As a writer, there might be quite a few things that you would be struggling with. Especially, when you are writing online, capitalization can come up as a huge hurdle. Proper and correct capitalization will help in conveying a message and prevent misunderstandings. However, most of the writers penning down their thoughts online still have doubts about which word to capitalize on.
When you inappropriately use the upper case in your writing, you risk introducing obscurity that makes it difficult to read. To avoid unwanted issues to take place, following proper web capitalization rules will be the best option for you. Here are a few things you need to know!
Capitalization: Rules you need to follow!
If you want to correctly perform capitalization, there are several capitalization rules for online writing that you need to follow. These basic capitalization rules will help you create outstanding content for the online platform.
1. Do not capitalize on terms that entered common usage:
When you introduce brand new words in a language they are usually capitalized. To understand it clearly, take the word “Scuba” as an example. It was coined as an abbreviation for the “Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus” back in 1952. After that, when the word became pretty generic and common, it transformed into lowercase and became “scuba”.
Currently, two other words have changed into lowercase over time and they are internet and the web. When these two words first came out, they were capitalized. Once they became a huge part of everyday life, many experts started to argue that they should be in lowercase. After a long debate, in 2016 API Stylebook declared that they will no longer capitalize web or the internet.
2. How to spell words with “E” that is short for “Electronic”:
The letter “E” can provide you plenty of words that you use regularly, but there are words that you are writing incorrectly. For instance, do you write to E-mail, Email, or e-mail? According to Merriam-Webster, the correct spelling for email is “e–mail”. The same rule applies to words like e-store, e-commerce, and e-business.
When two words are joined together to form a compound word, then a hyphen is definitely needed. But the style guides have taken up another view and have suggested removing the hyphen from the word due to its usage. But don’t you need to use a hyphen for the word electronic? According to Grammarly, both the spellings are correct and it only depends on how you want it to appear online.
3. Capitalizing and Pluralizing common online terms:
When you write blogs, you will encounter some of the most common internet languages that will make you unsure about their capitalization. For example, words like keyword, blog, website, and data are known as common nouns. You can use them as a lowercase letter, but you must capitalize on them when they are mentioned at the beginning of the sentence or when they are a part of a compound noun.
Also Read: The Classic Rules Of Link-Building: Your Guide To Success
If you think you can abbreviate “The United States of America” using periods like the U.S.A., you might think it will be natural to use the acronym for search engine optimization. Honestly, don’t do that, as style spaces or periods can only be used for abbreviation when they are proper names, for example, J.K Rowling, P.T. Barnum, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc.
4. How to capitalize the Brand Names:
Source: handlebranding
You are writing a particular blog and in it, you wish to mention a brand. But when it comes to capitalizing it, there is a way you can do so. You will encounter several websites where the brand name is written in lowercase letters and even the brand’s website URL also uses lowercase letters.
To capitalize on the brand name, all you need to do is scroll to the bottom of the brand’s website, where you find the company’s copyright sign. Next to it, you find the correct “capitalized” name of the brand.
Parting Thoughts!
Capitalization is an important technique that you must follow when you are writing content for an online platform. You need to be extra careful so that you do not create any grammar errors. You can take the help of blogs and articles written by industry professionals and see how they capitalize and spell words. So, here’s wishing you good luck!
