Anyone here good at English? I'm decent, but I'm struggling with a couple of things. I had a proofreader for my book, and he did a great job fixing spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
He left capitalization of proper names up to me, because a lot of the time it is a matter of personal preference. I decided to go ahead and capitalize all proper names of places, such as New Jerusalem, Heaven, Hell, etc.
Now it comes to events. Church Age or church age. Well, Renaissance is a time period, and it is usually capitalized, so I went ahead and capitalized it. Same for Tribulation and Millennium.
What about the commonly used terms of Pre-Trib and Post-Trib? Should it be pre-Trib, or pre-trib, or Pre-Trib?
Also, when talking about Earth. When one says, "the earth", it's not capitalized because it's referring to a planet and not a proper name. But when you say, "Here on Earth", it's a proper name and needs to be capitalized, right? Same thing for "a church" verses "the Church", right?
Anyone here good at this kind of thing and can give me some pointers?
(05-07-2010 11:30 AM)Rick Schworer Wrote: [ -> ]Anyone here good at English? I'm decent, but I'm struggling with a couple of things. I had a proofreader for my book, and he did a great job fixing spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
He left capitalization of proper names up to me, because a lot of the time it is a matter of personal preference. I decided to go ahead and capitalize all proper names of places, such as New Jerusalem, Heaven, Hell, etc.
Now it comes to events. Church Age or church age. Well, Renaissance is a time period, and it is usually capitalized, so I went ahead and capitalized it. Same for Tribulation and Millennium.
What about the commonly used terms of Pre-Trib and Post-Trib? Should it be pre-Trib, or pre-trib, or Pre-Trib?
Also, when talking about Earth. When one says, "the earth", it's not capitalized because it's referring to a planet and not a proper name. But when you say, "Here on Earth", it's a proper name and needs to be capitalized, right? Same thing for "a church" verses "the Church", right?
Anyone here good at this kind of thing and can give me some pointers?
I used to teach English, if you can imagine such a thing, and I also taught writing in a college up north for a couple of years. And I've done some writing.
Some of your questions could be matters of opinion, since they are not covered by standard usage.
All places, as you say, should be capitalized, even if they're non-existent places like Purgatory or Nirvana. Somebody once asked William F. Buckley Jr. why he capitalized "Hell." He replied, "Because it's a real place. Like Brooklyn."
"Earth" is tricky. I tend to capitalize the planet, and not capitalize it when it's a synonym for "dirt," like "the dry earth slipped through my fingers." The Bible never capitalizes earth, even the "new Heaven and new earth," except in Gen. 1:10. Why the exception? Because that's where God actually applies the word, as a name, to the dry land.
I only capitalize earth as a planet, like Mars or Mercury.
I think you're correct about the time periods. If the Renaissance or Iron Age are time periods, so are the Tribulation and Millennium.
I tend toward pre-Trib and post-Trib, not Pre-Trib or Post-Trib. But I think there's wiggle room on this one. The "Trib" should be capitalized, but the "pre" and "post" are optional.
The word "church" is
never capitalized in the Bible; if God didn't capitalize it, I'm not going to! In common usage, anyone who capitalizes it is invariably referring to the Roman Catholic Church. If you capitalize it, some folks will assume that's what you're talking about. Remember, brother: if something
can be misunderstood, it
will be misunderstood!
I don't even capitalize "church" when I'm referring to the Body of Christ.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the help William, I think I'll go with it as "pre-Trib".
As far as the word church, I'm still undecided. A lot of things in the Bible are not capitalized, like the "spirit of God", etc.
Here's another one for you though:
Scripture or scripture. Bible or Bible. When speaking of the Bible, Word of God or word of God.
The Bible is a name of a book. "Scripture" is not a name of a book, or is it? Lean towards word of God because the Word is Jesus Christ.
Your thoughts?
One other thing too...
In the first few pages I cover the allegorical, historical, Praeterist, and futurist viewpoints of Revelation. Do you think they should all be capitalized, and should the word "view" be capitalized in a sentence as in "the Historical View looks at Revelation as being...."
Thanks.
(05-07-2010 12:27 PM)Rick Schworer Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the help William, I think I'll go with it as "pre-Trib".
As far as the word church, I'm still undecided. A lot of things in the Bible are not capitalized, like the "spirit of God", etc.
Here's another one for you though:
Scripture or scripture. Bible or Bible. When speaking of the Bible, Word of God or word of God.
The Bible is a name of a book. "Scripture" is not a name of a book, or is it? Lean towards word of God because the Word is Jesus Christ.
Your thoughts?
Dear brother, I've written for
Christianity Today and
National Review magazines: the latter, although political in nature, is very pro-Roman Catholic. I must assure you that when people see "Church," they think "RCC." The Enemy has had 2,000 years to condition people's minds that way. I only capitalize the word when referring to a specific denomination, or a specific assembly: "United Methodist Church," "Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church," etc.
"Scripture" and "scripture" is simply a matter of preference. For years, I capitalized it; I even referred to things as "unScriptural." Now I don't. But I confess that when I write "scripture" in the lower case, I get a creepy feeling. Each writer has to decide this for himself or herself.
Your thoughts on "word" are right on, and a point of contention between Bible believers and mere "fundamentalists." Fundamentalists and evangelicals refer to the Bible as the Word of God; it is not. It is the word of God: or, to be absolutely accurate and specific, the words of God. Jesus Christ is the
Word of God; and, although
thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name (Psalm 138:2), that astonishing fact does not affect rules of proper capitalization.
The fundamentalists and evangelicals accuse us of "worshipping the Bible." Go fly a kite, you shallow hypocrites:
you're the ones who capitalize "word" for the Bible! We save it for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Quote:One other thing too...
In the first few pages I cover the allegorical, historical, Praeterist, and futurist viewpoints of Revelation. Do you think they should all be capitalized, and should the word "view" be capitalized in a sentence as in "the Historical View looks at Revelation as being...."
I think they should be capitalized, to avoid confusion. For example, the historical view of Revelation 11 is not the same as the Historical view. I'm not sure I'd capitalize "allegorical," simply because it's self-explanatory.
Well, I'm certainly not pro-Roman Catholic, so I'll stick with a lower case. Chapter six of my book is called "All Roads Lead to Rome", I'm guessing you can tell what it's about.
Thanks for the pointers. I think I'll go with church, Earth, word, scripture, and Bible.
Funny thing about the whole "w" issue... I'm reading Sam Gipp's book, Understandible History of the Bible, and he capitalizes Word in it for the Bible. He's a Bible believer if there ever were one!
(05-07-2010 03:56 PM)Rick Schworer Wrote: [ -> ]Well, I'm certainly not pro-Roman Catholic, so I'll stick with a lower case. Chapter six of my book is called "All Roads Lead to Rome", I'm guessing you can tell what it's about.
Thanks for the pointers. I think I'll go with church, Earth, word, scripture, and Bible.
Funny thing about the whole "w" issue... I'm reading Sam Gipp's book, Understandible History of the Bible, and he capitalizes Word in it for the Bible. He's a Bible believer if there ever were one!
He certainly is. Some Bible believers capitalize it out of respect, or simply because they can't bring themselves to do otherwise. I'm just a stickler for it because it can lead to confusion too easily.
By the way, this forum has certain little features that might amuse you. It has always irritated me that people refer to the King James
Version, but the New American Standard
Bible. If you want a laugh, type those initials into a post, preview it, and see what comes up!
I myself when I first met William capitalized Word for the Bible. I have since changed to reserve the capital for just Jesus. However it is hard to not type Word for the Bible.
Just my 2 pesos worth.
Gary
(05-07-2010 04:45 PM)William Wrote: [ -> ]By the way, this forum has certain little features that might amuse you. It has always irritated me that people refer to the King James Version, but the New American Standard Bible. If you want a laugh, type those initials into a post, preview it, and see what comes up!
When I'm being technical, I refer to the Authorized King James Version, because that's its technical name. When I'm being colloquial I'll say KJB or the King James Bible says....
William's given you some excellent pointers, and I'll defer to his knowledge of English over my own.
I prefer to use 'Scripture' just as I use a capital 'B' in 'Bible' when referring to the AV.
However, I do not use a capital 'W' in 'word of God' when referring to the AV, because in the Bible when you see 'Word of God', it's referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as far as the modern (per)versions of God's word, I use 'version' or 'Bible', or 'MV'. :biggrin:
