Capitals

Overusing capital letters significantly slows down reading speed. When there is a choice (or if you are unsure), please avoid using capital letters. Here are some examples of words you should and shouldn't capitalize.

Words you should capitalize:⚓

  • The first word in a response option in a learning activity/assessment

  • Adjectives of nationality or provenance

  • Days of the week and months

  • The term “National Society” and the names of individual National Societies

Words you should not capitalize:⚓

  • Administrative units of a country (e.g. region, province, state, district, etc.—only use upper case if the word is an official part of the name and it makes sense to do so).

  • The terms “delegation”, “regional delegation”, “subdelegation”, “office” and “mission” are usually not capitalized, unless they are part of a signature or address.

  • “government”

  • “international humanitarian law”

  • “state” and “non-state”

For more rules and examples, please see the English Style Guide. See “Titles” for capitalization of course, slide and module titles.