Earth Science

07. Formatting - capitals

A. The following words should always be capitalised:

• the first word of every sentence
• the personal pronoun ‘I’
• proper nouns (individuals' names, place names, planets, mountain ranges, oceans, languages, days of the week, months of the year, brand names) - remember that Earth should be capitalised when referring to the planet, but lower case 'earth' when referring to the soil.
• Roman numerals, e.g. XIV, IV, MCLXVI
• Geological periods (Precambrian, Archaean, etc.)

N.B. we do not use a capital letter after a colon, unless the word would need a capital letter in any context, e.g. a proper name - Precambrian, Earth.

B. Specific, allocated names should be capitalised when things or creatures are being referred to by that specific, unique name, otherwise use lower case. This can be complicated so let's look at examples:

• the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but the ridge
• the Great Rift Valley, but the rift valley or rift valleys
• the Somali subplate, but the subplate or subplates
• the Atlantic Ocean, but the ocean or oceans
• Professor Brainstorm, but the professor
• South America, but the southern American states

C. With scientific taxonomic classifications, everything above a species is capitalised: Tip: a quick google will often tell you whether you're dealing with a genus or a species.

• Homo sapiens (Homo, which is the genus, is capitalised; sapiens, which is the species, is not capitalised)
• the phylum Arthropoda (phylum, which is the species, is not capitalised; Arthropoda, which is the genus, is capitalised)

D. A general name is not capitalised.

• humans, NOT Humans
• dogs, NOT Dogs
• fish, NOT Fish
  

Task	Task Type	Difficulty
Task 1	Word click	Easier
Task 2	Word click	Moderate
Task 3	Word click	Easier
Task 4	Word click	Moderate
Task 5	Word click	Moderate
Task 6	Word click	More Challenging
Task 7	Word click	Moderate