When heaven and hell are referred to as actual places, are the words capitalized? I have seen it done both ways even when they are referred to as actual places, and I have not found a fast rule on this.
skylarburris said:When heaven and hell are referred to as actual places, are the words capitalized? I have seen it done both ways even when they are referred to as actual places, and I have not found a fast rule on this.
You shouldn't see any people capitalizing it. "African" and the rest are derived from proper names of places. "Human" is a different kind of word: it doesn't mean "pertaining to the land of Hum."Anya Smith said:How about capitalizie Human. We capitalize African, Asian, Caucasian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, etc... Human is a collective for all these, yet I don't see many people capitalizing it.
reph said:You shouldn't see any people capitalizing it. "African" and the rest are derived from proper names of places. "Human" is a different kind of word: it doesn't mean "pertaining to the land of Hum."
reph said:You shouldn't see any people capitalizing it. "African" and the rest are derived from proper names of places. "Human" is a different kind of word: it doesn't mean "pertaining to the land of Hum."
Anya Smith said:No, not pertaining to the land of Hum. But is't the name of our species. I think it should be capitalized.
maestrowork said:The name of our species is Homo sapiens, which is capitalized. The word "human" is like "cat," "dog," and "rabbit." No capitalization.
That kind of capitalizing might flow from the habit of modeling human contact with aliens after the historical experience of European explorers and settlers who met, say, a new American Indian tribe or a Pacific Island population.Anya Smith said:But when sci-fi authors write about alien species and use their names, like the Zardalu, for example (Charles Sheffield, Heritage Universe). Those alien species' names are always capitalized.
Anya Smith said:Well, I'm going to capitalize us even if it's not correct. I think Humans are capital.
Anya Smith said:Well, thanks for telling me that. I wonder if other editors would feel the same way. I don't know, but this rule just bugs me. I'll get over it. It's only a click of a button to change all the "Human" in my stories.
A. J. Luxton said:It WOULD actually be kind of neat to have aliens who went around referring to humans as "You! Homosapiens!"
Cat Scratch said:I usually decide if my character or narrator believes in god (or God) and leave it up to her. In one book my narrator was agnostic and didn't capitalize dieties and related terms. This latest ms, my new character was a believer.
A. J. Luxton said:It WOULD actually be kind of neat to have aliens who went around referring to humans as "You! Homosapiens!"
Jamesaritchie said:I've seen this argued both ways. Some say that both Heaven and Hell should be capitalized if the the reference is to an actual place, the Christian Heaven and Hell. Others say no because neither is capitalized in the Bible.
I tend to agree with the latter, but you can get an argument, whichever way you go.