Federal, state, commonwealth. Lowercase these words unless the word they modify is capitalized (Federal Reserve), they are part of a title (Commonwealth of Virginia), or you’re referring to a party. You should thus lowercase “state law” and “federal law.”

When referring to the physical location, both the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style indicate that the word “state” is not capitalized in cases like “the state of California” and “the state of Missouri.” The word “state” would be capitalized, however, when referring to the governmental body …

The State of Florida vs. “ The ‘s’ in state is capitalized ONLY when used as part of the title of the state. For example: “The State of Florida” and “The Sunshine State” Do not capitalize the word state when it stands alone and is not part of the proper noun.

Words such as city, state, federal, naval, and national, when used as modifiers, are not capitalized. Examples: “There are federal regulations about the relationship of city and state governments”; “The city of New York is in the state of New York”; and “The new naval program begins tomorrow.”

However, when giving an address, or in tables or other uses in which space is limited, use the US Postal Service’s symbol system, which consists of a two-letter abbreviation in which both letters are always capitalized and no periods are used (for example, NY for “New York”).

Capitalization ● Do not capitalize federal, state, department, division, board, program, section, unit, etc., unless the word is part of a formal name. Capitalize common nouns such as party, river and street when they are part of a proper name.

To properly follow AP style guidelines, only use one space after a period, as opposed to the often used double-space.

Formal titles, such as mayor, governor, councilman, delegate, etc., should be capitalized when they appear before a name. They should be lowercase in other uses.

Never capitalize a job title that stands alone. If it isn’t followed by a proper name, it’s lower case. She was promoted to vice president for market development. Most job descriptions are not considered titles and are not capitalized: astronaut John Glenn, actor Zac Efron, teacher Nancy Hanson.

Titles should be capitalized, but references to the job are not. For instance, if you are using a job title as a direct address, it should be capitalized.

Let’s find out. (Okay, if you’re looking for the quick answer, it’s: yes, you should capitalize is in titles. If you want to discover why it should be capitalized, read on. First, let’s review which words get capitalized in titles (according to The Chicago Manual of Style).

Before Their Name. Capitalize a job title that comes immediately before the person’s name or is used as part of their name when addressing them. In this case, the job title is usually replacing their first name, though it can also be used in addition to their first name.

Words Which Should Not Be Capitalized in a Title

• Articles: a, an, & the.
• Coordinate conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet & so (FANBOYS).
• Prepositions, such as at, around, by, after, along, for, from, of, on, to, with & without.

Proper nouns and formal names of departments and individuals are capitalized. In text, academic degrees when used in a general sense are not capitalized. (That campus offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees.) You can also use “bachelor’s” and “master’s” on its own, but do not capitalize.

The Associated Press Stylebook (AP) recommends capitalizing the full names of degrees (“Bachelor of Arts,” “Master of Political Science”) whether or not they are next to a name. AP agrees with Chicago that you should lowercase “bachelor’s degree,” “master’s,” etc.

Bachelor’s degree: singular and possessive Write it “bachelor’s degree,” “bachelor” with an apostrophe and an S on the end. Think of it this way: A bachelor isn’t just a single guy who maybe eats out a lot but is also any person who has earned a specific type of degree from a university or college.

Majors, academic programs and degrees Except for languages, such as English, French and Japanese, the names of academic disciplines, majors, minors, programs and courses of study are not proper nouns and should not be capitalized. Example: She majored in integrated supply management and German.

Proper Adjectives Capitalize adjectives formed from proper nouns, but don’t capitalize the articles that introduce them (a, an, the): the Mexican restaurant.

Don’t capitalize names of school or college studies, fields of study, majors, minors, curricula or options unless they contain proper nouns when no specific course is referenced. He is studying geology. She is majoring in engineering. The Department of English offers a specialization in creative writing.