Tag Archives: grammar

When To Capitalize…

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Know when to capitalize

Whenever I am training a client to use Blogger, so that they can self-manage their ORM, we have the same debate – without fail.  No matter what their online reputation management strategy may look like, here’s the questions that’s always posed, in some fashion or another…

“When creating a new post, do I capitalize the first letter, or all of them, or just some of them… and how do I know?”

Whilst much of this depends on personal taste and style, there are some rules to try and stick to.  For many of our clients, we advocate the headline kicker rule:  keep you blog titles, short, punchy and all caps.  But for some, they prefer to be more conversational.

For them, here are 10 great rules to remember!

1. Capitalize the first word in a sentence.
Yes, this is the most basic rule of capitalization – that too many forget…

2. Capitalize the pronoun “I.”
Another basic one, but in today’s information driven world, it bears mentioning, especially in the lazy age of fast-texting mobile communicators.

3. Capitalize proper nouns: the names of specific people, places, organizations, and sometimes things.
For instance, “Austin, Texas,” “Patrick O’Brian,”  “Supreme Court.”

This seems to be the rule that trips up many people because they don’t know whether a word is a proper noun. But as the AP Stylebook points out:

“Capitalize nouns that constitute the unique identification for a specific person, place, or thing: John, Mary, America, Boston, England. Some words, such as the examples given, are always proper nouns. Some common nouns receive proper noun status when they are used as the name of a particular entity: General Electric, Gulf Oil.”

There are also derivatives of proper nouns. Capitalize words that are derived from a proper noun and still depend on it for their meaning, such as “American,” “French,” and “Shakespearean.”

But lower case words that are derived from proper nouns that no longer depend on it for their meaning: “french fries,” “pasteurize,” “darwinian.”
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Great words make great posts

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There are so many tired and over-used expressions that plague everyday writing.  For those who employ the craft of writing and take time to create thought-provoking and encouraging literary pieces, we need to have an array of great words that will capture and communicate what we’re trying to say.

In order to make your posts stand-out, I have tracked down an inspirational list of words seldom used in modern writing – enjoy!

<original article>

Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote, “Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”

Those of us who make a living “combining words” appreciate their power to convey even the most-subtle shades of meaning. I love that “pretentious,” “ostentatious,” and “haughty,” are all synonyms for “arrogant.” But under the surface, they all have different meanings.

What follows is a list of some of my favorite words, a discussion of their shades of meaning, and an example of how it’s used:

• Nonplussed. Means bewildered or unsure how to respond. I always think of nonplussed as that look on someone’s face when they’ve been completely blindsided in a conversation or meeting. Example: The CEO’s tirade has left me completely nonplussed.

• Aspersion. Means an attack on somebody’s reputation or good name, as in “to cast aspersions on.” A second meaning is a sprinkling, especially with holy water. Not sure how this word ended up with these two definitions. Example No. 1: Let those without fault cast the first aspersions. Example No. 2: There was an aspersion of dust on the books.

• Insipid. Lacking flavor or taste; lacking qualities that excite, stimulate, or interest; dull. Example: Why do you insist on writing such insipid, dim-witted blog posts?

• Acquiesce. To accept or consent by silence or by omitting to object. So to acquiesce is not just to give in, but to give in by not objecting. (Acquiesce is also the most difficult word to spell on this list. Remember, “i” before “e.”) Example: Do not acquiesce to his unreasonable demands for perfection.

• Feckless. To be feckless means to lack purpose or be without skill; ineffective, incompetent; spiritless; weak; worthless. With most words in English, if you remove the suffix you have another word. This is not the case with feckless, as “feck” is not a word. Example: We were embarrassed to witness such a feckless performance.

• Diurnal. Occurring or active during the daytime rather than at night; relating to or occurring in a 24-hour period; daily. I love this word because until I learned its definition, I never knew that “nocturnal” had an opposite. Example: In general, college students are not cut out for a diurnal life.

• Indefatigable. Someone who is indefatigable is incapable of being fatigued; not readily exhausted; unremitting in labor or effort; untiring; unwearying. Also, a great name for a ship—the HMS Indefatigable was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line launched by the Royal Navy in 1784. Interestingly, the antonym of this word is fatigable, not defatigable. (Indefatigable is the most difficult word to pronounce on this list. Say it 5 times fast.) Example: She was indefatigable in her efforts to ensure accuracy.

• Supercilious. Having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those viewed as unworthy. Arrogance + attitude = supercilious. Example: I find Anna to be very cold and supercilious.

• Disingenuous. Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating. Example: It’s simply disingenuous to encourage others to volunteer when you have no intention of volunteering yourself.

• Pensive. If you are pensive, you are engaged in serious thought or reflection; given to earnest musing: often implying some degree of anxiety, depression, or gloom; thoughtful and somewhat melancholy. Example: A pensive gloom settled in as the afternoon progressed.

If we could just get the gist of it

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Here is a brilliant article on misused words – one that I had to leave unedited.  It is not new for the written language to become so conformed to the spoken word that the original subtleties find themselves lost in time.  Five hundred years ago there were several different spellings of the name ‘Shakespeare‘, this, and other words, are regularly incorrectly used because of their phonetic similarities.

Consider the use of ‘to’ and ‘too’, or ‘gist’ and ‘just’ – they sound so similar yet have very different uses and meanings.  This article by Rob Reinalda is a must-read for all bloggers!

(the article is taken from ragan.com)

The most common verbal errors spread the way the common cold does: One person picks it up from another, usually quite casually. The next thing you know, nearly everybody’s infected.

I compare these transgressions to a cold, as I am likening the two elements. Think of this: The critic compared his voice to that of Caruso. To draw a contrast, I would use compare with. “Caruso was a great singer, compared with you, Larry; you howl like an alley cat in labor.”

So, let’s treat the linguistic outbreaks—with some usage antibiotics.

Here’s hoping they will affect you positively, yielding a salubrious effect. Wow. These two near-homonyms are tough, because each can be used as a noun or a verb. Those are just the most common usages for each.

Effect as a verb is to bring about, as in to effect change.

Affect as a noun—pronounced AFF-ect—denotes a person’s emotional state, especially when it’s visible. This one is probably of little use to you—unless you’re a clinical psychologist—except for the purposes of recognizing its misuse: “Hey, Smitty, you spelled effect with an A, you yucklehead!” That’ll affect his affect, all right—and quite effectively, at that.

Henceforth, ol’ Smitty might become reticent, or reluctant to speak. Although reticent has come to be used in place of reluctant, the phrase “reticent to speak” should be avoided. Better not to say anything.

Time now to home in on another widespread problem. Hone means to sharpen; one does not hone in on a target. Rather, one would home in, like a homing pigeon. A honing pigeon would be unusual, and probably dangerous. Switchblade-toting birds should be avoided, I say.

Also to be avoided is the misuse of comprise, notably in the phrase “is comprised of,” when “is composed of” is meant. I’ll say this once: The whole comprises the parts, not the other way around. OK, I lied. I’m saying it again: The whole comprises the parts, not the other way around. Remember it this way: New England comprises Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

If you want to go with the components first and conclude with the entirety, use constitute. In that case, please start with Connecticut, which is, after all, the Constitution State.

I continually remind people that [sic] continuously means incessantly, whereas continually means repeatedly, in frequent intervals. Many dictionaries concede that their usage has become virtually indistinguishable, but we do try to cater to purists.

In doing so, we’ve developed a rapport with our audience — not to be confused with a report (pronounced REE-por, as I’ve heard it said). That’s a simple mishearing of a term, but viral it has gone, nonetheless.

Gesundheit.