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 | Is Writing an Art or a Science? While there are some scientific aspects to writing (e.g., a noun is a person, place or thing), it is to a large degree an art. That invariably leads to debate over things that fall into what might be considered gray areas. For instance, I received many comments about my spacing article in the summer newsletter. As you may recall, I noted that it is common practice--and yes, correct--to leave just one space between sentences. I was surprised at the number of people who said they'd try to stop using two spaces. They obviously considered what I said to be a suggestion rather than a mandate. Hmmm...I imagine no one would question my conclusion that 2+2=4! The moral of my little tale is this: While you may consider writing to be primarily an art, it does have some science to it...which shouldn't be ignored. |
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The Write Stuff
Fall 2006 Volume 2 Issue 4
A Capital Issue
Never
fear, I won't be expounding on our government (that would be capitol);
as you regular readers know, I like to address issues in this
newsletter that seem confusing to my clients. Thus, as we get ready
to fall back, it seems appropriate to discuss capitalization, something
we were all introduced to in elementary school.
Many people seem
to think it's appropriate to capitalize words to give them emphasis. I
say think again. I spend plenty of time lowercasing words like "city,"
"bank" and "company"; they should only be capitalized when they start
sentences.
When else should you employ capitalization?
- For proper nouns (names, places, organizations and sometimes things), such as John Smith, Chicago, American Medical Association and Wrigley Field
- For family titles (when used as proper nouns), such as Aunt Adrienne
- For titles that precede names, such as Mayor John Smith
- For directions that serve as names, such as the Midwest
- For days, months and holidays
- For countries, nationalities and languages
- For members of national, political, racial, social and athletic groups, such as San Jose Sharks, Democrats and French
- For periods and events, such as the Stone Age
- For trademarks, such as Coca-Cola
Have a colorful fall...and be sure to let me know if I can be of assistance for writing or editing projects.
Adrienne Moch • 619-291-4645 • www.adriennemoch.com
