The new rules of CaPiTaLiZaTiOn

The rules for capitalizing letters are totally arbitrary. So I wrote new rules.

A man and a capital A.
(Image credit: Illustrated | robodread/iStock)

I'm declaring a Free-For-All on capitalization. Capitalize However You Want, as long as you can give a Good Reason for it.

Don't shoot the messenger. It's just what we're already doing. The rules for capitalization in English have always been shaky and inconsistent, there is no rule that doesn't have some exceptions, and we've been going nuts with it for decades. We might as well admit it and claim the full potential of having two versions of each letter, one normal and one BIG.

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James Harbeck

James Harbeck is a professional word taster and sentence sommelier (an editor trained in linguistics). He is the author of the blog Sesquiotica and the book Songs of Love and Grammar.