Who else is annoyed by excessive capitalisation?

[Deleted]

Misuse of apostrophes is bad enough, but what about overuse of capitals?

Examples that have annoyed me:
* Names of seasons ("Book your Summer holiday with us!")
* Capitalising every word of a title (The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time instead of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time)
* Medical conditions. A poster from the National Blood Service had the caption "Thanks to you generous blood donors, I survived Leukaemia".
* Other scientific terms (I suppose some people think it gives an extra air of authority). I frequently receive missives from the various green groups I support inviting me to "take action on Climate Change" or "reduce Carbon Dioxide emissions".
* The word university is often wrongly capitalised when used in a generic sense (e.g. "Many students take a gap year before going to University"). It should only be capitalised when used in the name of a specific institution.
* Why do so many charities invite you to "remember us in your Will"? What's wrong with "your will"?

[Paul Doherty]

Yes! I feel I shouldn't mind ... but I do (a little). As you say, it's often because the word is somehow felt to be important, isn't it?

[Rajesh Valluri AKA Raj]

I am guilty of peppering my sentences with unnecessary capilisations. My excuse is my profession. As a computer programmer by trade, I am used to capitalise the first letter of every word we use in the code. That's because we are not allowed to have whitespaces in the variable names, and the only way to distinguish two words is by using uppercase for the first letter of each word. There is even a name for this concept, called Hungarian notation. An example would be "VarCurrentYearIntRate" which codifies a variable that contains the current year interest rate. So, for someone who does this day in and day out, it is only natural that the habbit creeps into their non-technical writings as well.

[Verbivore]

Jun 6, 2008 0:18:17 GMT Rajesh Valluri AKA Raj said:

[...] the only way to distinguish two words is by using uppercase for the first letter of each word. There is even a name for this concept, called Hungarian notation. [...]

It's also (less formally) known as CamelCase.

I am a fan of minimal capitalisation: if there's no need (e.g. there are no proper nouns) for them, leave the caps off. It makes for a less busy page.

[Vadim]

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time instead of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

I'm a little unsure of the rule (or preference) on this one. I see why the first instance is not correct, however, I have always thought that titles (whether in books, articles or written work etc.) followed the rule of capitalisation of the first word and proper nouns only. I often see the "preference" you show written, however, to me it would be...

... The curious incident of the dog in the night-time...

Your thoughts?

[Twoddle]

Generally I agree with Aeolienne, but I confess to the crime of capitalising "will" when referring to someone's last will and testament, and "act" when writing about an act of parliament. Sometimes it seems necessary to emphasise these terms to signify that they don't mean someone's intention, and an action, in the usual senses of the words.

[Vadim]

Jun 6, 2008 0:28:52 GMT Verbivore said:

Jun 6, 2008 0:18:17 GMT Rajesh Valluri AKA Raj said:

[...] the only way to distinguish two words is by using uppercase for the first letter of each word. There is even a name for this concept, called Hungarian notation. [...]

It's also (less formally) known as CamelCase.

I am a fan of minimal capitalisation: if there's no need (e.g. there are no proper nouns) for them, leave the caps off. It makes for a less busy page.

You got in there before me Vall! I agree!

[Verbivore]

Jun 6, 2008 7:18:25 GMT Twoddle said:

Generally I agree with Aeolienne, but I confess to the crime of capitalising "will" when referring to someone's last will and testament, and "act" when writing about an act of parliament. [...]

And correctly so, Twod, when one is referring to a particular (parliamentary) act or a particular will. So:

The relevant act is the Misuse of Listening Devices Act (1987); the Act prohibits ... .

To make a will takes some careful thought; your Will must be unambiguous ... .

[Pete]

Jun 6, 2008 7:18:25 GMT Twoddle said:

Generally I agree with Aeolienne, but I confess to the crime of capitalising "will" when referring to someone's last will and testament, and "act" when writing about an act of parliament. Sometimes it seems necessary to emphasise these terms to signify that they don't mean someone's intention, and an action, in the usual senses of the words.

I would always capitalise Parliament, though. Isn't it a proper noun?

[Pete]

The other word I capitalise is Opinion, used in the sense of an Opinion from legal counsel (or should that be "Counsel"?)

[Paul Doherty]

I don't think parliament is a proper noun.

[Paul Doherty]

And people tend to want to capitalise ranks, too: There are many Majors in the army.

I'd say: there are many majors in the army. One of them is Major Burns.

But I might be tempted to capitalise army if I meant the British Army: A tribal warlord can raise a powerful army, and this can give the Army serious problems.

[Dave M]

> I don't think parliament is a proper noun. <

I reckon it can be either:
the three countries were different in size and population, but had very similar parliaments - ordinary noun
The group campaigned unsuccessfully: Parliament turned down their request - proper noun. (Another clue is that we don't need to say "the" or "a" parliament.)

[Pete]

Jun 6, 2008 10:44:16 GMT Paul Doherty said:

I don't think parliament is a proper noun.

To clarify, I think "Parliament" is a proper noun when talking about the UK's Parliament. Just as "Congress" is in the US. No?

Anyway, I'll probably take a goofy-like stance here ( )- whatever you say, I shall continue to capitalise "Parliament", 'cos it feels right to me, Guv.

Dogmatic, moi?

[Pete]

I think Dave made my point far better (and more tactfully). Thanks