The UVic Writer's Guide

Using Capitals

• The first word of every sentence.
• People's names (unless you are writing about e.e. cummings, k.d. lang or
• monica schraefel).
• Names of races, countries, languages and religions (Jewish, Canada, Serbo-Croatian, Islam).
• The names of businesses, organizations, buildings and places (Big Ed's Gas Farm, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Calhoun Memorial Hospital, Spirit Lake). Articles and prepositions need not be capitalized.
• All important words in titles, and minor words if they come at the beginning or the end (The Silence of the Lambs, War and Peace, Of Mice and Men) .
• Words like government, university, prime minister, but only if you are referring to a specific case: "The University has raised tuition fees again; it seems that universities are increasingly relying on students to finance their own education."

Do not capitalize:

• Directions, unless you are referring to a specific area (the East Side, but east of here).
• The seasons.
• After a colon, unless a quotation, title or other regularly capitalized word follows.
• A common noun that derives from a proper noun (china).