🔤 Garbl's Editorial Style and Usage Guide: C–D
From capitalization through dollars.
A–B | C–D | E–L | M–O | P–R | S–Z
Introduction | Punctuation | Commonly Confused Words
C
capitalization
Rule 1. Use capital letters to begin proper nouns, sentences, headings, some abbreviations and acronyms, and the important words in composition titles. Proper nouns are the particular names of people, places, and things.
Rule 2. Do not capitalize the first letter of a word (or words in a phrase) simply to highlight it or because you or someone else thinks it’s an important word. Excessive, arbitrary capitalization distracts the reader and hinders reading.
Check this or another style manual for capitalization of a particular word or type of word. If not listed there, check your dictionary. And if still in doubt, lowercase.
Except for acronyms and some abbreviations, avoid capitalizing all the letters in a word, sentence, heading, headline, or phrase—including brand names, logos, and trademarks. For emphasis, try other typographical uses instead, such as boldfacing, italics, color, type size, and different but complementary typefaces. Also see headlines, headings; underlining.
Capitalization of abbreviations and acronyms varies. See abbreviations and acronyms entries in this style guide for specific words and terms and your dictionary. Although the abbreviation or acronym is capitalized for some common or generic nouns and terms, lowercase the spelled-out form.
Capitalize the first word of every sentence, heading, and headline, including quoted statements and direct questions. Even if a person, business, or organization begins its name with a lowercase letter, capitalize the first letter of the name at the beginning of sentences, headings, and headlines: Gary de Shazo won the design award. De Shazo expressed appreciation for the support of his colleagues. Also see composition titles.
Capitalize proper nouns that specifically name a person, place, or thing, unless a person, business, or organization requests a lowercase first letter. If a name begins with a lowercase letter, capitalize the first letter of the name at the beginning of sentences and headlines.
Capitalize common nouns such as party, river, and street when they are an integral part of the full name for a person, place, or thing: Ballinger Street, Reinhard River, Queens County, Democratic Party, Puget Sound. Lowercase those common nouns when they stand alone in later references: the party, the river, the county, the street, the sound.
Lowercase common noun elements of names in all plural uses: Democratic and Republican parties, Ackley and Messer streets, 154th and 156th avenues southeast. But don’t lowercase the common nouns when the form is not plural: Your sister can catch a bus on First or Third Avenue.
Capitalize the proper names of nationalities, peoples, races, and tribes: African American, Arab, Asian, Black, Indigenous, Jewish, Latino, Muckleshoot, Tulalip, Puyallup. Lowercase white when referring to race.
Organizations should adopt specific capitalization guidelines for their governing boards, job titles and descriptions, organizational structure, and programs, projects, and plans. For recommended capitalization guidelines, see committees, job titles and descriptions, organizational structure, and programs, projects and plans.
cents Spell out and lowercase cents using figures for amounts less than a dollar. Use the $ sign and decimal system for larger amounts: 33 cents, $2.04, $3.47. Do not use zeros if there are no cents: $8, not $8.00. Avoid using the cent symbol: ¢. But if you must use it, be careful not to use the redundant .33¢ or $.33¢. See dollars.
chapter Capitalize when used with a number to name a section of a book or legal code: Chapter 11. Lowercase when standing alone.
charts, tables Abbreviations not typically used in text are acceptable in charts and graphs because of limited space. But abbreviations must still be clear to the reader and consistently used. Capitalize the first letter of proper nouns and key words in the titles and headings. Type styles and formats used in charts should be consistent throughout a publication.
cities and towns Capitalize the names of cities and towns in all uses. Capitalize city as part of a proper name: New York City, Kansas City.
Lowercase city when used as an adjective or noun: the city budget, mayor of the city. Capitalize city when mentioning the proper name of a governmental unit: He worked for the City of Kennewick. But lowercase city—or omit the redundant city of—when naming cities in other uses: They visited the city of Edmonds. They visited Edmonds.
Lowercase general descriptions, such as north Seattle. Capitalize widely recognized names for the sections of a city: Laurelhurst, Magnolia, West Seattle, Rainier Beach, the University District.
committees On first reference, spell out and capitalize the full name of committees: the Neighborhood Action Committee. Refer to the committee (preferred) or abbreviate on later references (all caps, no periods): NAC. Lowercase committee when it stands alone: The committee voted to endorse the recommendation.
company names When using a company (or product) name, you have no obligation to help a company market itself (or its products).
For most proper names, capitalize the first letter of each word or capitalize a different letter if preferred by a company: eBay. But capitalize the first letter if it begins a sentence. Do not use all capital letters unless the letters are individually pronounced: IBM and BMW but Subway and Ikea (not SUBWAY and IKEA). Don’t use exclamation points, asterisks, and plus signs that some companies use in logos and marketing materials for their company (and product) names: Yahoo, not Yahoo!; Toys R Us, not Toys “R” Us. Unless it’s part of a company’s formal name, replace the ampersand (&) with and.
Abbreviate company, corporation, incorporated, and limited when using them after the name of a corporate entity: the Boeing Co., American Broadcasting Cos., Chevron Corp. Don’t use a comma before Inc. or Ltd. even if it’s included in the formal name. Do not abbreviate those words in business correspondence. In business correspondence, spell out those words when part of the proper name: the Boeing Company. See incorporated.
If company, companies, or corporation appears alone in second reference, spell out and lowercase the word: The company showed a loss in the third quarter.
The forms for possessives: the Boeing Co.’s profits, American Broadcasting Cos.’ profits, Chevron Corps.’ profits.
composition titles
capitalization. Capitalize the first and last and all major words in titles of books, long poems, long musical compositions, magazines, movies, newsletters, newspapers, plays, and works of art such as paintings and sculptures. Do not capitalize articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, yet, or, so), or prepositions of three or fewer letters (for, of, on, up).
italics and quotation marks. Italicize the names of such works if your publication or company software has that capability. This differs from AP style, which uses quotation marks instead of italics in news stories.
Use the same capitalization style but enclose in quotation marks the titles of shorter works: dissertations, essays, lectures, short musical compositions, short poems, short stories, songs, speeches, radio, and television programs, articles in periodicals, and book chapters.
Capitalize—but do not italicize or enclose in quotation marks—the names of brochures, bulletins, games, forms, reports, software, websites, and catalogs of reference material (such as almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, and handbooks), and the Bible, the Quran, and other holy books.
punctuation. Use a colon between a book’s title and its subtitle: Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English.
Capitalize both elements of a hyphenated compound in a title unless the second element is an article, conjunction, or short preposition: All-American Flag-Waving Techniques, Twenty-First Century Values, Long-Term Planning, Over-the-Counter Remedies. Also see magazine names, newspapers.
compound words Compound words may be written as one word, two words, or hyphenated. Consult your dictionary for the preferred form. Also see hyphen for guidance on compound nouns and modifiers, adverbs, and verbs.
county Capitalize when part of a proper name: Clark County. Capitalize the full name of county governmental units: Clark County Personnel Department.
Always lowercase county when standing alone as a noun or used as an adjective: Population is increasing in the county. The county budget is scheduled for adoption. Lowercase plural combinations: Benton and Franklin counties. See capitalization, districts, governmental bodies.
Capitalize as part of a formal title before a name: County Executive Mary Gustafson. Lowercase when it is not part of the formal title: county Utilities Director Arnold Beck.
course names and numbers Capitalize the subject when used with a numeral: Geometry 2, U.S. History 101. Lowercase subjects that aren’t proper names when used without a numeral: algebra, geography, Spanish.
A–B | C–D | E–L | M–O | P–R | S–Z
Introduction | Punctuation | Commonly Confused Words
D
dates Abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec when used with a specific date: We opened a second retreat center Feb. 11, 1994, after three months of planning. Spell out those months in correspondence. Spell out the names of months when using a month alone or with a year alone: We opened the first center in January 1994. Also, avoid using virgules (or hyphens) with numerals to give dates, especially if your readers could confuse the order of the day and month: 2/11/94, 11-16-1993.
It’s not necessary to include the year when a phrase refers to a month and day within the current year: The conference begins May 24 in Sedona, Arizona. But do include the year with dates in past or future years—set off with commas: The conference began on May 24, 2017, in Philadelphia.
When not including a specific date, do not separate the month and year with a comma. Including the year is not always necessary in documents with a limited shelf life; however, noting the month and year of publication in an inconspicuous place may be useful. Do not follow numerals used with dates by nd, rd, st, or th. See comma under Punctuation, days of the week, decades, months, time, years.
Here are examples of the preferred styles for punctuating times and dates (in correspondence, spell out the names of months):
Classes begin Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, at the high school. [Note commas after the day of the week and the year.]
Classes began Sept. 3 last year.
Classes began Tuesday in Benton County.
Classes began in September throughout the school district.
The most recent course changes took place in September 2025 in Benton County. [No commas separating the year from the month and the rest of the sentence.]
The road closure begins at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, near Silverdale. [No comma after the time but note commas after the day of the week and the year.]
The road closure begins at 10 a.m. Monday near Silverdale.
The road closure begins at 10 a.m. June 16 near Silverdale.
The road closure will run from Monday through Friday, June 16-20, except during rush hours. See dashes under Punctuation.
The road closure from May 15-19, 2025, did not disrupt rush-hour traffic.
The road closure in October 2025 did not disrupt rush-hour traffic.
days of the week Always capitalize days of the week. Do not abbreviate unless needed in a chart or table: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat (no periods). See dates.
decades Use numerals to show decades of history. Use an apostrophe to show numerals are left out. Show plural by adding the letter s (no apostrophe): the ‘50s, the 1990s, the mid-1930s.
decimals Avoid going beyond two places after the decimal point. For amounts less than 1%, put the numeral zero before the decimal point: 0.07%. See fractions.
designated days, weeks, months Capitalize all words in the name of a designated day, week, or month: Black History Month, International Women’s Day. Lowercase the time period in informal descriptions: Presidents Day weekend. See holidays, holy days.
dimensions Use numerals and spell out inches, feet, and yards to show depth, height, length, and width. Also use numerals and spell out the descriptive word for area, size, volume, and other units of measurement: 5 acres, 7 gallons. Hyphenate when used as adjectives before a noun: The fish is 8 inches long. The 6-by-7-foot room. The company is planning a 14,600-square-foot building. The stream is 3 inches below normal. Use an apostrophe to show feet and quotation marks to show inches (5’8”) in only very technical documents or charts. See dashes under Punctuation, distances.
distances Always use numerals: He biked 3 miles to work. She ran 15 miles every Saturday.
districts When mentioning congressional, council, and legislative districts, capitalize district when joined with a number: the 7th Congressional District, the 34th Legislative District, the 3rd District, City Council District 9. Lowercase district when it stands alone. Don’t spell out the numeral with districts. See legislative titles.
doctor Readers often identify Dr. with physicians. Use Dr. on first reference as a formal title before the name of a person who is a doctor of dental surgery, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatric medicine, or veterinary medicine. Drop the title before the name in later references. In academic settings or references to an academic specialty or position, Dr. may be used for people with other types of doctoral degrees. See academic degrees, titles; titles.
dollars Always lowercase. Use figures and the $ sign in all except casual references or amounts without a figure: The CD cost only $3. Dollars stopped flowing into Rhode Island. Do not include unnecessary zeros: $35, not $35.00. Beware of accidentally using the word dollars and the dollar sign with the same amount: $783 dollars. The form for amounts less than $1 million: $3, $42, $803, $4,392, $538,502. For amounts of more than $1 million, use the $ and numbers up to two decimal places; do not link the numbers and the word with a hyphen: The project will cost about $3.75 million. It is worth exactly $8,304,336. He proposed a $530 million project. See cents, money, numbers.
For specific amounts of money, use a singular verb: The task force said $348,986 is needed. For vague sums of money, use a plural verb: Millions of dollars were wasted.
A–B | C–D | E–L | M–O | P–R | S–Z
Introduction | Punctuation | Commonly Confused Words