People contributing to technical reports and other documents usually have highly specialised skills – like engineering, architecture, science, accountancy and IT.
So they don’t have time to think about pesky grammar rules – which means things can go a little pear-shaped.
Not that we’re complaining. It keeps editors like us out of trouble and means we don’t have to sell body parts to make a living…
Many of the reports we work on suffer from ‘random capitalisation’. Capitals for emphasis. Capitals to show someone’s role is important. Capitals because a word looks like it should have one.
Using capitals can be tricky, so here are some quick tips and examples to keep those capitalist tendencies under control…
Wrapping the caps
- The first word in a sentence is capitalised
- The pronoun ‘I’ is always capitalised, e.g. I think I can
- Use capitals for proper nouns – names, nationalities, places, brands
- Never use capitals for emphasis, e.g. This is correct, but This is Not Correct
- Don’t use capitals for roles unless it’s part of the name, e.g. Mayor Bird and Mr Bird, mayor of Birdsville are both correct capitalisation of ‘mayor’
- Unless they’re part of a title, words like ‘project team’, ‘feasibility study’ and ‘environmental impact assessment’ shouldn’t be capitalised.
Something I prepared earlier
Using capitals for document titles and headlines can also be a style thing, so check your organisation’s style guide to find out their preferences.
We hope this helps you eliminate those capitalist tendencies – in you or others. Meanwhile, we’d better get back to saving the world… one capital letter at a time.
The Buzz 