Capital letters help... posting for traffic

[QueenArnica]

Morning all,

Please help settle a (friendly) dispute with a colleague.

We are writing primary school reports and disagree on this issue...

I say when writing about the subjects, e.g. In maths, Sam is beginning to blah blah blah, the subject (in this case maths) should not have a capital letter. The same with science, music etc with the only exceptions being English and French and PE and RE.

They say ALL the subjects should be capitalised regardless.

Who’s right? Thanks in advance, I’m on my 3rd coffee already and need to start writing

[Queenoftheashes]

No. History and maths are common nouns. Your colleague is one of many people who think something should have a capital letter because it is the name of something. It drives me up the wall.

[otterbaby]

I agree with you. They would only be capitalised if they were proper nouns...e.g. science wouldn't be but Organic Chemistry would be.

[LuluJakey1]

You are right. However, it is very common for teachers to think like your friend.

[onalongsabbatical]

You are right. Unless you're writing in German, which almost uniquely capitalises all nouns wherever they are in a sentence.

[GalaxyAero]

I think you are correct.

[Skylucy]

You are right.

[YinuCeatleAyru]

I would capitalise history when writing a school timetable or on a CV listing qualifications but not in a sentence. eg Mr Brown was a history teacher. I am at university studying history. I hold a MA in History.

[MsJaneAusten]

You are right.

[testing987654321]

I think the confusion comes in when talking about specific qualifications or courses, so OCR Mathematics GCSE might be a title if a qualification, but to pass that you study maths.

[DuckALaurent]

This might help:

www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/capsandabbr/caps

Way more rules than I realised

[bettyboo40]

We are told to capitalise the names of subjects in our reports. I remember a Head of Department arguing that maths didn't need a capital letter. Therefore, I do it automatically now, because if I don't, I am told to correct it.

[QueenArnica]

Thanks everyone, I’ve let him know I was right!

[Queenoftheashes]

Oh good it was a man.
Stupid men.

[Unhomme]

@bettyboo40

Surely it's head of department?

[daisypond]

You are grammatically right. But it’s also OK if it’s decided that as an in-house/school style all school subjects are capitalised.

[bettyboo40]

Not our school. It's Head of Department, Head of Year etc. In fact I don't think I've ever seen it written any other way in any school I have worked in. I've never really thought about it before now.

[Queenoftheashes]

Yes that’s style from ego

[ItsGoingTibiaK]

It’s a stylistic issue, not a grammatical one, so no-one is right, technically. You will find your way is much more common in most modern style guides - although capitalisation is quite a complex area (I used to write style guides as part of my job).

[ItsGoingTibiaK]

@otterbaby

Sorry to be a pedant, but ‘organic chemistry’ isn’t a proper noun, either!

[JustOneMoreStep]

I think in formal writing technically you are correct in that the dont need capital letters. However, in the example of a school report it has always been an expectation that subjects do carry a capital letter, so I would naturally write with them in that context. I also find it irritating/odd as a parent when teachers don't but thinking about it that is based of prejudice from my own experience.

[user1471447863]

@Queenoftheashes was that sexist comment really necessary?

[ethelredonagoodday]

You are right.

[AriadnesFilament]

You

[Queenoftheashes]

@user1471447863 no it was for fun
Bore off

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

I'm obviously in the minority, but I personally would opt for capitals. I see it that it's the title for the subject of study rather than just a description of it - in the same way as you wouldn't refer to the ITV programme as 'tonight' or refer to 'today' on Radio 4. In this context, 'History' is shorthand representing the school's specifically developed curricular course focusing on this particular subject, as opposed to the vague concept of history in general.

If you don't use a capital for maths or geography, why would you use capitals for PE or RE? Surely they would be pe or re as well, wouldn't they? I know it's common usage to capitalise acronyms, but it seems to me to go against the spirit of your own rule, if you fall on the non-capitalising side of the fence. Why does only using the initial letters of a two word phrase that would otherwise be written with lower-case letters automatically promote it to capital status?!