy vacationing in Canada. This country has many beautiful lakesand above examples are black and white. However, in many other cases contextdetermines whether a word is a common noun or a proper noun.

8 For example, aproper noun may become a common noun when preceded by a modifier. Placing amodifier before the noun can indicate that the noun is just one of a number of suchentities and is therefore not a proper noun. Similarly, many plurals are not NounsCommon NounsWilliam asked his sister, "Will Fatherand Mother visit us this weekend?"Will your father and your mother visitus this weekend? [The nouns arepreceded by the modifier "your".]We hope that fathers and mothers willencourage their children to participatein sports at school. [The nouns areplural.]

9 ]There are, of course, exceptions. (This is English, after all.) For example, tradenames, personal names and nationalities are always capitalized, even when theyare plural or preceded by a modifier:First aid kits should contain Aspirins and have been many Alexanders in history, but only one Alexander John A. Macdonald was a great 1978-2003 Robert B. Parkinson All Rights OF OFFICEI mportant though government leaders and senior officials may be, their titles arenot always capitalized. We distinguish between formal, specific titles (which wecapitalize) and descriptive or generic titles (which we do not capitalize ).

10 Here aresome examples: Upper CaseLower CaseOn May 5, 1995, the Prime Ministerof Canada will meet with thePresident of the United States and theKing of Prime Minister will attend themeeting on May 5, Minister Brown will attend themeeting on May 5, May 5, 1995, there will be ameeting of kings, presidents and primeministers from around the Honourable John Doe,Newfoundland s Minister of NaturalResources, will attend the Minister of Natural Resourceswill accompany the Minister of theEnvironment on the tour of the May 5, 1995, ministers of energyand the environment will meet Newfoundland, the ministerresponsible for forestry is theMinister of Natural Honourable John Doe,Newfoundland s minister responsiblefor forestry, will attend minister of the Crown will beinvited to attend the minister will accompany yourminister on the tour of the two ministers will tour the 1978-2003 Robert B.