Capitalization guide

Sometimes it can be hard to tell when to capitalize words. As this guide shows, the difference between capitalization and lowercase is often whether a specific place or person is referenced.

Proper nouns

Words are capitalized when you are referring to specific, official names of places, people, or organizations (proper nouns):

• University of Nevada, Reno vs. the university in Reno

Specific landmarks or locations are capitalized, whereas general types of geography or landmark are lowercase.

• Grand Canyon vs. canyon

Other specific areas (state, county, etc) are capitalized, whereas general references to those areas, would be lowercase.

• Clark County vs. county

Specific institutions are capitalized, whereas mentions of non-specific members are lowercase.

• House of Representatives vs. “Many representatives voted…”
• The United States Senate vs. “Most senators believe…”

Similarly, words are capitalized when referring to a specific president, but when presidents are mentioned as a group or concept, the word would be lowercase.

• President Obama vs. “Past presidents have…”

Academic degrees, programs and departments

A specific, full title of a degree is capitalized, whereas a nonspecific bachelor’s degree would be lowercase.

• Bachelor of Science vs. “I graduated with a bachelor’s degree.”

The major/minor of degrees is capitalized only when those subjects are languages, whereas other degree subjects would not be capitalized.

• “I’m a Spanish major.” vs. “I’m majoring in microbiology.”

Departments that are part of a specific institution would be capitalized, whereas departments in a general sense are not capitalized.

• “I went to the Engineering Department yesterday.” vs. “Faculty in engineering departments across the United States...”

Similarly, specific non-academic departments or divisions (like the Department of Veterans’ Affairs) would be capitalized; if "office” is used to refer to the location of a department or organization, office would be lowercase.

• Office of Budget Management vs. “I went to the financial aid office the other day…”
• Department of Veterans Affairs vs. “I couldn’t find the fire department anywhere…”

References

Durham Tech (ND). Style guide: Capitalization. Retrieved from: https://www.durhamtech.edu/faculty/marketing/capitalization.htm

University of Colorado (ND). Capitalization (titles, departments, units, etc.). Retrieved from: https://www.cu.edu/university-relations/capitalization