Capitalization Quiz

Lowercase spring, summer, fall, winter and derivatives such as springtime unless part of a formal name: Dartmouth Winter Carnival, Winter Olympics, Summer Olympics.

As per the AP style guide, this is capitalized as the cheese is named after (and originates from) a region in Switzerland.

The same is also true of Parmesan cheese: a hard, sharp cow’s milk cheese style named after Italy’s Parmigiano-Reggiano.

According to AP style guide, french is lowercase because it refers to the style of cut, not the nation.

That said, The Redbook legal style guide states that although proper adjectives with independent meaning are usually set in lowercase, both are acceptable.

This is a useful list: http://www.apstylebook.com/online/index.php?do=chapter&chapter=FOOD&view=list

“Mehmet Öztürk holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cambridge.”

Academic degrees are capitalized only when the full name of the degree is used, such as Bachelor of Arts or Master of Social Work. General references, such as bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree, are not capitalized. Use an apostrophe (possessive) with bachelor’s degree and master’s degree, but not in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science. Do not use an apostrophe with associate degree or doctoral degree.

Additionally, although most people will likely refer to “Cambridge University” the proper full title is the “University of Cambridge.” The full title may also include (and therefore necessitate capitalization of) “The,” such as “The University of Edinburgh.”

“Engin Çalışkan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in astrophysics from The University of Manchester’s School of Physics and Astronomy.”

Alternatively: “Engin Çalışkan holds a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics from The University of Manchester’s physics and astronomy department.”

Except for languages, such as English, French and Japanese, the names of academic disciplines, majors, minors, programs and courses of study are not proper nouns and should not be capitalized. E.g.,

• “She majored in integrated supply management and German,”
• “Sinan holds a master’s degree in civil engineering,”
• “Dr. Mehta graduated from Oxford University (St. John’s College) with a first-class degree in philosophy, politics and economics and holds a doctorate in politics from Princeton University.”

As before, Manchester University’s full and proper title in “The University of Manchester.”

In Turkish texts, prime minister is often capitalized even when not used before a name. Such deference is an unnecessary nicety. Using lowercase letters in no way diminishes the stature or credibility of an individual’s position or a department’s reputation. “President Obama” would be written as such. Yet “president of the United States,” or “the president” are lowercased in running text when it doesn’t immediately precede the president’s name. AP (and Dragoman) style is to capitalize only formal titles (and only when used immediately before the name). Likewise, ordinary job titles in isolation are never capitalized.

Specific job titles preceding a person’s name are capitalized, but descriptions are not. For example, “Marketing Director Bora Akıllı.” After a name, titles are lowercase regardless of whether they are specific or general: “Bora Akıllı, marketing director at ABC Industries.”

As stated in the Dragoman style guide, either ONE of these styles is acceptable: (use of italics is to highlight the examples only)

Lower case, except for the first word and proper nouns, i.e., Istanbul at home in a dark room in Tünel.
Upper case for all words except for “a, an, the” and prepositions if not part of the title, i.e., Istanbul at Home in a Dark Room in Tünel or Thinking About the Creative World.

The key here is consistency.

Only the sentence randomly capitalizing a standalone “Current Account” would obviously be wrong.

It’s possible that three of these are correct, depending on the account’s full name.

It’s not uncommon, especially in business writing, to see nouns that are crucial to a company’s enterprise capitalized (incorrectly). For example:

“We sent the Product to the local Market in our last shipment. The Sales Force checked to see if our Widgets were properly packaged.”

This is incorrect.

If using the website of a Turkish company for style referencing, do not assume that their previous application of capitalization or style is correct. At best there are generally inconsistencies.

My uncle is a professor of Chinese at The University of Edinburgh. Students call him Professor Jones but I call him Uncle Steven. He spent a long time in the East studying Buddhism.

Here are six key points:

My uncle (1) is a professor (2) of Chinese (3) at The University of Edinburgh (4). Students call him Professor Jones but I call him Uncle Steven. He spent a long time in the East (5) studying Buddhism (6).

1) uncle or Uncle? Normally uncle wouldn’t have a capital letter, unless it comes right before a person’s name, like “Uncle Steven” in the next sentence.

2) This is the same for professional job titles. As a noun professor doesn’t need a capital letter, but when it is someone’s title, like “Professor Jones” or “Dr Doolittle” it takes a capital letter.

3) “Chinese” here indicates the language. Languages are capitalised, as are nationalities and of course countries.

4) “The University of Edinburgh” is the official name of the institution. As the word “the” is part of the official title, it also needs a capital letter. You can check this by doing a quick online search if you’re not sure.

5) Compass directions like north, south east and west only take capital letters when they are part of a name established by popular usage to mean a certain region, for example: the Pacific Northwest, the South Pacific, or the East or West when talking about those areas in cultural terms.

6) Buddhism and other religions take capital letters.

Source: BBC

“Benjamin is an editor at Dragoman. This Sunday for Easter he is going to a pub in Manchester called The Moon Under Water to have a Sunday lunch with his mother.”