As an editor, I see a common problem in everyday writing: random capitalization. This is the term editors use when someone capitalizes words they believe are special for no logical reason — and certainly no grammatical reason — other than they think they’re important.
The Internet has made random capitalization epidemic. On the Web, anyone can instantly become a writer. Look at a website from just about any small business, amateur blogger or even midsized businesses, and you’ll find random capitalization gone rampant.
Here’s a refresher of the rules for capitalization:
• Capitalize the first word of a sentence.
• Capitalize most words in titles and subtitles of major works.
• Always capitalize the pronoun I.
• Capitalize proper nouns, proper adjectives and words used as essential parts of proper nouns.
• Capitalize titles when they precede proper names but not when they follow proper names or appear alone.
• Capitalize only when necessary.
It’s the last three rules that cause problems for people, as many people believe that proper nouns, proper adjectives and essential words are subjective. (They’re not.) Furthermore, most people are convinced that a title is so important that it should always be capitalized. And that last rule — the most important one — becomes forgotten as everyone is deciding what they think is important or special enough to be capitalized.
Choose just about any website and you’ll discover capitalization faux pas such as the following example:
We offer a Great Selection of useful Products designed by our Chief Engineer.
The only word in that sentence that should be capitalized is We, as it is the first word of the sentence. Although the other words may seem important, they are all common nouns.
You won’t find nearly as many examples of random capitalization in printed materials as on websites, most likely because companies vet these materials to their editor first. Printed materials are expensive to produce, and if you have 500 or 1,000 copies of a fact sheet with an error in it, then you have to go through the expense and waste of reprinting.
However, because copy can be added to a website quickly and easily, and it can be changed just as quickly and easily, many companies don’t run Web copy past their editors, or they allow a non-editor to OK it.
So, I leave you with two final suggestions to eradicate random capitalization from your writing: First, before you capitalize, ask yourself why you’re capitalizing a word. “Because it seems important” isn’t a valid reason. Second, treat your website copy the same way you treat copy for printed materials — send it to your editor before posting it to your website.
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