We learned the rules for capitalization in elementary school. But then apparently some people learned some Rules That Are Not Rules.

The basic rule is pretty simple:

• Capitalize proper nouns and noun phrases. A proper noun denotes a specific thing; there’s only one of it.
• Do not capitalize common nouns and noun phrases. A common noun denotes a common thing; there’s more than one of it.

If you need a review, here’s a primer from APA Style.

I won’t bore you with grade-school examples. Let’s go straight to issues that actually trip people up.

Which words in this paragraph should not be capitalized? There are 14 in all, including two words that are repeated — so that’s 12 unique words that are capitalized incorrectly.

Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), described the Institute’s work on strategies to contain the novel Coronavirus. Dr. Fauci is an Infectious Disease expert who has served as NIAID Director under six Presidential Administrations. Under his leadership, the NIAID has combated many epidemics, including the first Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) caused by a Coronavirus, which surfaced in Asia in Winter 2003.

Did you find them all?

Only a few words are correctly capitalized: a person’s name, the certification initials that come after his name, the name of his agency and its acronym, the acronym for a disease, and the name of a continent. That’s it.

Which words are examples of capital abuse? The ones that are common nouns:

1. Director. Job titles are capitalized only if they precede a person’s name: Write “Director Fauci” but “Fauci is the director.”

2. Institute the second time. Institute, like foundation, program, and any other common noun that is part of an organization’s name, is capitalized only when it appears in that name.

3. Coronavirus. Don’t get me started on Corona Virus.

4, 5. Infectious Disease. University departments and courses are proper nouns. Areas of study are common nouns.

6, 7. Presidential Administrations. Presidents are important, but being important isn’t a criterion for capitalization.

8, 9, 10, 11. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Diseases (and therapies, models, and similar medical-type things) are common nouns. No rule says to capitalize a phrase because we’re giving the all-caps acronym in parentheses.

12. Winter. Maybe you’ve noticed that winter comes every year.

Here’s the paragraph with the capitalization corrected:

Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), described the institute’s work on strategies to contain the novel coronavirus. Dr. Fauci is an infectious disease expert who has served as NIAID director under six presidential administrations. Under his leadership, the NIAID has combated many epidemics, including the first severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by a coronavirus, which surfaced in Asia in winter 2003.

These are only a few examples of capital abuse. What are your favorites?