If you're in the newspaper business, you know how to properly capitalize headlines. But people writing white papers, press releases, brochures, and even résumés need to know what's right and what's wrong in order to retain the respect and admiration, to say nothing of the trust, of their readers. So take note!

Most style guides call for lower-casing prepositions, articles, and many conjunctions. But there are lots of extenuating circumstances that call for uppercasing those words sometimes. Read on, but first:

- A preposition is a word that could describe your relationship to a cloud: you're in the cloud, under the cloud, above the cloud, around the cloud, by the cloud, before the cloud, after the cloud. These italicized words are prepositions.
- The articles are the, a, and an -- they point out things: the boy, a man.
- Conjunctions join things: and, or, nor, while, etc.

The Chicago Manual of Style says to always capitalize the first and last words of a headline, no matter what. Lowercase prepositions, regardless of length, except when they are stressed (as through in A River Runs Through It), are used adverbially or adjectivally (as up in Look Up, down in Turn Down, on in The On Button, etc.), are used as conjunctions (such as before in Look Before You Leap), or are part of a Latin expression used adjectivally or adverbially (e.g., De Facto, In Vitro, etc.). CMS specifies lowercasing the conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor. Always lowercase to and as.

Examples:

Okay, so your last name is Farmer. Duh. But what if your last name is Crocker? Some long-lost ancestor was into making pottery crocks. Read on - the list gets more interesting.

1. cooper: (a) one that makes or repairs wooden utensils; (b) one that makes or repairs book bindings; (c) one that makes or repairs wooden casks or tubs; (d) a keeper of records.

2. chandler: (a) a maker or seller of tallow or wax candles and usually soap; (b) a collector of natural dyes, especially yellow; (c) a person who cans food; (d) an instructor.

3. tinker: (a) a silverworker; (b) a usually itinerant mender of household utensils; (c) a person who makes knives and scissors; (d) none of the above.

4. farrier: (a) a person who shoes horses; (b) a person who collects and sells feathers (for bedding); (c) a person who raises and trains falcons to hunt wild game; (d) a maker of gloves.

5. smith: (a) a barrelmaker; (b) a wheel maker; (c) a worker in metals; (d) a seller of metal goods.

6. currier: (a) one that dresses furs; (b) a glassworker; (c) a person who shoes horses; (d) one who cleans the coat of a horse.

7. wainwright: (a) a maker and repairer of wagons; (b) a maker and repairer of boats; (c) a maker and repairer of farm equipment, especially plows; (d) one who dowses for water.

8. packman: (a) thief; (b) peddler; (c) minstrel; (d) musician.

9. draper: (a) a man who guides a plow; (b) a man who operates a loom; (c) one who operates a saw mill, especially a water-powered mill; (d) a dealer in cloth and sometimes also in clothing and dry goods.

10. clark: (a) cartmaker; (b) soldier; (c) lawyer; (d) clerk.

• Thirty-five of the fifty female skiers made their way through the course, while only thirty of the fifty male skiers completed it.
  
• Sixteen of the female skiers were American, while nine were Australian.

• He said his daughter could jump, while (should be "and") his son and nephew could slalom.
  (should be "although") born right-handed, he had learned to ski 'right-footed.' (should be "and") in the next decade this heavy figure is expected to double. (should be "and") two popular prizes will be given on the last day.
• He recalled that while
• In the past six years alone college enrollment has jumped 45 percent, while
• Cash prizes will be presented the first day of the show, while

• Then it is the brave man who chooses, while the coward stands aside.

• While there have been more than 100 callers soliciting in this area, it has not been possible to call on everyone.

• In the daytime he's star of his own show, while at night he becomes the general announcer on the nationwide talk show.

Variety of Garden Words

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With prose that sells, and no misspells, and smart quotes all in a row.

The following post is by guest blogger, Tom Drinkard. Tom challenges all of us to see how well our spell checkers work.

• The work is now finished, so you can all go home.
• Please finish what you are doing so that we can all go home.

• We wish to honor those individuals who had the courage to serve their country in its time of great need.

• All the parties to the original agreement must sign the attached amendment.

• Please tell me the name of the person in charge of your water ski tournament.

• If you like, I can send you a list of all the people in our club who will be skiing in the tournament.

• We do not doubt that she is capable. (Negative statement.)
• Does anyone doubt that the check was mailed? (Question.)
• I doubt whether I can go.

• You'll soon master the everyday (ordinary) routine of the job.
• He has skied every day (each day) this week.

The following is a guest post written by Kyle Simpson.

Let's spend some time this week on parts of speech. This post is on the adverb. The fun is in getting them right, and, if your personality is such, helping others with their adverbs.

Most of us are prone to misuse words - some of us more than others. Whether in public speech, or in heated tête-à-tête, we panic and forget how a word is used. Don't despair—it happens to the best of us. Sometimes we're confused for just a fleeting moment: How many readers recall an incumbent U.S. president, speaking at his party's convention on live television, confusing Hubert Humphrey with Horatio Hornblower? Other times we're confused for a lifetime. 

Consider the word Frankenstein. In 1818 a young woman prodigy named Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (wife of the poet in today's Aside) published a horror story called Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, about a German student, Frankenstein, who fabricated a monster that ultimately became the agent of his creator's destruction. The aptness of the fable and of the foreign-sounding name popularized the plot and notion among the many who never read the classic novel. For decades it was therefore felt necessary to correct those who thought that Frankenstein was the monster ("What are you going to be on Halloween?" "Ooooh. I'm dressing up as ... Frankenstein!" "Um, no, you silly, you're dressing up as Frankenstein's monster." "Oh, yeah.").

In any direct reference to the story itself, this correction is still in order. But in alluding to situations in which the creature undoes the creator—e.g., man and his machines—it seems permissible to many writers to transfer the maker's proper name to his invention. The change follows the natural course of acceptance. Thus a mackintosh (not the computer), a Ford, a silhouette—to say nothing of a Rembrandt, a Malaprop, or a sandwich—are familiar extensions that would encourage legitimizing a Frankenstein, and not just by yielding spinelessly to a common misunderstanding.

Here are some additional commonly misused words:

• honed/homed: as in "We honed [read: homed] in on the solution at our staff meeting"
• climactic/climatic: weather changes are climatic, a Big Poppy walk-off grand slam is always climactic
• capitol/capital: the capitol often has a gold domed roof, and it is always in the capital city, and you write the name of the capital with a leading capital letter, as in "Carson City" or "Pierre"

I recently had a conversation with Rick Roberge who told me what a great service our company provides. Rick, a sales coach and trainer, said he believes that every salesperson who writes proposals, e-mails, letters, etc., should incorporate proofreading as a standard part of their business writing process.  Rick then went on to write a blog post about this topic.