Readers of my blog sometimes wonder about whether to capitalize certain words. For the next few entries, I’ll go over some of the trickier uses of capital letters.
What about geographical areas vs. directions? Look at these two sentences:
- Despite my New York accent, I was born in the South.
- To get to San Diego, I drove south on the dreaded 405 for over two hours.
If it’s a geographical area (the East Coast, the far North, Southern California, the Mid-Atlantic states), you do capitalize. If it’s a general direction, use lower case.
WordThoughts 