Mechanics

This is Unit Nine of College Composition. Unit Eight checked every mark of punctuation against its rule. This unit finishes the conventions of the page: capital letters, the titles of works, spelling, formatting, and the final proofreading pass that comes after everything else is done. Carry one idea through this lecture. Mechanical errors rarely change an argument, and spell-checkers miss many of them, yet together they cost a writer credibility with a careful reader. A worked example at the end proofreads a short passage in which every error would pass a spell-checker. By the end you will be able to capitalize proper nouns, titles and words after a colon. To italicize or quote titles correctly. To proofread beyond the spell-checker. And to follow formatting conventions, including in citations.

Four entries on capital letters: the first word of a sentence, proper nouns and adjectives, titles that come before a name, the titles of works, and capitals after a colon.

Sentences and proper nouns.

CMP 0201 Capital Letters

Two kinds of words always take a capital letter: the first word of every sentence, and every proper noun or proper adjective. Proper nouns name specific people, places, days, holidays, institutions and documents, such as Monday, New Orleans and the Department of Education. Proper adjectives are formed from them, such as Italian or Freudian. When you are unsure whether a word is proper, check a dictionary rather than guessing.

Titles before a name.

CMP 0202 Proper Nouns and Adjectives

A title takes a capital when it comes directly before a person's name, and not when the same word describes the person. Senator Tammy Baldwin takes a capital; Tammy Baldwin, a senator from Wisconsin, does not. The same holds for Doctor Atul Gawande and Atul Gawande, a doctor. General words such as university or department take capitals only as part of a specific name.

Titles and subtitles.

CMP 0203 Capitalization in Titles

In the titles and subtitles of works, capitalize the first word, the last word, and every important word in between. Articles, coordinating conjunctions and prepositions stay lowercase unless they come first or last, as in Judas and the Black Messiah. Some styles capitalize titles differently; APA, for one, does so in its reference list. Follow the style your paper uses.

After a colon.

CMP 0204 Capitals After a Colon

After a colon, the Handbook's style uses a capital letter when a complete sentence follows, and lowercase when it does not. The sign said one word: closed, stays lowercase. The sign gave the reason: The theater had been sold, takes a capital, because a full sentence follows. Styles differ on this point, so whichever one you use, use it throughout the paper.

One entry on titles: which take italics and which take quotation marks.

Long works and short ones.

CMP 0205 Titles: Italics or Quotation Marks

Titles follow one test: does the work stand alone, or is it part of something larger? Long works published on their own are italicized: books, films, periodicals, albums and websites. Shorter works that appear within larger ones go in quotation marks: articles, short stories, short poems, songs, episodes and chapters. A chapter title goes in quotation marks; the book it belongs to is italicized.

Five entries on the final checks: spelling and the limits of the spell-checker, proofreading strategies, formatting, mechanics in citations, and a worked example. The opening idea is paid off at the last.

What the spell-checker misses.

CMP 0208 Spelling and the Spell-Checker

A spell-checker catches misspelled words, but it misses words that are spelled correctly and used wrongly. It accepts their for there, affect for effect, and form for from, because each is a real word. So treat the spell-checker as a first pass only. Commonly confused words, which unit ten covers, need your own eye.

A deliberate final read.

CMP 0209 Proofreading Strategies

Proofreading is the final read for small details, and deliberate strategies make it far more effective. Wait until revision and editing are done. Read slowly and aloud, so your ear catches missing words. Use the find function to search for your habitual errors, such as it's and their. Check names, numbers and quotations against their sources, and formatting against the style guide. Proofread on paper or after a break. Proofreading cannot fix a weak argument; if you find yourself rewriting paragraphs, the draft needed more revision first.

Layout a style guide requires.

CMP 0210 Formatting Conventions

Formatting means following the layout a style guide requires: margins, spacing, headers, titles and the list of sources. MLA papers, for example, use a running header with the writer's name and the page number, while APA papers use a title page and headings. Instructors may modify a style guide, and when they do, their instructions come first.

Mechanics carried into citations.

CMP 0211 Mechanics in Citations

The rules for capitals, and for italics or quotation marks, carry into citations, where each style has its own version. The Handbook's examples follow MLA style, while APA and Chicago treat some title capitalization differently, as units twenty-five through twenty-seven show. Mixing styles within one list of sources is a common error, and an easy one for readers to see.

A passage, proofread.

CMP 0212 A Proofreading Pass

A worked example, constructed for this course, pays off the opening idea. A passage about a historian's book has errors of three kinds. First, capitals. The book title, The Long Road Home, needs capitals on its important words. Historian, used before the name only as a description, should be lowercase. The Great Migration names a specific historical movement, and the Chicago Defender names a specific newspaper, so both take capitals. Second, title format. The book and the newspaper stand alone, so they are italicized; the chapter, Arrivals, is part of a larger work, so quotation marks are right; and the novel Jazz stands alone, so it is italicized rather than quoted. Third, words the spell-checker accepts: effects should be affects, since the argument influences how we read. A final read aloud confirms that nothing else snags. Every error would pass a spell-checker, none changes the argument, and together they would cost the writer credibility. If proofreading turns up a problem with the claim or the evidence, note it and return to revision rather than patching it in the final read.

Look at what you can now do. You can capitalize the start of sentences, proper nouns and adjectives, titles that come before a name, and the important words in titles. You can decide whether a title is italicized or placed in quotation marks by asking whether the work stands alone. You can proofread beyond the spell-checker, reading aloud and searching for your own habitual errors. And you can follow a style guide's formatting, put your instructor's requirements first, and keep one style through a whole list of sources. You can also run a final proofreading pass that fixes mechanics without rewriting the argument. Unit Ten closes the conventions with words: diction, connotation, commonly confused words and inclusive language.