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Tash
I suspect the increased use of SMS and chat shorthand is a major factor, but it seems that many people aren’t sure about when to use capital letters in their writing. So here is a quick summary of when to use a capital letter:
Capitals letters are sometimes also used within names (e.g. AvSuper, MacGregor), in scientific terminology (e.g. E. Coli, Eucalyptus, cyclone Tracy) and where two words have been abbreviated into one (e.g. eBooks, eLearning.)
There are variations in some of these rules, especially if you travel to another country but using these guidelines will avoid any major errors! Or call upon someone to check your writing for you – errors that requires conscious effort for you to find often are quite obvious to others, especially to someone like me who spots such things without trying.
Edited to add: I came across a fun poster with the basic capital letter uses, which is great for kids and anyone struggling to remember these rules.
* The use of a generic noun as a proper noun requires a capital letter, too. So while mothers is written in lower case, a capital letter applies in the following sentence: Mary said “Hello Mother. How are you?” Likewise, you may write about a library (generic) or the Ashburton Library (specific).
Is it correct to use capitals for English, but not lesson or the other subjects in the following sentence: I went to my English lesson and then my maths lesson. Later on today, I will go to a science lesson.
Hi Leon.
Languages are always a capital letter, whetehr refering to a class or not.
Generic subjects (maths, science, history, art) are written with a lower case letter. Specific titles of classes (Biology 101, Australian Hstory Overview) can be written with a capital letter.
So your example is correct:)
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Hi there!
So I write as the customer support person for my company as the intermediary to the client and our company and vice versa.
When writing an email should I place a capital letter:
in the opening greetings
===================
Good Afternoon Mary
Thank you for your correspondence…. etc
and in the farewells…..
===================
Yours Sincerely,
Martin Kelly
Hi Deidre,
It doesn’t matter if it is a letter, friendly email or a business email, the same capital letter rules apply – proper nouns and the start of sentences need a capital letter and very little else.
So “Good afternoon Mary, I hope you are well. Yours sincerely, Martin Kelly” is all you need.
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When did we stop using periods between letter of an acronym? As in NSW for N.S.W., ATO for A.T.O.
I’ve never really used full stops in acronyms or initialisms, Phillip. The Australian Government guidelines list the states as NSW, ACT and SA, and I couldn’t find otherwise historically in a quick search.
So if there was a change, I’d say it was quite some time ago!
PS Apologies for not replying sooner.
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Hi,
I would like if I need to use cappital letters in the beggining of names of sciences , like “Medicine”, “Biology” , for example.
Thanks!
Hi Roger,
if you’re just talking about biology or genetics, a capital letter is not needed. It’s only if you are using it as a proper noun such as the name of a subject (I am learning Biology 101 with Professor Sprout) that you need a capital.
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