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With all the rules of the English language and the element in which some text is transcribed and translated, capitalization errors occur pretty often.  In order to clear up where some people make mistakes quite often, we thought we might clear up the ‘rules of capitalization’ to help those who have forgotten.

1. Capitalization of the first word of every sentence to begin the sentence
2. Proper nouns, such as places and names: Golden Gate Bridge, or John Smith
3. A title, should it precede the name such as Mr. Jones, or Ms. Simpson. This should also happen at a signature line or when using it as a direct form of address.
4. The proper title of a government official, for instance President Obama.  Lower case is used when using it in the context of, “The president of the company…”
5. Four points of the compass as long as they pertain to the regional direction, for instance North Texas, or Southern California.
6. Always capitalize the first and last words of a title or publication name, even if they are small words.  Within the title the smaller words such as the, but, and, an, it, of should be lowered caps.
7. Using a capital of ‘federal’ and ’state’ should only be used when referring to the name of the department.
8. First word of a salutation and the first word of your close in correspondence.
9. Capitalize words that refer to proper nouns.  For instance, “I think Portuguese is spoken in Brazil.”
10. Capitalize the first word of the second sentence following a sentence ending in a colon (a list of more than one item that the list requires a full sentence, not just one word.)

Using these 10 rules, you should have no problem in making sure that your documents are properly edited and represent your professional point.  Watch for more tips and tricks here about how to remember common grammatical errors and how to correct them.

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