Grammar Crash Course Journalism I

Capitalization First Word in Sentence Proper Nouns – the Golden Gate Bridge Months of the Year – February Days of the Week – Monday Holidays – Valentine’s Day

Capitalization Races – African American Religions – Buddhism Landmarks – the Statue of Liberty Organizations – Department of Agriculture Seasons – Summer

Capitalization In Journalism, we will capitalize all the important words in a headline. – Example – Target: Now Target for False Advertising – Example – Chapel Hill: Three Dead Students, One Unexplained Crime

Titles: To Underline or Italicize? Use quotation marks around the titles of books, songs, television shows, computer games, poems, lectures, speeches and works of art. – Example - Porter Shreve read from his new book, “When the White House Was Ours.” – Example - They sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the game. Do not use quotations around the names of magazine, newspapers, the Bible, or books that are catalogues of reference materials. – Example - The Washington Post first reported the story – Example - He reads the Bible every morning. We will not underline or italicize anything.

Abbreviations If possible, shorten obvious words to their abbreviations. – Examples – NC, SC Use numbers instead of writing out the whole word, except when used at the beginning of a sentence. – Example – He was in his 20s. – Example – Five actors took to the stage. – Example – It started at 8 pm.

Punctuation Marks Period – Used at the end of a command and with abbreviations (. ) Exclamation Mark - Used at the end of declaration, interjection, or command ( ! ) Question Mark – Used at the end of a direct question ( ? )

Punctuation Marks Ellipsis – Used to omit words (... ) Colon – Used before a list or explanation that is preceded by a stand alone clause ( : ) Apostrophe – Used to create possessive forms, contractions, and rarely, plurals ( ‘ )

Punctuation Marks Semicolon – Used to join two independent clauses ( ; ) – Example - I ; I Comma – Used to join two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction (, ) – Example – I, cc I

Punctuation Marks Comma – Used to separate elements in a series, set off introductory elements, and interjections (, ) – In Journalism, we will not use the Oxford comma, which is the last comma used in a series of three.

Plurals Regular Nouns – Add –s – boat, boats Nouns Ending in s, x, z, ch, sh – Add –es – wish, wishes Nouns Ending in a Consonant and y – Drop the y and add –ies – penny, pennies

Plurals Irregular Nouns – deer, deer – fungus, fungi – child, children – man, men – knife, knives – potato, potatoes