A small “grammar rant” about capitalization

I truly don’t know what the hell journalism students are being taught these days, but I can tell you one thing they’re not being taught or even being required to know: a full grasp of the basic mechanics of writing.

Here’s a thing I learned back in elementary school: don’t capitalize articles (a, an, the) in titles except as the first word. Sure, I had the advantage of a fancy, expensive education, having attended public schools in Kentucky (that’s sarcasm, friends — really, really strong sarcasm), but is it so difficult for most people to learn once they’re finally exposed to the concept?

Take a look at this sentence: “This is the last place on earth I’d expect to read such nonsense.” See any errors? No? Look again. When uncapitalized, earth is a synonym for dirt or soil; if you’re referring to the planet where you live, capitalize it.

Also, some nouns are acronyms written in all capital letters: NASA, for example. Please, please stop writing it as Nasa.

On a somewhat related topic, here’s a link to an article on A Writer’s Journey, author Nat Russo’s blog. The article is “Defending Your Style vs. Being Stubborn.” (See what I did there with italics versus quotation marks? No? Oh, well…) If you’re a writer, or are thinking about being a writer, or have ever felt totally discouraged and useless because you’re an editor and sometimes it seems as if every author and their dog these days insists that grammer dont matter as long as u write all teh feelz (oh, wait — that’s me), you should read it. Nat is a nice guy and knows what he’s talking about.