Rules of Capitalization

Every sentence must begin with a capital letter.

That is a stunning sweater.

When did you buy it?

Capitalize names of people.

Capitalize every word and initial in a person's name
Larry Jay Scott        J.D. Salinger

Capitalize titles and abbreviations when they appear before names

Our football coach is Coach Mathew. 
A new doctor will come to the hospital. He is Dr. Kevin.

Capitalize names of days, holidays, and months. But do not capitalize the name of the seasons.

Monday    Christmas   September   spring

Capitalize the names of cities, states, countries, and continents.

Missoula   Montana  China  Africa

Capitalize the names of streets, buildings, institutions, and bridges.

Brooks Street   Community Church       University of Montana      London Bridge

Capitalize words for family relations when they are used with or in place of the names of particular people. But if a family title follows a possessive pronoun such as my, our, his, it is not capitalized.

My grandpa will come to visit me soon.
Aunt Marlene's house is very close to our house.
My father loves travel, but Mom prefers to stay home all the time.

Capitalize geographical names. Capitalize words such as north, east, and west only when they refer to a section of the country.

We camped in the Blue Mountain in the Northeast.
The Platte River winds across the southern part of the state.
I am going to northwestern Montana.
We are going to the South.

Capitalize the name of languages and peoples and the proper adjectives associated with them. 

Proper adjectives are words made from proper nouns.
Often the proper noun is changed slightly and and ending is added to make it into a proper adjective.

Most Americans speak the English language.
French bread.
Oriental arts
(Americans comes from the proper noun America; English comes from the proper noun England. )

The first word of every quotation should be capitalized.

"Where is the nearest gas station?" asked Pauline.
Orval replied, "Turn left at the next intersection."

The first word, the last word, and any other important words in a title must be capitalized.

Words like the, in for, from, a , an, of, on, or by are not capitalized unless they appear first or last in the title.
The Mystery of the Blue Train (book)
Sports Illustrated (magazine)
"Smoke and Steel" (poem)

Many abbreviation should be capitalized. 

Send the entry form to P.O. Box 73902.
Devon works the 11:00 P.M to 7:00 A.M. shift.