What to capitalize?

Answer 1

The Emergency Reserve is only used as a last resort after the Contingency Reserve has been exhausted to provide funding in the event of an unanticipated or unforeseen extraordinary nature such as costs related to a natural disaster, emergency or unexpected costs created by Federal or State legislation.

Answer 2

First and foremost: The decision to capitalize or not to capitalize is entirely up to the author. For the experienced author, "correct" grammar/punctuation is a set of guidelines rather than rules. For example, authors may choose to forgo periods, commas, or any other types of literary "stops" in order to introduce a rushed or confused tone. Or, as in this case, an author may use excessive capitalization in order to draw his/her audience to words/plot points he/she deems significant to the story. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of proper usages of capitalization however, a good general rule of thumb to remember is to capitalize any person, place, or thing that is of importance and specific, not general.

• The first letter of a sentence or title

Start every sentence with a capital letter.

Of Mice & Men

• The pronoun "I"

My brother and I went to the movies.

I only like the icing on donuts.

• Proper nouns - specific people, places, things, and ideas

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

the Grand Canyon

the U.S. Constitution

the Big Bang theory

• Titles of books, movies, songs, etc. *note* - only capitalize the major words in these

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

• Days of the week, months of the year, and holidays
• Seasons and directions
• Names of God, religious figures, or holy books

Buddha, Jesus, Allah

• Streets, cities, countries, nationalities, and languages