10 Simple Ways for Writers to Improve Copy

By Vladimir Ostapowicz

As a linguist, former teacher and tech writer, Vlad made it his business to understand the English language. Having seen grammatical and mechanical errors people make in their writing, he chose 10 of the most common mistakes and wrote a guide on how to correct them.

 

Most confusing to people are apostrophes with singular & plural possessive pronouns, regular/irregular plural nouns, and proper nouns. Other concerns are comma splices and run on sentences. The use of periods, Oxford commas, and rules to capitalize are covered. Numbering properly has a purpose and requires a consistent style.

 

The book's content is well researched and has many source notes included. The layout is simple and right to the point. If you're pressed for time, open the table of contents, find your topic, fix it, and get on with your writing.

 

Note: This book is only for American use as British English has their own rules.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vladimir Ostapowicz
• Release date: Sep 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201055073

Book preview

1. Capitalization

Capitalization in sentences

Capitalize the first letter of proper nouns, but do not capitalize the first letter of common nouns.

Capitalize the first letter of the first word of sentences, quotations, and items in a list.

Capitalize days of weeks, months, and holidays.

Capitalize historical events, periods, and documents: Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta, Middle Ages.

Capitalize organizations and members of organizations: Greek Orthodox Church,

U.S. Senate, Chicago Public Library; Republicans, Girls Scouts, Buddhists.

Capitalize names of races, ethnic groups, and languages: American-Indian, Chinese, Russian.

Capitalize names of religions, religious figures and holidays, and sacred books: the Bible, Buddha, All Saints’ Day, Lutheran.

Capitalize registered trademarks: Buick, Hide-A-Way Clothes Bar, Panasonic.

Capitalize specific places and geographical areas: the Far East, Colorado River, the Midwest.

Capitalize stars, constellations, and planets, but not earth, sun, or moon, unless they’re used as astronomical names.

Capitalize titles of persons only when they precede proper names: Congressman Ron Paul, Professor Alan Kaye (contrasted with: Ron Paul is a congressman; Dr. Alan Kaye was my professor).

Capitalize the first letter of the geological names of eras and periods.

Capitalize species using the binomial nomenclature system. The genus name is always capitalized (e.g., Homo). The specific epithet is never capitalized (e.g., sapiens).

A) Homo sapiens:

http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWlatin.html

B) Panthera tigris:

https://byjus.com/biology/binomial-nomenclature/

Capitalization of titles

Capitalization of titles include creative works such titles of songs, an article, book, journal, government bulletin, pamphlet, and other documents. For consistency, style guides are recommended.

If a style guide isn’t available, the following ways to capitalize are generally acceptable:

Capitalize the title of a video, book, song, parts of books as the author(s) intended.

Unless they appear as the first word, do not capitalize articles (a, an, and the), coordinate conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet), or short prepositions (to, of,...etc.) .