Most edited publications do not capitalize the seasons of the year, and we know of no major style guide that recommends doing so. Spring, summer, autumn, fall, and winter are common nouns like any other. Think of them as similar to morning, afternoon, and night—terms that denote clearly defined periods of time but are not capitalized because they are not proper nouns. [Read more...]
As a term for books presented in electronic form, eBook is going out of style, at least in edited publications. Most American, Canadian, and Australian news publications that publish online are using the hyphenated form, e-book. Most web-friendly British publications are using the one-word ebook. [Read more...]
All the American usage guides that we know of recommend capitalizing the first letter of Internet, and most major American publications (as well as most Canadian ones) do so. Outside North America, most publications in English-speaking countries do not capitalize internet. [Read more...]
When the noun earth is used in reference to our planet, it is capitalized only when treated as a proper noun (i.e., not preceded by the—for example, everything on Earth). When it is preceded by the, earth is not capitalized (e.g., everything on the earth). [Read more...]
President should be capitalized when it comes immediately before the name of a president of a country. It should not be capitalized when it refers to a president but does not immediately precede the name. [Read more...]
Boldface text—which looks like this—has a few accepted uses. It’s generally not recommended for providing emphasis. That’s what italics and sentence structure are for. Because boldface text can be visually distracting, it is best used sparingly. [Read more...]
The old typographical superstition that it’s proper to use two spaces after a sentence should be laid to rest. Virtually every major style guide recommends a single space, and most major publishers and publications comply. If you don’t believe us, take any book off the shelf or visit any editorially scrupulous website and look closely at the spacing. Chances are good you will find no double spaces between sentences. [Read more...]
The prejudice against you in formal writing is sometimes justified and at other times unnecessarily limiting. If there’s no reason why your reader should feel insulted by your use of you, then there’s nothing wrong with using this pronoun instead of the less personal one. [Read more...]
Traditionally, God is capitalized when naming the Judeo-Christian deity. In this sense, God is a proper noun like any other name and does not take a definite or indefinite article. In phrases like the Biblical god and a forgiving god, which do have articles, there’s no need to capitalize god because it is a common noun rather than a name—yet many writers still capitalize the word in these instances. [Read more...]
Textish, sometimes referred to as textese, txtese, textspeak, texting language, txt talk, or SMS language, is our term for all those abbreviations and slang terms born of the necessity for brevity in text messages, instant messages, and social networking. Due to the ubiquity of these communication methods, Textish has made its way into emails, web forums, web comment sections, and blogs (all mostly okay), as well as college papers and job application cover letters (less okay). [Read more...]
There are different schools of thought on when to use italics, but most style guides agree on a few points: [Read more...]
Style guides differ on some points involving the use of numerals (i.e., for example, 16 and 44 instead of sixteen and forty-four) in texts, but there are two rules on which most agree: (1) Spell all integers from zero to ten. (2) Use numerals for numbers 11 and above. Some publications make the cut at nine instead of ten, but most do have a consistent policy. [Read more...]
According to most English style guides, titles of books, publications, and works of art should always be capitalized—for example, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, The New York Times, There Will Be Blood. Use up-style capitalization in these cases; that is, capitalize the first letter of the first and last words and of all words besides short (fewer than five or so letters) articles, conjunctions, and prepositions. Short verbs, nouns, and adjectives are capitalized; for example, in There Will Be Blood, Be is capitalized because it is a verb. [Read more...]