Capitalization

Let's take a beat to check in with our capital letters. Which words get capitalized? Which ones don't? The easiest confusion to point to is "north, North"--what do we use when there's choices! 

Since Yoda agrees that this important in our training as Grammar Geeks, let's chat about capitalization. :)

It's Levi-O-sa, not Levio-SA. Do it properly.

When it comes to capitalizing, what are the basics? 

In short, proper nouns get capitalized and common nouns do not:

Proper Nouns:

This is Ron. (People)

Let's go to Hoth and look at ice sculptures! (Places)

I heard the Death Star has great a great ele-vader. (Things)

Common Nouns

My dad gave me my first Star Wars tapes when I was seven. (people)

The moons around Endor are a popular hangout. (places)

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the Dark Side. (things)

What's the difference?

Proper nouns are specific people, places, and things. It's the stuff with actual names.

Ron, Hoth, and the Death Star are all names for one thing. 

Conversely, common nouns are general people, places, or things. The phrase "my dad" refers to the role, not the person. If we used it as a name (This is Dad.), then it gets capitalized. 

Same thing with "moons," which refers to the several objects around Endor. If we're referring to our moon by name, we'd write "Moon" because we named it Moon (Let's fly to the Moon!) We see this with Earth/earth, too. Capitalized "Earth" refers to the planet (its name), while "earth" refers to dirt. 

Finally, "chicken" is not capitalized because it refers to a general critter. If the chicken's name was Chicken, then we'd capitalize. 

Tricky, tricky...

Here's some of the trickier capitalization rules:

Directions

Use lowercase letters when describing a direction, but uppercase letters when referring to a specific place:

Let's run north today.

Luke lives southwest of Mos Eisley. 

North Dakota and South Carolina are both in America.

Titles

Use lowercase letters when discussing general titles (descriptors), but uppercase letters when it's an official title:

I present to you Queen Victoria of England.

During the Victorian period, Victoria was a queen and an empress. 

Ashley, the president of Earth is running for reelection.

Book Titles

According to Turabian 8th edition, capitalize the first letter of every word, except for prepositions (in, at, of, on, beside,...) and articles (the, a, an):

You should read Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing--it's amazing!