Rules Project 4: Helpful Grammar Memes

Some grammar memes are here to give us a helping hand. They want us to know how bad our statements can come across if not given the proper punctuation or spelling or capitalization.

I don't think we always remember how important capitalization can be some times. I know I when writing something fast to my friends will just asume they know what I mean. However, this particular meme puts the importance of capitalization in perspective. I apologize in advance for the slight raunchiness.

How many people reading this may have easily texted uncle jack instead of Uncle Jack? Of course pretending for the moment that you have an Uncle Jack. Capitalization is very important and is overlooked a little bit more than realized. Here are some basic rules for when to capitalize: 

Rule 1

Capitalize the first word of a quoted sentence.  

Rule 2

Capitalize a proper noun. 

Rule 3

Capitalize a person's title when it precedes the name. Do not capitalize when the title is acting as a description following the name. 

Rule 4

Capitalize the person's title when it follows the name on the address or signature line. 

Rule 5

Capitalize the titles of high-ranking government officials when used before their names. Do not capitalize the civil title if it is used instead of the name. 

Rule 6

Capitalize any title when used as a direct address. 

Rule 7

Capitalize points of the compass only when they refer to specific regions. 

Rule 8

Always capitalize the first and last words of titles of publications regardless of their parts of speech. Capitalize other words within titles, including the short verb forms Is, Are, and Be. 

Rule 9

Capitalize federal or state when used as part of an official agency name or in government documents where these terms represent an official name. If they are being used as general terms, you may use lowercase letters. 

Rule 10

You may capitalize words such as department, bureau, and office if you have prepared your text in the following way:

Example:
The Bureau of Land Management (Bureau) has some jurisdiction over Indian lands. The Bureau is finding its administrative role to be challenging. 

Rule 11

Do not capitalize names of seasons. 

Rule 12

Capitalize the first word of a salutation and the first word of a complimentary close. 

Rule 13

Capitalize words derived from proper nouns. 

Rule 14

Capitalize the names of specific course titles. 

Rule 15

After a sentence ending with a colon, do not capitalize the first word if it begins a list. 

Rule 16

Do not capitalize when only one sentence follows a sentence ending with a colon. 

Rule 17

Capitalize when two or more sentences follow a sentence ending with a colon.  

<http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/capital.asp>

Now besides capitalization, it is also important to remember what tense you are in while you are writing.

When confusing tenses in a sentence it can make it very confusing for the reader or person listening. Just try to remember that past tense means it has already occurred, present tense means it is occurring now and that is true in the past, present, and future, and finally future tense means it is something that will occur but has not happened yet.


Some people are confused with this rule:

The rule is a little bit weird but it is necessary. Especially since the word 'weird' does not have a 'c' in it and it is an exception. But here is something to help explain this rule a little clearer for you:

Rule #1: “I before E except after C”;

This rule, designed to help us remember how to spell words such as receive and chief, seems so promising in its simplicity at first.

• achieve, believe, bier, brief, hygiene, grief, thief, friend, grieve, chief, fiend, patience, pierce, priest
• ceiling, conceive, deceive, perceive, receipt, receive, deceit, conceit

But then things get complicated: it doesn't work with words pronounced "ay" as in neighbor, freight, beige, sleigh, weight, vein, and weigh and there are many exceptions to the rule: either, neither, feint, foreign, forfeit, height, leisure, weird, seize, and seizure.

Still, the rule is relatively simple and worth remembering.

( http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/spelling.htm)

If this has made you even more confused with all the exceptions here is a little phrase to help you remember:

I hope that that will help make things a little easier to remember when to use 'i' before 'e' and when not. It is definitely one of those english rules that can be a little bit confusing with so many exceptions.