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Capitalization

Capitalization errors and mistakes can be easy to overlook. See the guidelines below to ensure proper use of capitalization when writing for Military Community and Family Policy:

  • For the capitalization of specific abbreviations and acronyms, see the Use of Terms A-Z section at the end of this guide. 
  • If creating or working on a glossary, capitalize the first word of the term being defined only if it is a proper name. 
    • For example: child abuse — This refers to any physical injury, sexual maltreatment, emotional maltreatment, deprivation of necessities, lack of supervision or combinations of these actions or omissions toward a child by an individual responsible for the child’s welfare. 
  • Do not capitalize “services,” “service member,” “service provider” or “warfighter.”
  • Always capitalize the names of the U.S. military services: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, National Guard, Army Reserves, Marine Corps Reserves and Navy Reserves. Do not capitalize “reserves” or “reserve component.”
  • For headings, composition titles and lower-third graphics in videos, webinars and social media posts, capitalize the initial letter of all words — except prepositions fewer than four letters, “to” when not an infinitive, coordinating conjunctions and articles (unless they are the first or last words in the header or title).
  • For subheads within an article, only capitalize the first word and proper nouns.
  • Military titles, such as “commander,” are capitalized only when used as part of a heading, composition title or lower-third graphic, or when the full military title precedes an individual’s name. 
  • War Department (or Defense Department) directives, instructions, manuals, memorandum of understanding, DD forms or any other regulations should be capitalized only when they are paired with the issuance number.
    • For example: DOD Instruction 6400.01 addresses the Family Advocacy Program. This instruction was published in 2019.
  • Specific programs and services available to service members should be capitalized, but general services should not be. For example: The Family Advocacy Program is one of several advocacy services available to service members on an installation.
  • For a hyphenated word in a heading or composition title, capitalize the first letter of the second word. For example: “The Star-Spangled Banner” or No-Cost Services Available to Military Families.