English writing: General Capitalization Rules

CAPITALIZATION RULES Rule Example Capitalize the first word of a sentence. If the first word is a number, write it as a word. This is the first word of the sentence. Three of us worked the early shift. Capitalize the pronoun I or the contraction I'm, and the abbreviations B.C. or A.D. The group left when I asked them to go. The manuscript was dated 501 A.D. Capitalize the first word of a quotation. Do not capitalize the first word of a partial quotation. I said, "What's the name of your dog?" He called me "the worst excuse for a student" he had ever seen.

		Below is an example of a dialogue that illustrates the above rules. (A note about paragraphing in dialogue: Each time a speaker finishes, begin a new paragraph.)

		"Good morning," said the new supervisor as I entered the door.

		"Good morning!" I answered, somewhat surprised. "You must be Ms. Barnes. I'm Joshua Haines. It's a pleasure to meet you."

		"Tell me what you do, Joshua. I'm anxious to learn all about this operation."

		"I smiled and said, "That doesn't surprise me. I heard you were a 'sieve for information.'"

		Practice

		Check your ability to apply the rules above in the practice questions below. Choose the correctly capitalized option from each of the sets below. Answers to each set of questions can be found at the end of the lesson.

		1. a. the memo confused me at first. after a few readings i was able to understand it.

		b. The memo confused me at first. after a few readings I was able to understand it.

		c.The memo confused me at first. After a few readings I was able to understand it.

		2. a. "where are you going?" my coworker asked.

		"to a meeting i'm not very excited about," i answered.

		b. "Where are you going?" my coworker asked.

		"To a meeting I'm not very excited about," I answered.

		c. "Where are you going?" My coworker asked.

		"To a meeting I'm not very excited about," I answered.