Capitalization
See Capitalization (Word List) below for capitalization or non-capitalization of specific terms.
Titles and Titles of office
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- Japan Harvest uses sentence case for article titles. Therefore only the first word and proper nouns have initial capitals.
- Titles that immediately precede a personal name, such as civil, military, religious, and professional titles, are capitalized. They are not generally capitalized if they come after a person’s name or if there is a “the” before the title. (see http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/capitalization/capitalization-of-job-titles.html).
e.g. General McArthur, Reverend Sasaki
Note: with titles that are abbreviations or contractions, AmE and BrE follow different rules. See sections on abbreviations and contractions.
e.g. Mr./Mrs. (AmE), Mr/Mrs (BrE)
3. Titles used after a personal name, alone, or in place of a name should be in lower case, with rare exceptions. (Japanese status- or position-identifying suffixes should be treated as separate, capitalized words. See Romanization of Japanese terms > Names, Personal – suffixes)
e.g. the emperor; the president; Mr. Koizumi, the former prime minister; Sasaki-san, Sasaki Sensei.
4. Titles in institutions other than church and state are not regularly capitalized.
e.g. the president of JEMA, the managing editor of Japan Harvest, chairman of the board
Kinship names
1. A kinship name is in lowercase when it is not followed by a given name.
e.g. his father, my brothers and sisters, Uncle Bryan, Aunt Jan/Aunty Jan (BrE), Ford is my mother’s maiden name, Ask Dad to give you a bite of his.
2. Capitalize a kinship name in direct address or when you substitute the term for a personal name.
e.g. Don’t go near the water, Son. Did you sell your house yet, Auntie? Cheryl and Cindy are his youngest aunts.
Political divisions
Capitalize words designating political divisions of the world, a country, state, city, and similar entities when they follow the name or when they are an accepted or official part of the name.
e.g. Roman Empire, but the empire; Washington State, but the state of Washington
Organizations
- Capitalize names of organizations and institutions when they are set out in full. Don’t capitalize the small function words linking the words (prepositions, articles, conjunctions) unless they are at the beginning.
e.g. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Korean Missionary Association in Japan
2. Don’t capitalize words denoting political or organizational systems or offices unless they are part of a proper noun
e.g. democracy, party, mission
Geographical Locations or Proper Names
- Geographical names and designations are capitalized whenever they appear in full. Special buildings and public structures are also capitalized when they are written in full. Small functional, linking words are not capitalized.
e.g. Snowy Mountains, Chiba Ken, Tokyo Tower, Statue of Liberty, Aomori Prefecture, Tohoku Prefecture
2. Compass directions are capitalized when abbreviated, but lower case when written in full.
e.g. S, SW, SSW; south, southwest, south-southwest.
3. Unique historical events and periods are capitalized if they are the standard designation.
e.g. the Bronze Age; the Reformation; an industrial revolution, but the Industrial Revolution; a gold rush, but the California Gold Rush of 1849.
Holidays/Seasons
- The four seasons are lowercase unless they are personified.
e.g. We welcomed the arrival of spring; Then Winter—with her icy blasts—subsided.
2. Capitalize the names of religious holidays and seasons.
3. Capitalize secular holidays and other specially designated days.
Religious Terms
- Proper nouns and titles: Capitalize if used as a proper noun or title. Don’t capitalize if used generically (other gods).
e.g. God, Adonai, the Savior.
Note: The word gospel is to be rendered lowercased in all contexts and for all uses except when used as an actual title.
e.g.
gospel music
gospel revival
gospel tent
the gospel writer
the gospel of Christ
the true gospel
the gospel of salvation
to preach the gospel
John’s gospel
gospel of John
The Gospel According to Peanuts
the Gospels
the four gospels
the Synoptic Gospels
2. Divine pronouns: Japan Harvest prefers as a general practice not to capitalize divine pronouns, but will allow writers to capitalize divine pronouns if that is their personal conviction. However, our editors retain the right to edit for consistency and context. (For an extensive discussion on both the history of divine pronoun capitalization in English and on current considerations relating to that practice, see The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style. Neither Hebrew nor Greek distinguishes between capital and lowercase letters the way English does, so a particular position cannot be supported from the biblical languages.)
Note: Most publishers of copyrighted Bible translations in English will not grant permission to quote if the deity-pronoun style is to be changed. If deity pronouns must be capitalized in a Bible quote, current possible copyrighted options are the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and the New King James Version (NKJV).
3. Specific places in Scripture are normally capitalized, however, heaven, hell, and, hades are to be in lower case.
4. For guidance in the standard capitalization of religious terms, Japan Harvest editors will refer to The Little Style Guide to Great Christian Writing and Publishing and The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style, which each give long lists of religious terms.
Lists
List items are initial-capped (oreilly.com)
Titles
Capitalization of titles of publications and creative works varies from publication to publication. Japan Harvest will capitalize all the nouns and adjectives.
Capitalization (Word List)
For religious terms, our primary reference is The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style, 4th edition (Hudson). For quick reference to terms that seem to come up repeatedly, see below. To suggest terms to add to this list, contact the japanharvest.org website administrator.
email
gospel (Gospel only when referring to one of the four Gospels or “the Gospels” as a group)
internet (CMOS, 2017; AP Stylebook, 2016)
website