Tips and Tools
More writing tips can be found on the Frequently Asked Questions page for Summary Writing.
When do you capitalize "federal?" What about "senator"? Here's the full scoop:
- Democrat and Republican are always capitalized when you are using them in reference to political parties - which is how most of you will be using them most of the time. But if you're using them in reference to political philosophies, they are not capitalized. For example, "The United States has a republican form of government".
- Capitalize federal ONLY when it is being used as part of an agency name (e.g., Federal Bureau of Investigation) or when referring to the Federal Government in its official capacity (in which case you would capitalize both "Federal" and "Government"). Otherwise, leave it lower-case (e.g., "This is a federal offense," or "you must comply with all state and federal laws," or "federal employees").
- Only capitalize the word state if it appears AFTER the state's name, but not before. For example, "we visited Texas State," and "that's how we do it in the state of Texas." However, as with federal, you should capitalize both city and state when referring to the government (e.g., "The City of Austin" and "The State of Texas").
- Capitalize governor/senator/representative/assemblymember/delegate/president if you are referring to the title of a specific individual, regardless of whether or not his/her name is included. For example, "Governor Romney" or "it's clear that the Governor [Romney] thinks the sky is blue". Don't capitalize these titles when you're not referring to a specific individual. For example, "there are some governors out there who still think that the world is flat."
- Capitalize department names when referring to a specific entity (many bill texts will not do this) such as "Department of Health and Human Services."
If you're unsure about whether or not you should capitalize a word, please ask your supervisor, or Google it.
Interns who are having trouble articulating policy concepts in their summaries are encouraged to review Mary Dash's writing tips. She is Chief of the Congressional Correspondence and Quality Review Branch of the Internal Revenue Service, and has written an excellent guide to help federal employees comply with the Plain Writing Act of 2010.
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