7. Capitalization, Apostrophes & Editing Passages

Capitalization rules:

• Always capitalize: the first word of a sentence; proper nouns (names of specific people, places, organizations, days, months, holidays); titles used directly before a name (President Lincoln, but the president spoke).
• Do not capitalize: seasons (spring, fall), general directions (drive north, but she lives in the North), common nouns used generally (I love history, but History 101 is a course name).

• WRONG: I am going to visit my Aunt in the Spring.
• CORRECT: I am going to visit my aunt in the spring.

Apostrophes:

• Possessive singular: add 's -- the dog's leash.
• Possessive plural (ending in s): add only the apostrophe -- the dogs' leashes (multiple dogs).
• Contractions: apostrophe replaces the missing letter(s) -- don't, can't, they're.
• NEVER use an apostrophe to make a plain plural.

• WRONG: The student's received their grade's.
• CORRECT: The students received their grades.

Possessives vs. plurals:

• cats = more than one cat (plural, no apostrophe).
• cat's = belonging to one cat (singular possessive).
• cats' = belonging to multiple cats (plural possessive).

Editing a full paragraph (GED®-style practice):

Read the passage below and identify every error:

"Last Summer, my sister and I visited are grandparents in Boston. We drove for six hours, then we stopped at a rest stop for food. My grandmother, who is a excellent cook, had already prepared a huge dinner. The effect of the long drive were tiredness, but seeing are family made it worthwhile."

Errors and corrections:

• 'Last Summer' -- capitalize Summer? No: seasons are not capitalized. Fix: last summer.
• 'are grandparents' -- wrong word: 'are' is a verb; should be 'our' (possessive). Fix: our grandparents.
• 'then we stopped' after a comma joining two independent clauses -- comma splice. Fix: We drove for six hours; then we stopped... OR ...hours, and then we stopped.
• 'a excellent' -- article error: use 'an' before vowel sounds. Fix: an excellent.
• 'The effect...were tiredness' -- subject-verb agreement: 'effect' is singular, so use 'was'. Fix: The effect...was tiredness.
• 'are family' -- wrong word again: should be 'our'. Fix: our family.

⚠️ Common mistake: apostrophe abuse -- adding apostrophes to all words ending in 's'. Plain plurals never need an apostrophe.

💡 Tip: on the GED® editing passage, work through errors one category at a time -- first check capitalization, then apostrophes, then subject-verb agreement, then word choice.