Merriam Webster Dictionary online defines the word revelation foremost as something divine from God to man. The next down-to-earth definition in Merriam Webster and Encarta Dictionary online is “Information that is newly disclosed, especially surprising, or valuable.” In the California Writers Club, Tri-Valley Branch May Critique Group meeting, there were many revelations, or at least some very surprising and valuable edits. As each of the ten members received printed stories critiqued through an editing program, it was clear that there were different interpretations of capitalization. A recurring question was when to capitalize family titles like father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt, nephew, and niece. Professional editors suggest lowercase when a familial title is preceded by a pronoun (my, her, his, our, their). Example: “My uncle George is the oldest person in English 1-A college class.” When the writer omits the pronoun, “The oldest person in English 1-A is Uncle George,” uppercase is preferred. The greatest revelation is that these rules are not permanent. Somewhere, a group is deciding the future rules for familial titles while I write my first mystery novel. I suppose my best choice is to characterize my protanogist as a loner, perhaps an orphaned only child, so there will be less editing for familial titles.
2 comments:
I like your solution to the question of capitalizing familial names. Isn't it great that as writers we easily can solve those kinds of problems (as long as the character is okay with it)? Sometimes characters make demands...maybe he/she wants an uncle or aunt...good luck.
Vi, you know I take your editing instruction to heart. But I refuse to kill off my relatives.
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