NRaD TD1064

Writing and Editorial Guidelines

Revision 1

July 1994

Capitalization

When Not to Capitalize

If you don't have a good reason to capitalize, don't. Given a choice, use lowercase. Do not capitalize solely for emphasis.

Watch out for phony proper names; terms like naval base and bioassay should not be capitalized.

Using Capitals Correctly

1. Headings

Although format for headings may vary for special cases, NRaD's present format uses all caps for first- and second-order headings in a document. Third- and fourth-order headings in NRaD documents are set in initial caps.

2. Articles, Prepositions, and Conjunctions

Unless used as the first word, do not use initial caps for the following words in document titles, third- and fourth-order heads, formal titles of people, facilities, or programs.

Articles: a, an, the

Short prepositions: at, by, down for, in, of, on, up, to, with

Conjunctions: and, but, if, or, nor, for, yet

NOTE: Prepositions of five or more letters (e.g., between, through, within) are usually capitalized in titles.

3. Text References to Figures, Tables, and References

Except at the beginning of a sentence, do not use an initial cap for figure, table, and reference in text.

Figure 1 shows ...
The radar hole shown in figure 1...
Frequency plots (figure 1)...

4. Figure Captions and Table Titles

Use sentence style for figure captions and table titles. Capitalize the initial letter of figure or table and the initial letter of the first word of the caption or title. All other words are lowercased unless normally capitalized.

Figure 1. Camera view of the escape hatch.

Figure 2. Aerial view of the Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center.

Table 1. Specifications for test equipment.

Table 2. NRaD document organization.

5. Navy and Government Usage

Use an initial cap for Navy when it refers to the U.S. Navy.

the Navy
Navy officer

Do not use an initial cap for navy when it is standing alone or used collectively.

Many of our allies have active navies.
Do not use an initial cap for naval unless it is part of a proper name.
the naval base, the naval force

but

Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center

Use an initial cap for Fleet when it means the United States Fleet.

Atlantic Fleet
6th Fleet
The Secretary of the Navy requested funding to add more ships to the Fleet.

but

a fleet of ships

Use an initial cap for government only if used as part of a proper name or as a proper name.

The U.S. Government Printing Office
the U.S. Government

but

the cost of government
the government
government activities

6. Organizational Units

Use initial caps for formal names of departments, divisions, and branches.

Surveillance Department
Acoustic Systems and Technology Division
Acoustic Analysis Branch

Use initial caps for formal titles of persons.

The matter was referred to R. T. Shearer, Technical Director.

7. Names of Facilities

Use initial caps for formal names of facilities.

Surveillance Test and Integration Center

but

low-light-level test facility

8. Names of Programs and Projects

Use initial caps for formal names of unique programs and projects.

the Over-the-Horizon Targeting program

but

a high-efficiency dye laser program

9. Names of Weapons

Use initial caps for the full or officially abbreviated names of weapons, including parts of weapons or proposed weapons. Do not capitalize the unofficial form.

Mk 116 (Mod 7)
Torpedo Mk 46

but

Mk 46 torpedo

10. Trademarks

Use initial caps for the trade names but not for the common nouns that follow, unless they are part of the trade name itself.

Xerox machines

11. Computer Terms

For hardware, use names assigned by manufacturers.

Use all caps for programming languages formed as an acronym.

BASIC
COBOL
FORTRAN

but

Ada
Pascal
(These are not acronyms, but actual names.)

12. Scientific Names of Genera

When a Latin name is given for plants and animals, the genus name has an initial cap; the species name is lowercased.

Tursiops truncatus
Populus tremuloides
(For further information, see section on Italics.)

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Last update on 2/7/95