Division of Student Affairs

Capitalization

The Chicago Manual and AP Stylebook favor a "down" style: that is, one that minimizes capitalization.

Such words as federal, state, and municipal are not capitalized except when they are part of formal titles. Such words as city, state, county, and village are capitalized only when they refer to the actual government.
Example: The City of Cleveland enacted an ordinance against littering.
Example: The state of Ohio has many tourist attractions.

In bulleted copy introduced by a colon, capitalize the first word and use punctuation only if the items constitute complete sentences. (See also Periods.)

In titles and headlines that contain hyphened compound words, all component words should be capitalized.

Capitalize the word after a colon if the following clause constitutes a full sentence.
Example: One thing became clear: No work would be done today.
Example: Specializations prepare students for one of three roles: direct service, community planning, or management.

Capitalize

1. All proper nouns, months, and days of the week.
2. A noun used in forming an essential part of a proper name; but lowercase when used informally.
   Examples: the Department of English; the department; Western Reserve College; the College of Arts and Sciences; the college; the School of Law; the medical school.
3. President and other formal titles when they precede the name; but lowercase when the title follows the name or stands alone.
   Example: The building was dedicated to President Agnar Pytte.
   Example: He is the assistant director for development.
   Example: She is dean of students.
   Example: The resident director held a program in the building lobby.
   Example: The RD held a program in the building lobby.
4. The first word of a direct or indirect quotation when it is a complete sentence.
   Example: He said, "What's the big idea?"
5. The formal titles of the university, colleges, and schools. Each of the schools of the university that is named for a person may be considered to have a short title and a long title. The long titles should always be used in first reference.
6. Formal names of educational institutions and their major divisions.
   Examples: Case Western Reserve University; the School of Law; the Department of Physics
7. Academic degrees when cited completely and formally; but do not capitalize when used informally.
   Example: Her coursework is leading to the Master of Science in Nursing degree.
   Example: He earned a master's degree in engineering.
8. Abbreviations of academic degrees. Note that these abbreviations take periods.
   Examples: A.B., M.A., B.Sc., M.Ed., M.B.A.
9. Names of firms and corporations, churches, clubs, societies, associations, leagues, unions, institutions, and groups formally organized as committees; but do not capitalize in informal references. Do not use capitalized articles before the names of these organizations regardless of the organizations' preferences.
   Examples: the Cleveland Institute of Music, Ohio State University.
   Also, do not capitalize in collective references.
   Example: the boards of directors of several companies.
10. Street, Avenue, Boulevard, etc., when preceded by a name.
    Example: High Street
11. In titles and headings, all principal words except internal articles and prepositions. When referring to titles of periodicals, do not capitalize the articles that precede them. Note that these articles are not italicized. The same rule applies to the names of schools and colleges at Case or anywhere else and to the names of companies, committees, and institutions; the article is not capitalized.

Do Not Capitalize

1. Titles standing alone or following names, with the exception of specific named professorships
   Example: He is the dean of student affairs.
   Example: She is the Henry Willson Payne Professor of Anatomy.
2. The names of academic subjects (except proper nouns such as English)
   Example: She failed her math final.
3. The words university, school, college, department, committee, etc., when standing alone
   Example: The university does not condone those behaviors.
4. The names of particular courses of study.
   Example: He is a professor of economics.
   Example: Students majoring in polymer science must meet certain requirements.
5. Times of day
   Examples: 3 p.m., noon, midnight
6. Names of academic terms or seasons
   Examples: fall semester, summer session, winter term. Only capitalize at the beginning of a sentence, or when it is part of an official program name or written guide.
7. The word black when used to indicate race. Please note that African-American is currently the preferred term.