Capital Letters
Comprehensive capitalisation guidelines for professional transcripts.
Capital Letters
#
Basic Rules
The first word of a sentence, or of a fragment, begins with a capital letter.
#
Days, Months, and Seasons
- Days of the week and months of the year are written with a capital letter
- Seasons are not written with a capital
Example: 'Like cricket, baseball is played in the summer.'
#
Languages
The names of languages are always written with a capital letter.
Example: 'Juliet speaks English, French, Italian and Portuguese.'
#
Places and Nationalities
##
Place Connections
Words that express a connection with a particular place must be capitalised when they have their literal meanings:
Example: 'The result of the French election is still in doubt.' (referring to France)
##
Fixed Phrases
It is not necessary to capitalise these words when they occur as parts of fixed phrases and don't express any direct connection with the relevant places:
Example: 'Please buy some danish pastries.' (not referring to Denmark)
##
Nationalities and Ethnic Groups
Words that identify nationalities or ethnic groups must be capitalised:
Example: 'The Basques and the Catalans spent decades struggling for autonomy.'
##
Black and White
Formerly, black and white, when applied to human beings, were never capitalised. Nowadays, many people prefer to capitalise them because they regard these words as ethnic labels comparable to Chinese or Indian.
Example: 'The Rodney King case infuriated many Black Americans.'
You may capitalise these words or not, as you prefer, but be consistent.
#
Proper Names
Proper names are always capitalised:
Examples:
- 'The Golden Gate Bridge towers above San Francisco Bay.'
- 'The Queen will address the House of Commons today.'
#
Titles
Titles are capitalised when referring to a specific person, but kept all in lowercase when not referring to anyone in particular:
Examples:
- 'We have asked for a meeting with the President.' (specific person)
- 'I would like to be the president of a big company.' (general role)
The same applies to: Government, Parliament (specific) vs government, parliament (general)
#
Historical Periods
The names of distinctive historical periods are capitalised:
Example: 'London was a prosperous city during the Middle Ages.'
#
Festivals and Holy Days
The names of festivals and holy days are capitalised:
Example: 'We have long breaks at Christmas and Easter.'