When you write about or to a governmental agency, do you wonder when to capitalize? Here are some simple rules to help you.

Rule: When you use the complete names of departments, capitalize. You may also capitalize a shortened form of a department. Do not capitalize when these words are used as adjectives or generically.

Examples:
the United Nations General Assembly
the General Assembly
Congress
a congressional committee

Rule: Capitalize civil titles only when used with the name following or when used in place of a name.

Examples:
Councilman Harris
the councilman
President Obama
the president

Rule: If you are working on government documents or you are representing a government agency, then you may capitalize words like City, County, and District.

Example: The County will implement the plan approved by the voters last June.

Rule: When you refer back to a proper noun using a shortened version of the original name, you may capitalize it.

Example: The District Water Plan allocates… The Plan calls for…

Example: The Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken the case. The Bureau has sent out a bulletin to other federal departments to enlist their help in capturing the fugitive.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 2:18 am and is filed under Capitalization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.