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...]
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...]
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...]