Excessive Capitalization

Other than the word towards (and we'll talk about this in another blog) excessive capitalization is my PET PEEVE. I often see others capitalize words that should not be capitalized; most of the time it is in Power Point slides, and it really annoys me. The same capitalization rules apply to Power Point as they would in any other document.

For review, words at the beginning of a sentence and proper nouns should be capitalized. However, I will be the first to tell you the English language is MESSED UP, and there are tons of exceptions.

With that said, here are some capitalization mistakes I see frequently.

Agriculture--We love our industry, and in our hearts it's a proper noun, but according to the laws of English, agriculture is not a proper noun and should not be capitalized.

EXAMPLES:
Ag Teacher
Ag class
I would like to go into an Agricultural field.
Ag college
--Those are all incorrect!

EXCEPTIONS: United States Department of Agriculture
College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack
Agricultural Education 2300

EXPLANATION:
When the entire name is used, government, university, and academic departments should be capitalized. However, if a shortened version of the name is used, agriculture should not be capitalized (i.e. agriculture department).
If agriculture is part of someone's title, then capitalize it, but we would leave it lower case if we were simply talking about the agriculture secretary.
The last example from the previous paragraph is very confusing and leads me to my next entry.

Course names, building names and room numbers--Yet another example of the messed up English language. If you are casually talking about a course, building or room, it should be lower case, but if you use the entire, proper name, it should be capitalized.

EXAMPLES:
Ag class--nope, that's incorrect. However, if we said Ag Education 2300, it's correct.
Ag building--wrong again. If we say Agricultural Education Building, correctomundo.
The Classroom upstairs--it's not specific. "We will meet in Room 206" is correct.

EXCEPTIONS:
If the class or building you reference is named after a language or country, it is always capitalized.
English building
German class
French lessons

EXPLANATION:
As long as it is part of a specific title, you can capitalize academic subjects, buildings, rooms, even chapters.

All of these are correct:
I have an Ag Communications 2302 exam.
The exam will be in Room 206.
I enrolled in Math 2300 for Summer I.
We are supposed to read Chapter 14.
I have an ag communications test tomorrow.
Our club will meet in the upstairs classroom.
Did you read the assigned chapter?
I am taking summer courses.

Titles--According to the AP Stylebook "Capitalize formal titles when used immediately before a name. Lowercase formal titles when used alone or in constructions that set them off from a name by commas."

EXAMPLES:
All these are incorrect:
The President of our FFA chapter called the meeting to order.
The Professor is mean.
The Senator from Texas voted for the bill.
The General led the troops.

EXCEPTION:
The President of the United States.
If you are casually writing about the president, lower case is fine.

CORRECT EXAMPLES:
President Jones called the chapter meeting together.
Professor Irlbeck is mean.
Sen. Cornyn voted for the bill.
General Powell retired.
The chapter president attended.
Erica Irlbeck is the meanest professor on campus.
Cornyn and 30 other senators voted for the bill.

There are many other examples, but the ones above are the mistakes I see most frequently.