Punctuation is a system of disjunctive marks by which the eye and ear are helped to understand the sense of what is written. It is desirable to regard the subject as governed to a great extent by a few principles of common sense. The present chapter reviews those matters of capitalization and punctuation which seem to give most trouble to secondary school students.
Capitals.
1. Of course all proper nouns should begin with capital letters, and so should adjectives derived from them: examples, Russia, Russian, Jew, Jewish, Gentile, French, German. But the word christian is not always capitalized, especially if it is used vaguely as a synonym for good, righteous, etc.
2. We capitalize the words North, South, East, West, when, because we mean parts of the country, we use the article the before them. Thus, “The extreme West favors free silver.” But if we speak of direction merely, we do not capitalize: “Many people took Horace Greeley’s advice and went west.” Capitalize sections of the country, but not points of the compass.
3. Names of the seasons are not capitalized. Thus, though we write June, September, we also write spring, autumn.
4. In the salutation of a letter, the word Sir is capitalized, but not the preceding adjective unless that begins the salutation. Thus: “My dear Sir.” So in the leave-taking only the first word receives a capital. Thus: “Yours very truly.”
5. One valuable device is the use of the capital to introduce the semblance of a quotation, or what might be called a rhetorical quotation. Note: “I should answer, No.” Here the quotation No is merely rhetorical, or pretended, not real. Or this: “Let me give you a short rule for success: Trust in God and keep your powder dry.” Or this, from Longfellow: “Perhaps the greatest lesson which the lives of literary men teach us is told in a single word: Wait!”
6. In titles of books, essays, etc., the important words are capitalized. Thus: “My theme-title to-day was, A Description of a Person.”
7. Names of Deity begin with a capital, and many persons prefer to capitalize adjectives referring directly to Deity. Thus: “We crave Thy grace.” But this habit should not be carried so far as the capitalization of words like divine, omniscient, when these are not applied to Deity. Rather: “His goodness was divine.”
Written Exercise.—Copy the following, capitalizing where necessary:—