User blog:TheShadyNerd/Proper Nouns 101

Hello, everyone, I just felt a PSA was in order for a certain thing I've been noticing more and more: the non-capitalization of proper nouns.

What's a proper noun, you ask? 'Go to school', I answer, before I explain: A proper noun is any noun (person, place, thing, or idea) that has a title/name. The proper noun is capitalized, since names are capitalized, unlike nouns, which are left uncapitalized. Do you need an example of when to do this? Again, I say 'Go to school', but here are some examples of what I'm talking about.

-"I played minecraft." vs. "I played Minecraft."

Sentence #2 is correct, since Minecraft is a specific video game and has a title.

-"I went to the library." vs. "I went to the Library."

Unless "The Library" is the official title of a place, sentence #1 is correct. It doesn't need to be capitalized, since it isn't referring to a specific library,

Now, I'll use my own statement, "Go to school." Besides sounding like Jeff the Teacher, this sentence can be used in the same way the library sentence is. "School" doesn't need to be capitalized, because it is a general noun, and not specific. If I said "Go to Jefferson High", I'd capitalize, because it's a title, and capitalized.

Hope this helps some of you capitalize correctly.

TL;DR: Capitalize names and titles, don't capitalize basic nouns. Basic writing skills.