Which proper nouns should be capitalized

That said, some nouns that are named for a person or region—eponyms—become so commonly used that it is no longer considered necessary to capitalize them. The sandwich, for example, was named for John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. The professor always packed a sandwich for office hours. There are many more instances when you may have to decide whether a noun is common or proper to determine whether it is capitalized.

You may wish to read our articles on countries, nationalities, and languages or periods and events , for example. When in doubt, do what all the best writers do: look it up. Real-time suggestions, wherever you write.

Catherine Traffis. Buckingham Palace Cynthia War and Peace. Is your mom coming over for dinner? What time is it on the West Coast? Could you pass me the Kleenex? Capitalize proper nouns in APA Style. Proper nouns include the specific names of people, places, and things. Names of racial and ethnic groups are treated as proper nouns, which means they are capitalized e.

Some style guides have specific requirements for capitalizing headings see, for example, how to format APA headings and subheadings. Whichever approach you choose, make sure to be consistent: all headings at the same level should take the same capitalization style.

Have a language expert improve your writing. Check your paper for plagiarism in 10 minutes. Do the check. Generate your APA citations for free! APA Citation Generator. Home Knowledge Base Language rules Capitalization rules. Capitalization rules Published on April 19, by Amy Luo. What is your plagiarism score? Compare your paper with over 60 billion web pages and 30 million publications. Is this article helpful?

She is passionate about helping people communicate clearly and effectively. Other students also liked. Capitalization in titles and headings 3 options for capitalizing headings within your thesis: capitalizing all significant words, capitalizing only the first word, and a combination of the…. Learn how to format each heading level, when to use them, and how to set them up in Word. Capitalize key words, lower case articles and conjunctions, and end with a colon. Example : "Dear Parents and Family Members:".

Skip to main content. Proper nouns —a specific individual name: Kalamazoo. University exceptions The following are the only common nouns which should be capitalized in publications and correspondence of Western Michigan University.

Titles Used in text —In text, titles are capitalized only if they precede the name of the individual. Capitalize President Edward Montgomery spoke at the Majors, academic programs and degrees Except for languages , such as English, French and Japanese, the names of academic disciplines, majors, minors, programs and courses of study are not proper nouns and should not be capitalized.

Examples all correct Ph. Salutation for form letters Form letters are addressed to groups.