Grammar Workshop - Capitalization

Grammar Practice

Mrs. Koza

10^th Grade English

Name:______________________________________________ Section:_______________________

Capitalization I

The Visual Organization of Words

What is capitalization?

Capitalization is when we use a capital letter at the beginning of a word. There are many reasons to capitalize.

Capitalizing at the beginning of a sentence

Capitalizing the first word in a sentence is a way to visually organize writing. As you know, every sentence must end with some kind of punctuation mark (period, question mark, exclamation point, etc.), showing that a complete thought has ended. Similarly, a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence tells us when a new thought has begun.

The street is really noisy at night.

She told me the bus would be late.

Circle the words that need capitalizing in the paragraph below:

doesn't everyone in Williamsburg know that drinking out of a plastic water bottle will lead to certain death? one water consumer ordered a case of Poland Spring to the mail room recently, only to have it stolen. the bisphenol-A has clearly gone to their head, as they skipped right over passive-aggressive and penned an aggressive-aggressive note to the thief, wishing them to choke. a ransom note, declaring the water was "fine," was posted in reply.

Capitalizing direct quotations

Capitalize a direct quotation when it is a complete sentence, even if the quote starts in the middle of the sentence.

“When can I turn in this assignment,” he asked the teacher.

I said to her, “Please help me with my homework.”

Circle the words below that need to be capitalized:

One tenant in the building says, "this goes a long way to explaining my love/hate relationship with my neighbors."

Heyward agreed, telling the cops, "yeah, that does look like me."

Quotations that are not capitalized

If a quotation is not a complete sentence, or does not express a complete thought, then it is not capitalized.

Sarah said she was “on the move.”

They said we were “creative thinkers.”

Capitalizing sentences in parentheses

Sentences in parentheses only get capitalized if the sentence stands alone.

Amelie refused to continue down the path. (We continued to walk.)

Sunaura ran the red light. (Mom got really scared.)

If the parentheses are within another sentence, the parenthetical does not get capitalized, even if it is a complete sentence.

We ran (and far) to get to the other side of the track.

Sylvia got her test back (it was a good grade), and showed it to her friends.

Circle the words below that need to be capitalized:

After last November's fake New York Times treatment, lefty political pranksters The Yes Men are back with a fake "Special Climate Edition" of the New York Post. The front page story covers the catastrophic events which the scientific community expects humanity to endure due to climate change. (in Bizarro-world Post fashion.)