An individual subscription is only A$60 per year
Group and student discounts may apply
Australian manual of scientific style Start communicating effectively
Capital letters
Capital letters are used to give prominence to particular kinds of words. They are used:
- to mark the start of a sentence
- to identify proper nouns and proper names
- to identify common nouns that refer to distinctive entities or roles in a given context
- in initialisms and acronyms.
This section covers:
- Capitalisation styles
- use of capitals in
- Common nouns
- Proper nouns
- Terms derived from proper nouns
- Job titles
- Organisations and institutions
- Political parties
- Geographical features, places and buildings
- Conventions, treaties, protocols, codes and projects
- School and tertiary course descriptors
- Academic and professional qualifications
- Brand names and trademarks
- National and religious holidays
- Names of events
- Legislation
- Scientific terms.
See Date and time systems for use of capitals in calendars, historical time periods (eg BCE, CE, 21st century) and ages (eg Stone Age, Middle Ages).
See History of Earth for use of capitals in geological timescales (eg Early Jurassic, Pleistocene Epoch).
See Heading basics for use of capitals in headings.
Reminder. Initial capitals are generally only used for full formal names (eg Senator John Smith, Department of Health). Generic and collective (plural) references to the same item do not need capitals (eg the senators left town, he left the department).
The golden rule is to maintain consistency throughout the publication.