Confusing capitals!

Using capital letters in academic writing can be confusing. In modern English there is a tendency to use capitals less, but they are an important guide for the reader and certain rules need to be followed:

• A new sentence must begin with a capital letter: In the beginning ...
• Names of organisations and their acronyms: The University of East Anglia (UEA)
• Days and months: Sunday March 10th
• Nationality words: Germans live in Germany
• Names of people and places: Dr Martin Lee from Singapore
• Article and book titles: Power and the State (main words only)

We normally use capitals to talk about geographical or political areas: Middle East, the West, but not with directions e.g. east, west.
 
Certain titles also require capitals: Prime Minister, Vice-Chancellor.

In every subject there are schools of thought that generally need capitals: Communism, Keynesianism, Marxism.

There are also well-known events such as The Second World War, The War on Terror and The Industrial Revolution that are usually capitalised.

As with other aspects of writing, the more articles you read the more examples you will find of good practice in your academic area.