backMind the cap

I call it Capital Wars. That’s those endless arguments that happen in organisations over whether a word gets a capital letter or not. Like all style skirmishes, it wastes a lot of time and thought that would be best applied to the substance, not the form of the writing.

Here’s a few quick tips on using capitals in modern business writing. The caveat is that if your workplace has a style guide, it trumps anything I say here.

• In general, reduce the number of capitals you use – it helps reading flow and is a more modern look.
• Capitalise full names of things; lower case their parts. The Bird Fanciers’ Society, but the society, or bird, or fanciers – come to that.
• Capitalise brand names; lower case generic terms. Weetbix gets a cap; cornflakes doesn’t. The same goes for capital expenditure, resource consent, the board and the bank.
• Capitalise titles when they come immediately before a name, but if they wander off somewhere else in the sentence, use lower case. Chief Executive Harry Topp spoke to the human resources manager.
• AND WE ALL KNOW THAT BLOCK CAPS SHOUT, AND PEOPLE FIND THEM HARDER TO READ SO THEY ARE NOT A GOOD IDEA FOR CLEAR BUSINESS WRITING.