grade, grader—Hyphenate both adjectival and noun forms: fourth-grade pupil, 12th-grade student, first-grader, 10th-graders.
grades, letter—Capitalize; do not italicize or use quotation marks. Form the plural with 's: He was sure he'd get straight A's and was shocked when he saw three B's and a C. Students must maintain a B average. (See plural figures and letters.)
gray (not grey)
half—Most compound adjectives with half are hyphenated: half-baked plan, half-time employee; some are closed: halfhearted attempt, halfway mark. Compound nouns with half can be open, hyphenated, or closed: half hour, half note, half sister, half-dollar, half-life, half-moon, halfback, halftone. Consult the dictionary.
hard copy
headline-style capitalization (also called title case)
"1. Capitalize the first and last words in titles and subtitles (but see rule 7), and capitalize all other major words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and some conjunctions—but see rule 4).
2. Lowercase the articles the, a, and an.
3. Lowercase prepositions, regardless of length, except when they are used adverbially or adjectivally (up in Look Up, down in Turn Down, on in the On Button, etc.) or when they compose part of a Latin expression used adjectivally or adverbially (De Facto, In Vitro, etc.)
4. Lowercase the conjunctions and, but, for, or, and nor.
5. Lowercase to not only as a preposition (rule 3) but also as part of an infinitive (to Run, to Hide, etc.), and lowercase as in any grammatical function.
6. Lowercase the part of a proper name that would be lowercased in text, such as de or von.
7. Lowercase the second part of a species name, such as fulvescens in Acipenser fulvescens, even if it is the last word in a title or subtitle." (9)
Capitalize hyphenated compounds in titles as follows:
"1. Always capitalize the first element.
2. Capitalize any subsequent elements unless they are articles, prepositions, coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, or, nor), or such modifiers as flat or sharp following musical key symbols
3. If the element is merely a prefix or combining form that could not stand by itself as a word (anti, pre, etc.), do not capitalize the second element unless it is a proper noun or proper adjective.
4. Capitalize the second element in a hyphenated spelled-out number (Twenty-One or Twenty-First, etc.) or hyphenated simple fraction (Two-Thirds in Two-Thirds Majority)." (10) (See titles, composition.)
health care (n.), health-care (adj.): Health care is a major issue with the candidates. Health-care reform is on the agenda.
HIV-negative, HIV-positive
honorable—See reverend and honorable.
honors—Capitalize when referring to the formal program: Muriel A. Howard Honors Program, Muriel A. Howard Honors Colloquium; lowercase elsewhere else: honors students.
honorifics (Mr., Ms., Dr., etc.)—In general, honorifics are not used before names on first or subsequent references in Buffalo State publications. (See names.) Honorifics are sometimes used in special cases, for example, a list of donors or a special invitation. When a degree is indicated, it follows the name on first reference: Judith A. Smith, Ph.D.; John Q. Jones, M.A. Do not use both an honorific and a degree:
Preferable: Judith A. Jones, Ph.D.
Acceptable: Dr. Judith A. Jones
Incorrect: Dr. Judith A. Jones, Ph.D.
honors, academic—Academic degrees and honors following a personal name should be capitalized, whether abbreviated or spelled out: Steven Kiley, M.D.; Clyde M. Matthews, Doctor of Law.
Named professorships and fellowships are capitalized: Sherry Turkle, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology; Katherine Stuart May, Mellon Fellow in Objects Conservation.
SUNY Distinguished Professor titles are capitalized: Steven D. Georgiou, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor.
(9) Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition (2010), 8.157
(10) Ibid., 8.159
Some content on this page is saved in PDF format. To view these files, download Adobe Acrobat Reader free. If you are having trouble reading a document, request an accessible copy of the PDF or Word Document.