UNIVERSIDAD TECNOLGICA DE LA RIVIERA MAYA

Organismo PbIico DescentraIizado deI Gobierno deI Estado de Quintana Roo

INGLISH IV

CAPITAL LETTERS AND
PUNCTUATION RULES

PROFESOR
LIC. CLAUDIA PLATAS

ALUMNO
MARIBEL HERNNDEZ VELASCO

GRUPO
LT102

PLAYA DEL CARMEN OCTUBR 2011
CapitaI Letters
Capital letters are not really an aspect of punctuation, but it is c convenient to deal
with them here. The rules for using them are mostly very simple.
1) The first word of a sentence, or of a fragment, begins with a capital letter.
2) The names of the days of the week, and of the months of the year, are written
with a capital letter.
3) The names of languages are always written with a capital letter. Be careful
about this; it's a very common mistake.
4) Words that express a connection with a particular place must be capitalized
when they have their literal meanings. So, for example, French must be
capitalized when it means `having to do with France.
5) n the same vein, words that identify nationalities or ethnic groups must be
capitalized:
6) Formerly, the words black and white, when applied to human beings, were
never capitalized. Nowadays, however, many people prefer to capitalize them
because they regard these words as ethnic labels comparable
to Chinese or ndian.
7) Proper names are always capitalized. A proper name is a name or a title that
refers to an individual person, an individual place, an individual institution or an
individual event. Here are some examples.
8) The names of distinctive historical periods are capitalized.
9) The names of festivals and holy days are capitalized.
10) Many religious terms are capitalized, including the names of religions and of
their followers, the names or titles of divine beings, the titles of certain important
figures, the names of important events and the names of sacred books.
11) n the title or name of a book, a play, a poem, a film, a magazine, a newspaper
or a piece of music, a capital letter is used for the first word and for every
significant word (that is, a little word like the, of, and or in is not capitalized
unless it is the first word.
12) The first word of a direct quotation, repeating someone else's exact words, is
always capitalized if the quotation is a complete sentence:
13) The brand names of manufacturers and their products are capitalized:
14) Roman numerals are usually capitalized:
15) The pronoun is always capitalized.
Capital letters are also used in writing certain abbreviations and related types of
words, including the abbreviated names of organizations and companies, and
in letter writing and in the headings of essays.

Punctuation RuIes
A Dash is a Strong Comma
Essentially, a dash is used for many of the same purposes as a comma. However,
since it is more emphatic then a comma, a dash should only be used to add extra
emphasis to an important piece of information.
A dash can be used to draw attention to the last item in a list.
For his birthday, Mark received a sweater, a jacket, a savings bond - and a new
bike! A dash can also be used to set off an initial position free modifier that begins
with the word "these."

A Semicolon is used for Equal Emphasis
n a compound sentence that has no coordinating conjunction, a semicolon joins
related independent clauses that are of equal importance.
A semicolon can also be used before a conjunctive adverb used to join the two
clauses in a compound sentence.

Parentheses Show Related, Nonessential Elements
Parentheses can be used to show elements in a sentence that are related, yet not
necessary to understand the meaning of the sentence. Parentheses can be
replaced by commas in most cases, although the use of parentheses tends to de-
emphasize a particular piece of information.

Additional Punctuation Guidelines
f you are looking for more help with basic punctuation rules, check out the
following online resources:

Punctuation Made Simple
Brief Overview of Punctuation: Semicolon, Colon, Parenthesis, Dash, Quotation
Marks, and talics.

Commas
To avoid confusion, use commas to separate words and word groups with a series
of three or more.