Grammar nerds, I need your help!

[Santosha]

I'm writing up a psychological case-study and it needs to be PERFECT. I can't figure out when it is appropriate to use capitalisation - can anyone give me some rules to follow as to when something needs a capital letter? I get that if it's a proper-noun such as a name it should be capitalised, but is the title of a profession a proper-noun? Or what about the name of a type of service or a diagnostic category???

Examples are...

" ... diagnosis was given by a psychologist, speech pathologist and paediatrician." (Do the names of the professions need capitals? Does it make a difference if I'm referring to the profession in general or to a specific professional?)

"... and was referred for therapy at an early intervention service" (or is it Early Intervention?)

Does "autism spectrum disorder" get capitals? Does it depend on the context?

Oh SO confused!

TIA!

[CrazyLady]

The job titles are caps. . Not sure about early intervention service and autism spectrum disorder

[Mum2Romone]

I say the whole lot is capitals

The professions -
And I think with the autism part - the First instance should be capitals but referring to it again doesnt have to be... for example

I am seeking an Early Intervention Program for my son who has Autism Spectrum Disorder. We believe the early intervention program will help him to ......

hope that helps

also the same with Autism,

Use capitals in the first instance of referral

Thats what I do
I was a journalist
but im not sure whether i do that because it makes sense to me or because it is right Best of Luck

[Santosha]

Thanks ladies. M2R, I've never heard of doing it that way before. I do have a minor in english lit., so you'd think I'd know... but I'm not even sure whether the aforementioned should actually be English Lit.!!

[CrazyLady]

If you're unsure maybe check references in your textbook if you have one. I'm not sure if some of them are referring to actual disorders or the general group of the lot. I think it'd depend if you were saying there is a range of services or whether it's a service within the group IYKWIN

[Kazbah]

Oh this is good - there are a few really good style guides around to follow. Is this for Uni or government? Either way, google "style guide" and the name of where you're doing it.

This is very similar to the style guide we developed for work: http://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/p...le%20guide.pdf and it meets all ISO 9001 requirements. (which is why we were developing it).

Taken from the style guide:

Capital letters
Use capitals sparingly. Capitals should be used for:
• personal names
• names of nationalities and peoples
• names of organisations eg the Department of Local Government
• formal titles of officers eg the Prime Minister of Australia, the Mayor
• modes of address eg Minister Brown, Her Majesty
• countries and states/provinces
• place, area, topographical and street names eg the Snowy Mountains
• names of public buildings eg Town Hall
Acts of Parliament
• religious faiths
• trade marks and brand names
• holidays, ceremonies, days of the week and months of the year
• titles of publications (eg books), formal documents (eg the Treaty of Waitangi) and
events (eg National Investigations Symposium).
Do not use capitals for:
• the office, this office, our office, etc when referring to the Ombudsman’s office
• the word ‘report’ unless it is in a full proper title
• the university/department/council etc or an agency’s branches, units or committees
• the names of each of this office’s teams (eg the general team)
• ordinary titles of officers eg general manager, police officer, councillor
• the names of policies eg the code of conduct.

For proper names, you may be able to use capitals the first time the name is used and
afterwards use minimal capitals eg:
NSW Government the government
NSW Police the police
Parramatta Council the council
Department for Women the department
Aboriginal Complaints Unit the ACU or the unit
Special Management Branch the SMB or the branch
Youth Liaison Officer the YLO
However, we have decided to keep capitals for special titles of office even when the full title is
not used:
NSW Parliament the Parliament
NSW Premier the Premier
Commissioner of Police Police Commissioner
Do not use FULL CAPITALS for titles, headings or blocks of text as they are difficult to read
and dominating.
When a word or an expression (such as a brand name) needs to be in full capitals in a text, use
SMALL CAPITALS.

[suse]

Depends on the context, if you are using these as general descriptions of a profession rather than specific job titles (as you are in the sentences above), then lower case is appropriate. If they are used as part of a specific title, (eg: John Smith, Speech Pathologist, Queenland Early Intervention Service), then they should be capitalised. In a research publication Autistic Spectrum Disorder should be capitalised, although it refers to a group of disorders it is a proper noun in of itself. However, it could be abbreviated or written as lower case after the first instance.

The following would also be correct ...'children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder may benefit from early intervention such as speech pathology and psychology, such as services provided at the 'X' Early Intervention Centre'

ETA: I really, really should check if the thread has been updated if I go off to feed and change children before posting LOL.