Tag Archive - usage tips

Don’t Get Cappy Happy

March 15, 2013 in Say What? with 8 Comments

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Writers seem to get “cappy” happy (yes, I just made up that term). I often see the most random terms and phrases capitalized, but generally the rule is that if it’s not a specific proper name of something, it doesn’t need to have the first letter capitalized. Here are just a few types of words that often erroneously get capitalized. All the terms and phrases listed below should be lowercased as shown.

Student status:

  •  freshman or first-year student
  • sophomore
  • junior
  • senior

Academic degrees:

  • a master’s degree
  • a doctorate; a fellowship
  • master of business administration (MBA)

Ethnic groups (common designations) unless a particular publisher or author prefers otherwise:

  •  black people; blacks; people of color
  • white people; whites

Terms denoting socioeconomic classes:

  •  the middle class; a middle-class neighborhood
  • the upper-middle class; an upper-middle-class family
  • blue-collar workers
  • the aristocracy
  • the proletariat
  • homeless people

Terms denoting generations:

  • the me generation
  • baby boomer(s)
  • generation X; generation Y; generation Z
  • the MTV generation

Note that when referring to an academic department, you do use initial caps, but do not capitalize the: I went to the Department of Natural History yesterday to speak to the dean.

Time Is the Topic of the Day

March 8, 2013 in Say What? with 4 Comments

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Writers often refer to the time of day in a scene, so it’s good to know when to spell out the time and when to use numerals. The rule is fairly simple. Times of day in even, half, and quarter hours are usually spelled out in text. With o’clock, the number is always spelled out.

  • Her day begins at five o’clock in the morning.
  • The meeting continued until half past three.
  • He left the office at a quarter of four (or a quarter to four. The a before quarter is optional).
  • We will resume at ten thirty.
  • Cinderella almost forgot that she should leave the ball before midnight.

Numerals are used (with zeros for even hours) when exact times are emphasized. Chicago recommends lowercase a.m. and p.m., though these sometimes appear in small capitals, with or without periods.

  • The first train leaves at 5:22 a.m. and the last at 11:00 p.m.
  • She caught the 6:20 p.m. flight.
  • Please attend a meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on December 5 at 10:30 a.m. (EST).

The 100-Percent Solution

March 1, 2013 in Say What? with 3 Comments

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If you are writing a technical or scientific paper, you would use the % sign. But in general or nonscientific writing, spell out the word percent. Except at the beginning of a sentence, percentages are usually expressed in numerals. You never want to begin a sentence with a numeral, so either rewrite so that doesn’t occur or spell out the number. Here are some good examples of correct usage:

  • Fewer than 5 percent of readers buy books at an actual bookstore.
  • With 90–95 percent of the work complete, we can relax.
  • A 75 percent likelihood of winning is worth the effort.
  • Her five-year certificate of deposit carries an interest rate of 5.9 percent.
  • Only 20% of the ants were observed to react to the stimulus.
  • The treatment resulted in a 20%–25% increase in reports of night blindness.

Percent, used as an adverb, is not interchangeable with the noun percentage (I know that 1 percent is a very small percentage). Note also that no space appears between the numeral and the symbol %.

 

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