When To Capitalize Titles (at work)

A simple guideline is this: when you wish to add importance to a noun, capitalize it: the title (chair, president, director, manager, editor...) that precedes a name (Chair Anderson, Senior Editor Johnson). When the title follows the name or is used without a name, no caps!

My own preference is to always capitalize “President” when referring to the President of the United States. Use capital letters for letter abbreviations (CEO, IBM, PBS), and for your company and/or boss. Because the capital letter indicates importance, use it when referring to the ones you wish to impress (or are required to pay tribute).

If you work for a government, you have my sympathies. You may choose (or be required) to capitalize the outfit: federal/Federal, city/City, state/State, army/Army.  

Check your group’s style manual carefully.

SSSS or ZZZZ? When do I use which?

The change in spelling from s to z came with the switch from British English to U.S. Language. If I had my way, I'd change them all to z’s: realize, surprize, analyze, surmize, finalize, reprize.... Why make life any more difficult than it is?

Linus’s Security Blanket

A lot of people feel uncomfortable in a state of anarchy. They like security blankets, the warm feeling of holding onto something, following directions, knowing there are rules, rights-and-wrongs, answers to all the questions — some people. Thank heavens, more of us know the value of taking risks, of daring. We’re the creators!

(It takes all kinds…that’s the beauty of life.)

NEENER NEENER, NEENER!

Open your computer. Check out WORD/TOOLS/Language and notice the number of languages (mine lists 31).  English offers three choices: UK (the “real” thing), Australian, and United States! Now do you see why we U.S.ers have such a rich language opportunity? Our English is the only one in the world that includes words from just about every other language. My Webster’s (English) Dictionary lists word source abbreviations for 152 languages. Farsi anyone?

YYUR, YYUB, ICUR, YY4me

Found this note in an old (very old) school yearbook -- waaaay before twitters and tweets. Will Espy called it “ABC Language” in the 1970s; it mimics what folks keep kvetching about -- shortcutting the English language. Well, it's hard to say where this started, but today's twitterers' grandparents — maybe great-grandparents even — knew about it. Figure out this one — and send me the answer:

AB,  F  U  NE X?
S  V  F  X.
F  U  NE  M?
SV  F  M.
OK  L  F  M  N  X

Wimpy Verbs

Yeah, a bunch of everyday verbs have so many meanings they lose their punch. A wimpy verb is one so overused it becomes useless. Here’s a list of a few. You may want to replace these when you find them in your work: go, come, do, is, get, put, take, make, have.

What Style Manual Should I Use?

When a writer asks me this, my response is: “Write your own damn style manual.” (Sometimes I use more panache, but you get the idea.) You can, you know. Keep track of your grammar, punctuation, and spelling choices in Your Style Manual. You can build one in a spiral notebook or an online folder. Keep it accessible. If you want more of a jump start, look C-A-R-E-F-U-L-L-Y at the style manuals at your bookstore and choose one that comes close to your own preferences. None of the commercial books will be totally compatible. Take your favorite home and mark it up to suit your own writing style.

What's the difference between recover and re-cover?

That little hysterical hyphen is a hyper hypnotist in that it can completely hype a word. Recover means “to get well, heal”. Re-cover means “to put on a new cover”. Same with remark and re-mark; remark means “to say something”; re-mark means “to mark it again”. Got it? Take care in using the re-words. (Okay reword means “to word it again”; that’s all!)

What do you call US?

Most of us call ourselves “Americans”. We call our country “America” or “U.S.A.” (we like to talk short). Technically, in reality, logically, sensibly, the U.S. of A. is only a part of America; other Americans include Guatamalans, Canadians, Mexicans, Argentinians, Peruvians, and more. Where do we get off presuming we are THE Americans? What would you call US: US-ers? U.S.-ers? USA-ers? We are special, dammit! Why can’t we come up with a special name?

What do you capitalize in a title?

Generally,  nouns, verbs, their modifiers, sometimes a preposition (if it seems important), and the first word of the title, no matter what: The Anarchist's Guide to Grammar or The Anarchist's Guide To Grammar (my preference). Grammar For Grownups (I like the capital “F”). The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (that’s the way they like it!)