In my journalism and technical writing classes I learned there are two accepted styles for capitalization: An "up" style and a "down" style. In the "up" style you would capitalize river, lake, stream, county, etc. if it's part of the proper name, e.g., Penobscot River, Penobscot County. Many "up" style adherents would also capitalize the proper names of species, e.g., Mule Deer.
In the "down" style you would be very stingy with capitalizations. So you would write Narraguagus river and mule deer. And then ornithologists have a policy of always capitalizing bird species names, but since I always write in the "down" style I tend to ignore that policy for the sake of consistency, e.g., Canada geese and pileated woodpecker. Some newspapers write in the "down" style but most in the "up" style -- and as you've probably noted, MSWord spellcheck keeps nagging you to use the "up" style. You can also mix styles, e.g., write about Atlantic salmon in the Penobscot River. That's part of the frustration (or beauty) of writing -- it's an art and not a science. Warren W. Aney Senior Wildlife Ecologist 9403 SW 74th Ave Tigard, OR 97223 (503) 246-8613 phone (503) 246-2605 fax (503) 539-1009 mobile [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Cooperman Sent: Wednesday, 30 September, 2009 11:19 To: [email protected] Subject: [ECOLOG-L] to Capitalize or not to capitalize In the following statement: ....the Narraguagus and Penobscot rivers....should the word "rivers" be capitalized? I have my opinion, but in the spirit of not biasing responses I'll keep it to myself; my office as a whole is split 50/50. One way or the other, half the people in my office are wrong! Michael -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Michael Cooperman, PhD National Research Council - Research Fellow in residence at NOAA-Fisheries, NE Fisheries Science Center - Maine Field Station Atlantic Salmon Research and Conservation Task 17 Godfrey DR., Suite 1 Orono, ME 04473 (work) 207-866-7409 (cell) 207-974-9846 (fax) 207-866-7342 (pls call before faxing) email: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------
