For my geography paper I am talking about the diseases of Foot and Mouth Disease, Smallpox, and Spanish Influenza.
Throughout my paper I am not sure whether I should be capitalizing these words or keeping them lower case.
example sentences below:
- This report will discuss the biological disasters of Foot and Mouth Disease, Smallpox, and Spanish Influenza.
- Unlike the disasters of Smallpox and Spanish Influenza, Foot and Mouth Disease was quickly and effectively contained.
If it is that I should keep these titles capitalized, for Foot and Mouth disease would you also capitalize the word disease, or keep it lower cased.
Foot and Mouth Disease (or)
Foot and Mouth disease
any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
The only word that should be capitalized is "Spanish."
Diseases are not usually capitalized.
When it comes to capitalizing diseases, there are some general rules to follow. Here's how you should approach capitalizing the diseases you mentioned:
1. Capitalize the proper names: Smallpox, Spanish Influenza, and Foot and Mouth Disease. These are specific diseases with official names, so they should be capitalized.
2. Capitalize the first word of the proper name: When referring to the diseases as a whole, capitalize the first word of each disease name, such as "Smallpox," "Spanish Influenza," and "Foot and Mouth Disease."
3. Keep other words in lowercase: For species names in the disease titles, such as "disease," "flu," "virus," or "infection," you should use lowercase. These words are not part of the proper name and should be treated as common nouns.
Example: "Foot and Mouth disease" (lowercase "disease").
Therefore, in your example sentences:
- This report will discuss the biological disasters of Foot and Mouth Disease, Smallpox, and Spanish Influenza. (Correct)
- Unlike the disasters of Smallpox and Spanish Influenza, Foot and Mouth Disease was quickly and effectively contained. (Correct)
Just remember to capitalize the proper names while keeping common nouns in lowercase when writing about diseases.