Watch your caps, folks. I’m seeing weird-ass shit that shouldn’t be capped. And I’m seeing things lowercased that should absolutely be capped. It’s driving me crazy because this is elementary school English. I’m not going to go over the basic rules of capitalization, because you learned that in third grade. Er, maybe I will …
- Proper nouns (also called proper names): Nouns representing unique entities (such as London, Universe, or John), as distinguished from …
- Common nouns: Nouns which describe a class of entities (such as city, well, or person).
Proper nouns are capitalized. Common nouns are not.
No: The best Hot Dogs in Chicago can be found at Hot Doug’s.
Yes: The best hot dogs in Chicago can be found at Hot Doug’s.
No: Ed says he really likes the thai food at Won Dee Siam.
Yes: Ed says he really likes the Thai food at Won Dee Siam.
Do not use chef as a title.
No: She passed the bag of Cheetos to Chef Boulud.
Yes: She passed the bag of Cheetos to Boulud.
Yes: Daniel Boulud, the celebrated French chef, enjoys eating Cheetos at the end of the night.
Yes: Jane Doe works as a sous chef at Bar Boulud, where one of her duties is preparing chef-owner Daniel Boulud’s nightly Cheetos snack.
For a list of commonly misspelled food-personality and product names, visit: People and Products
Do not abbreviate city names.
- New York City, not NYC (New York is OK, on second reference).
- Los Angeles, not LA.
- San Francisco, not SF.
Exception: Abbreviations are OK in entry tags — NYC, SF, LA
DATELINE CITIES
Certain cities are so well-known that they do not need to be accompanied by state names. They are:
- Atlanta
- Baltimore
- Boston
- Chicago
- Cincinnati
- Cleveland
- Dallas
- Denver
- Detroit
- Honolulu
- Houston
- Indianapolis
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- Milwaukee
- Minneapolis
- New Orleans
- New York
- Oklahoma City
- Philadelphia
- Phoenix
- Pittsburgh
- St. Louis
- Salt Lake City
- San Antonio
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Washington: Because Washington is a dateline city that stands alone without the “D.C.,” writers using AP style often must clarify in text when they’re referring to “Washington state.”
Serious Eats uses the serial comma—that is, the comma before the “and” in a series of words.
Peas, corn, and carrots not peas, corn and carrots
I want those apples, oranges, and pears.
I want mushrooms, onions, and sausage on my pizza.
I want to see you all using the serial comma. Your English teacher may have beaten into you that you drop the comma before the and. S/he wasn’t necessarily wrong. You can drop it or use it. I think it adds clarity to a sentence, and we should employ it.
Please use commas after both the city name and the state name when namechecking a city/state in body copy.
No: Washington D.C. hosts a respectable amount …
Yes: Washington, D.C., hosts a respectable amount …
No: Daniel Boulud got his start in Wichita Kansas as a line cook at Burger King.
No: Daniel Boulud got his start in Wichita, Kansas as a line cook at Burger King.
Yes: Daniel Boulud got his start in Wichita, Kansas, as a line cook at Burger King.
Apply the guidelines listed here to book titles, magazine titles, movie titles, opera titles, play titles, album titles, television program titles, and the titles of works of art.
- Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions of four or more letters.
- Capitalize an article — the, a, an — or words of fewer than four letters if it is the first or last word in a title.
- Italicize the names of all such works except the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material. In addition to catalogs, this category includes almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, handbooks, and similar publications.
- Translate a foreign title into English unless a work is known to the American public by its foreign name.
Please use “crisp,” not “crispy.”