Arts Archives - Diane Hamilton

Words to Capitalize in a Title

Bloggers and other writers may experience confusion as to which words should be capitalized in a title of an article. I sometimes capitalize all words so that I do not have to look up the rules. But it is good form to learn how to write correctly. The following rules apply to capitalizing titles:

Always capitalize the first as last words of the title as well as verbs, adverbs, adjectives, nouns and pronouns.
Consistently capitalize or do not capitalize conjunctions (examples: but, for, and) or prepositions (examples: words that show a relationship between the noun/pronounce with another word – example: from, over, around, about, before, behind) with five or more letters. Older rules required no capitalization and newer rules require capitalization if words contain five letters or more. Exception: If the word is the last word or the first word in a title, then it should be capitalized.
Do not capitalize articles (example: a, an, the), prepositions (see examples above), conjunctions (see examples above) with four letters or fewer, and the particle “to” used with an infinitive (example: to do; to be). Exception: If the word is the last word or the first word in a title, then it should be capitalized.

Never have your title all in CAPITALIZED LETTERS because this is not only incorrect, it is considered yelling.

Related Articles

Nepotism: Consequences Good and Bad

Nepotism may be frowned on in some companies, but that is not to say that some very famous people have been helped by it. In Latin, nepotis means nephew. Nepotism is now more broadly defined as: When someone gives favoritism to a relative without necessarily basing it on their abilities or merit.

Accountingdegree.com had a very interesting article recently titled: 10 Famous Businesspeople Who Benefitted from Nepotism. This list contained some very recognizable last names including: Forbes, Trump, Hilfiger, Kraft and Walton. The article pointed out the hypocrisy that may exist in terms of when nepotism is considered alright. “At the blue collar level, when friends hire friends or a father expects his children to join the family business, we often believe it’s a sign of strong family values, not unethical or slimy business. But at the executive level — where millions and billions of dollars can be earned — favors are made in secret. It might be tempting to help your children or siblings get a great job, but in the public eye, it’s shameful.”

Viewshound recently wrote about whether nepotism is an unfair advantage or a sensible employment strategy. Whether it was a sensible strategy or unfair practice is something that will be debated in the current lawsuit where Murdoch News Corporation is being sued by its shareholders for buying the chairman Rupert Murdoch’s daughter’s business for $675 million. According to the Huffington Post, “The lawsuit seeks damages and a declaration the board breached their fiduciary duty to shareholders.”

Nepotism: Is it a Boon or Bane for the Organization? (brighthub.com)

How to Teach Online Classes

I’m testing doing some radio podcasts. This initial show has issues with the music in the first few seconds but it is just a test . . . Anyone interested in learning how to teach online courses may want to listen to this for helpful information though. Click on the picture to hear the podcast or click here.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf

Listen to internet radio with DianeHamilton on Blog Talk Radio

Bloggers and Social Media Junkies: 5 Tips to Improve Your Writing

Today’s Ask Dr. Diane: What are some things I can do to improve my blogging and writing skills?

The Internet has turned lot of people into writers. Bloggers and social media junkies may have great ideas to share but may lack some writing skills that could help improve the message they want to convey. I know I make a lot of mistakes when I write. I try not to, but when you blog as much as I do, it is inevitable. I never intended to be a writer. However, I found that I liked sharing information, so writing became a means to an end. When I write my books, I use a professional editor. Not all of us can be editing experts. It could be very expensive and inconvenient to have to use an editor for every blog and social media posting. However, there are some simple things that can help to improve writing skills.

1. Don’t End Sentences in Prepositions. The problem is that many people have no idea what a preposition is. Susan Thurman, author of The Only Grammar Book You’ll Ever Need, claims there is a trick to helping recognize a preposition. “Look at the last eight letters of the word preposition; they spell position. A preposition sometimes tells the position of something: in, out, under, over, above and so forth.” My seventh grade teacher suggested we think about a box. For example: in the box, over the box, and so forth. The following are the most common prepositions according to Thurman. Try to avoid ending a sentence with any of these words:

About
Above
Across
After
Against
Along
Among
Around
At
Before
Behind
Below
Beneath
Beside
Between
Beyond
But
By
Concerning
Despite
Down
During
Except
For
From
In
Inside
Into
Like
Of
Off
On
Onto
Out
Outside
Over
Past
Since
Through
Throughout
To
Toward
Under
Underneath
Until
Up
Upon
With
Within
Without

2. Learn to Spell without Spell Check. If you rely too much on a spell checker, you may find that words you meant to write are replaced with words that have entirely different meanings. I can’t count how many times that a student has sent me a note saying to “please excuse the incontinence”. It is best if you take the time to learn to spell correctly so that you don’t have to rely on a device that may change your intended meaning. The following are fifty of the most commonly misspelled words according to author Gary Provost of 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing:

Acceptable
Apology
Appetite
Architect
Assassinate
Autumn
Calendar
Changeable
Conscious
Correspondence
Criticism
Deceive
Discernible
Embarrass
Eminent
Existence
Fascinate
Grateful
Hygiene
Imaginable
Immediately
Irrelevant
Jewelry
Judgment
Lovable
Miscellaneous
Mischievous
Mortgage
Necessarily
Occasionally
Occurrence
Omission
Orchestra
Potatoes
Professor
Pseudonym
Quarrelsome
Religious
Reservoir
Rhythmic
Scissors
Syllable
Tragedy
Umbrella
Vanilla
Vengeance
Weird
Wholesome
Youthful
Zealot

3. Vary your sentence length. Some of my students like to write in either really long run-on sentences or overly short monotonous sentences. Try to vary your sentence length. Notice how the first sentence in this paragraph was longer and more complex. That was followed by a shorter more succinct sentence. It makes your writing easier to read if you vary the sentence length and mix it up a bit.

4. Ask yourself some questions once you have finished your draft. Does the initial paragraph let the reader know what your paper, blog or article is going to contain? Do you have needless repetition of ideas? Is your tone and tense consistent? Does one paragraph advance to the next in a smooth fashion? Does each of your paragraphs contain a topic sentence that conveys the thought you have developed throughout that paragraph?

5. Work on expanding your vocabulary. Rather than learning overly complicated words to express what you want to say, try varying the way that you say things by using a thesaurus. If you are talking about a house, perhaps refer to that house as a dwelling or a building in the next sentence. If you find that you are using the same word over and over, check out some alternatives words in a thesaurus to add dimension to your writing.

I know I am guilty of making some of these mistakes. Through practice, we can all improve our skills.

Writing is a Challenge, not a Chore (blogs.sitepoint.com)
How to Respond Effectively in Online Discussions (drdianehamilton.wordpress.com)
7 Deadly Sins of Blogging (fathomseo.com)

How to Respond Effectively in Online Discussions

Online college students often find that they are required to answer discussion questions in class. With the popularity of texting and the lack of formality used when writing an email, many students are lacking the necessary skills to write an appropriate posting.

Online schools often require that postings are substantive. In other words, the postings should be substantial and have sufficient content to answer questions in depth. Students may be given guidelines or a minimum word count to guide them. However, when responding to fellow students’ postings, there are usually not specific word count requirements. Therefore, it is important for students to respond in a way that is not merely showing their agreement or disagreement with what is being discussed.

A good rule of thumb is to support what the student has said with at least one sentence. That doesn’t mean the student has to agree with the statement; they just have to support the fact that the student has made their point.

Then after supporting them, the student can disagree or agree with the topic at hand. They should include several more sentences explaining their position on the topic. They could give examples and cite sources.

A good way to end the discussion would be with a question that is either addressed to the original student or one that could be addressed to the class in order to bring more participants into the discussion.

It is extremely important that students write in complete sentences, use correct grammar, check spelling and punctuate correctly. For additional help with writing skills, please check out the following links:

Can Spell Check Make Things Worse?

Top 15 Writing and Grammar Mistakes

15 Ways to Improve Writing Skills

10 Common Writing Mistakes

Can Texting Damage Writing Skills?