Forum Discussion
Question on capitalization.
Are there special rules, or best practices for capitalization and eLearning? I know this sounds like elementary school, but this topic came up in a recent project discussion. Here's my take on when ...
I agree with Rachel. The number one thing is to be consistent. I know a lot of people in the US use the Asssociated Press Stylebook as a basic guide, and I reference it all the time. I've then created my own supplements to it of terms and usage that is more specific to my company's line of business.
One thing I do notice about capitalization is that it's frequently overused. Sponsors and SMEs often have a tendency to want to capitalize words that really shouldn't be. I see this especially around job titles. For example, " The Portfolio Manager met with the Trader," as opposed to "The portfolio manager met with the trader." (The second example is the proper usage.) If you aren't careful you can end up with too much capitalization.
There is something called "Title Case" that I generally use for titles and headings. Title case is basically capitalizing the nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs, but not articles, conjunctions and prepositions. For example: "The Patriots Won the Superbowl on a Cool and Cloudy Day." I would avoid capitalizing every word: "The Patriots Won The Superbowl On A Cool..."
Anyway, my slightly more than 2-cents' worth.
