1. victo

    victo Active Member

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    Nouns Followed by Numbers or Letters

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by victo, Feb 10, 2015.

    In nonfiction is it a good idea to capitalize nouns that precede numbers or letters, as in:

    Refer to Table 1.
    He presented Exhibit A.
    It happened in Chapter 4.
    He stole cash from Register 2.
    I liked him since Day 1.
    That is illustrated in Appendix B.

    If this is good, should we cap the plurals too?

    Refer to Tables 1 and 2.
    He presented Exhibits A and C.
    It happened in Chapters 4 and 5.
    He stole cash from Registers 2 and 6.
    That is illustrated in Appendixes B and C.

    Thanks.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2015
  2. lustrousonion

    lustrousonion Senior Member

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    Here's an explanation about capitalization from the Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation (link). Not to dismiss your question here--keep posting!--but you seem to have a lot of questions that this book could help you with.
     
  3. Shadowfax

    Shadowfax Contributor Contributor

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    There is 1 Appendix.
    There are 2 Appendices.
     
  4. stevesh

    stevesh Banned Contributor

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    I have 1 appendix.
     
  5. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    It depends on context. In academic papers, words like "table" and "figure" are capitalized when preceding a number (e.g., "Refer to Table 2."). In your examples, "register" and "day" would not be capitalized because they aren't functioning as proper nouns. I feel like "exhibit" could go either way; again, it depends on context.
     
  6. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    In a legal document it would definitely be capitalized.
     

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