Make sure to capitalize all proper nouns.– Proper nouns are specific people, places, brands, days and months, holidays,
and origins. Example: John, Ms. Swanson, President Obama
Example: Turkey, Piazza, New York City, Harvard University
Example: Prada, Ford, Pegasus, National Geographic
Example: Sunday, March, Wednesday, December
Example: Ramadan, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Halloween
Example: Turkish, Spanish, English, French
Capitalize the first word of each sentence.
Capitalize the words in a title (except prepositions).
Example: The Life of a Man, A Piece of Heaven
Use Proper Capitalization
• Use commas correctly.– Example: I need milk, honey, and sugar. We will go to the mall, but we
will not buy anything. However, there are many sales.
• Use ending punctuation correctly.– Smoking is bad for one’s health. (Declarative Sentence)
– Close the door. (Imperative Sentence)
– What happened in Turkey yesterday? (Interrogative Sentence)
– What a beautiful dress you have! (Exclamatory Sentence)
Use Correct Punctuation
• Before you start writing, get your thoughts together. Brainstorm and/or outline what you want to say. That way, your paper will likely flow more smoothly and clearly, not to mention receiving a higher grade.
Organize Your Ideas
• For informal writing, or personal essays and paragraphs, using the words “I”, “my”, “me”, “our”, “we”, “us”, “mine”, and “ours” are acceptable.
• HOWEVER, in academic writing, these words weaken your paper. You should avoid using 1st person language.
Be Careful about “I” Language