Reading history has always been one of my favorite hobbies since my parents gave me the American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War as a Christmas gift some 60 years ago. Maybe because I have read more history books than the average person, I know that major historical events should be capitalized. That’s also the case with holidays, months, days of the week, and historical epochs. Consider the following passage. which has all the right words capitalized.

Today is Sunday, August 20. Yesterday, just before midnight, I completed a term paper on the Italian Rennaisance. I think it is better than the term paper I did last spring on the Reformation, which began toward the end of the Middle Ages and continued into the mid-17th Century. I have to be sure my professor receives the term paper by 11 A.M. on Monday. Once I’ve turned it in, I’ll visit my grandfather, who served in the Marine Corps during both the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He always takes part in the Veterans Day parade, even if he has to push himself along in his wheelchair. “My day in the sun may be over,” he exclaims, “but I still have a lot of fight left in me.”

Note that major events such as the Rennaisance, the Reformation, and the Korean War are uppercased. The same holds true with 17th Century, August, Sunday, and Veterans Day. On the other hand, midnight is lowercased. We would also keep noon, afternoon, and other parts of the day in lowercase.

If months and days of the week are uppercased, shouldn’t the four seasons be, too? The answer is no, they are considered common nouns rather than proper nouns, which is why spring in the passage above is in lowercase. There is an exception to this rule, however, that occurs in poetry. If one or more of the seasons is personified, i.e., treated as if it were human, then it may be capitalized at the poet’s discretion. This is what Martin Taylor does in his poem “Spring,” which personifies each of the four seasons.

Not like my brother,
cold in his breath.
Winter his name,
in darkness brings death.

A couple of other things — first, note that the “A” and “M” in 11 A.M. are uppercased. This is the rule for formal documents, such as term papers, published reports, or business letters. However, for a less-formal composition, such as an inter-office memo or a letter to a friend, it is acceptable to keep a.m. and p.m. in lowercase. Second, in addition to capitalizing historical epochs and events, writers should uppercase significant time periods in other disciplines, too. Geology probably provides the best example. Geologists categorize earth’s development into eons, which are divided into eras, which are further divided into periods, epochs, and ages. Each specifically named category is uppercased: Proterozoic Eon, Mesozoic Era, Triassic Period.

In closing this final blog (at least for now) on capitalization, let me emphasize that, in my opinion, consistency is more important than strict adherence to the rules of grammar. If you lowercase 10 a.m. on page 20, don’t have 11 P.M. on page 50; if you feel you must lowercase 18th century in your prologue, be sure you do the same with the 20th century in the epilogue.