12 Capitalization Rules Most People Don’t Know

Do not capitalize seasons of the year unless they appear within a formal title.

 

• spring
• summer
• autumn
• winter
• The 2012 Summer Ball

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Do not capitalize any prepositions, conjunctions or articles in titles of books, magazines, blog posts or newspapers unless they begin the title.

• The Secret Life of Gremlins
• Of Mice and Men

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Do not capitalize words that are derived from proper nouns but no longer depend on those nouns for their meaning.

• french toast
• english mustard
• roman blinds

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Do not capitalize occupational titles.

• teacher of art, Jock Japin
• pencil manager, Hugh Clough
• chief tool, Constantine Klunk

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 Do capitalize degree abbreviations but do not capitalize names of degrees when written in full.

• B.A. (bachelor’s of art)
• M.A. (master’s degree)
• M.B.A. (master’s of business administration)

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Do use capital letters for references to numbered items:

• Room 101
• Figure 26
• Three Mile Island

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Do use capital letters for the majority of acronyms (there are some exceptions, including ac and dc). Do not use acronyms for spelled out versions of the acronym if they are not proper nouns.

• International Business Machines (IBM)
• central processing unit (CPU)
• RAM (random access memory)

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