Editing 101

Treat Abbreviations, Capitalization, and Titles Consistently

Titles of works

When citing the title of a book, magazine, CD, or other composition, consider these two things.

When citing the title of a book, magazine, CD, or other composition, consider two things:

  • Visual treatment. Some titles take quotation marks or italics (for Web copy, we recommend quotation marks); some titles don’t require any special treatment.
  • Capitalization style. Titles are often set in title case.

Visual treatment of titles of works

The visual treatment of titles—whether or not to enclose them in quotation marks (or to display them in italics, if that is your style choice)—depends on the type of work and the location of the title on the page.

Titles that don’t need quotation marks or italics

The following titles require no special visual treatment.

Website names and addresses

Website names and addresses (URLs) don’t require any special visual treatment in running text—no quotation marks or italics, for example—but URLs in particular need to be treated with care so that the reader can find the site.

Website names and addresses (URLs) don’t require any special visual treatment in running text—no quotation marks or italics, for example—but URLs in particular need to be treated with care so that the reader can find the site.

Website names

Follow these guidelines for referring to the name of a website in copy:

Acronyms and other abbreviations

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Depending on the abbreviation, it may be written in uppercase, lowercase, or a combination of upper- and lowercase letters. It may or may not include one or more periods.

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Depending on the abbreviation, it may be written in uppercase (ID), lowercase (tsp.), or a combination of upper- and lowercase letters (Mrs.). It may or may not include one or more periods.

An acronym is a specific type of abbreviation. Acronyms are formed from the first letter or letters of the words in a name or phrase, sometimes producing a pronounceable word (AIDS, NATO, NASA, JAMA), and sometimes not (ATM, CEO). In the United States, acronyms are usually set in all capital letters.

Sometimes an acronym will enter the language as a word with its own meaning, such as scuba, from self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.

Capitalization

The three main styles of capitalization used online and in email are sentence case, title case, and all uppercase.

The three main styles of capitalization used online and in email are sentence case (The story of my life), title case (The Story of My Life), and all uppercase (THE STORY OF MY LIFE). All uppercase is commonly called all caps.

Whichever style of capitalization you choose for your site, perhaps the most important consideration is to use the style correctly and consistently across the site, to ensure a coherent, deliberate look and feel. You may even decide to use more than one style of capitalization. For instance, you could use one style for article titles, one for subheadings within articles, and one for tab labels. This decision can work beautifully as long as each type of heading is consistently capitalized in one style.

Company and product names

Within reason, follow an organization’s conventions for how it capitalizes and punctuates its names. Many organizations incorporate intercaps, or capital letters in the middle of the name. Other organizations, Yahoo! included, incorporate punctuation characters in their names.

Within reason, follow an organization’s conventions for how it capitalizes and punctuates its names. Many organizations (for example, FedEx) incorporate intercaps, or capital letters in the middle of the name. Other organizations, Yahoo! included, incorporate punctuation characters in their names.

With brand names used in text in a noncommercial context, you may have some leeway with how faithfully you need to reproduce an organization’s trademarked name. For example, you probably don’t need to write product or company names in all uppercase (unless they’re acronyms, like UPS), or use complicated graphic symbols in a name.

TIP

Email addresses and fields

Email addresses are typically written in all lowercase. But if you have an address with capital letters in the first part of the address (the part before the @ symbol), retain those capital letters. This part of the address is unlikely to ever be case-sensitive, but a remote potential exists for Internet service providers to enforce case-sensitive addresses.

Email addresses are typically written in all lowercase. But if you have an address with capital letters in the first part of the address (the part before the @ symbol), retain those capital letters. This part of the address is unlikely to ever be case-sensitive, but a remote potential exists for Internet service providers to enforce case-sensitive addresses.

The second part of the address (the part after @, the domain name) is not case-sensitive. It is safe to write the domain-name part in all lowercase.

Email addresses are easy to recognize with no special visual treatment—no need for quotation marks or italics.

File names, types, and extensions

When referring to file names and file types, use these guidelines.

When referring to file names and file types, use these guidelines:

Place names

Avoid confusion by using the correct capitalization and punctuation for compass directions, cities, states, and regions.

Avoid confusion by using the correct capitalization and punctuation for compass directions, cities, states, and regions.

Compass directions

For simple compass directions, use lowercase: north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, northern, southern, eastern, western.

Examples
Clouds cover western Utah, but sun is expected in areas to the east.
We traveled north by train from Bangkok, then headed for the northwestern region around Pai.

Titles of people

Capitalize a person’s title only when it’s used directly before a name. This rule includes titles pertaining to government positions, religious positions, and other organizational positions.

Capitalize a person’s title only when it’s used directly before a name. This rule includes titles pertaining to government positions (like president, senator, mayor, ambassador, chief justice), religious positions (like pope, cardinal, rabbi), and other organizational positions (like chair, treasurer, general manager).

Examples
She was appointed ambassador to the United Nations by President Obama.
The president returned to the Oval Office to greet the pope.
Pope Benedict XVI succeeded Pope John Paul II.
The school was treated to a visit by former President Jimmy Carter.
Shan Chu was named general manager of the Chicago region.
General Manager Shan Chu began her career in the mailroom.