Some teachers blame text messaging for capitalization errors in student writing. After all, how many times have you written out a quick text message, not worrying about where you need to capitalize? You, like many others, have probably done this quite often.
In addition, some teachers complain that students don’t even capitalize I in a sentence. That could likely be related to the casual style of text messaging. While lax capitalization is certainly a problem, too much capitalization is observed just as frequently in student papers. Incorrectly capitalizing words can be a byproduct of using a grammar check (which might automatically capitalize the word after a period used in an abbreviation) or a misunderstanding of proper nouns.
Whatever the reasons behind the errors, careful proofreading should catch them. It’s important to be aware of capitalization rules. Be careful to capitalize words that should be capitalized, such as proper nouns, and not capitalize words that should not be capitalized. Often, students will capitalize words related to the subject of their paper, even though these words should be lowercase.
But, how can you know what should and shouldn’t be capitalized? If you are unsure, review the differences between proper nouns and common nouns in the Parts of Speech area of the Excelsior OWL.
Capitalization errors can really have a negative impact on the impressions your readers have of your writing. Take a look at the following sentence:
Now, take a look at the sentence with correct capitalization:
It’s important to edit carefully and review the rules if necessary!