問題:我應該將engineer一字改為大寫嗎?
- 客戶來信提問
回答:
只有在engineering或engineer是專有名詞的一部分時才需要大寫,如學校或機構的名稱。如果您只是在談論職業的話,應該保持小寫,一般的名詞不需要大寫。
下面舉一些如何使用engineering和engineer的例句:
一般名詞:Many of my best friends are electronics engineers.
一般名詞:Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American engineer who left a respected legacy in both his native Croatia and his adopted home, the United States.
一般名詞:She intends to major in engineering when she goes to college.
專有名詞:The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET) is a nonprofit that accredits colleges and universities in different fields related to its name.
學術寫作中的大寫規則
名字和頭銜
姓名或由人名和頭銜組成的字詞會使用大寫:
Dr Thomas Chen、Mr Thomas Chang、Thomas Lin, MA、Thomas Tsai, MD、Thomas Li, PhD、Mrs Anna Chang、Ms Anna Li、Miss Anne Yu、Governor Jones、Auntie Jill and Uncle Ian、Professor Yang、Major Chung、Alexander the Great (注意:the不用大寫)、the Elizabethan Age、a Christian civilization、Buddhist philosophy
* 注意:the不用大寫
頭銜在用於指稱一個大類別下的單一個體時不用大寫:
(1) He is a professor at the university.(意指眾多教授中的一員)
(2) She is a director in the company.(意指眾多董事中的一員)
地名
地名及由地名衍生的字需要大寫:
(1) Paris、France、French cuisine、Bombay、India、Indian culture、Ghana、 Afro-Americans、Montreal、Canada、Canadian students、Asia、Asian studies、the United States、the U.S. policy、the United Kingdom、British traditions
定冠詞the作為地名的一部分時,通常不會大寫,如上例所示。
書名等的用字
提及書籍、雜誌、文章、短篇故事、作文、戲劇、電影、影集時,所有內含的字皆要大寫,而其中的冠詞、連接詞、介係詞除了位於字首時需要大寫外,其餘位置不用大寫。
(1) The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary(書籍)
(2) A Dictionary of Medical Terms(書籍)
(3) An Act of Bravery(文章)
(4) Learning by Doing(文章)
(5) Metaphors in Discourse(文章)
(6) The Marriage of Figaro(歌劇)
(7) The Times(報紙)
(8) Time(雜誌)
大學課程的名稱
特定大學課程的名稱需要大寫,但如果只是一般科目名除非是以語言為名,否則不用大寫。
(1) Lars is taking Chemistry III this term.(大學課程需大寫)
(2) Have you registered for Law L20?(大學課程需大寫)
(3) She is writing a paper for her world history course.(一般科目名)
(4) Many universities require students to take courses in English literature.
最後的例句中,English是大寫,因為國籍用字要大寫,但是literature沒有大寫,這是因為所指稱的並非特定的課程。
宗教名
宗教、宗教組織及用於指稱信仰某宗教的人們的名稱需要大寫,相對應的形容詞和神名亦須大寫。
(1) Christian/Christendom/Christianity
(2) Jew/Jewish/Judaism
(3) Muslim/Islamic/Islamitic/Islam
(4) Hindu/Hinduism
(5) God(但是複數的gods不用大寫)
(6) the First Baptist Church
(7) Mormon
(8) St. John’s Lutheran Church
(9) Protestant
(10) Allah
日期、月份等
日期、月份、星期幾、假日、歷史上的一段時期和歷史事件通常要大寫,但是季節不需要大寫。
(1) January、February等
(2) Sunday、Monday等
(3) New Year’s Day
(4) Thanksgiving
(5) Easter
(6) Passover(‘Jewish Easter’)
(7) the Middle Ages(the通常不用大寫)
(8) the Civil War
(9) The warmest months are in the summer.
(10) Many allergies arise during spring.
(11) There is a dramatic difference between autumn (BrE)/fall (US) and winter months in some countries.
天文名
行星、恆星、星座名要大寫:Jupiter、Venus、Gemini、Mars、Saturn、Orion。然而,earth、moon、sun大部份的情況都不用大寫,只有在與其他天體一同陳述的情況下會大寫,這時候earth前面沒有the。「The earth revolves around the sun.」不用大寫;但是「The four planets closest to the sun—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—compose the inner solar system.」,則需要大寫。
概要、列表、圖示
概要、列表或地圖圖示各點的第一個字要大寫。下面提供相關實例的樣式:
3 Material and method
3.1 Corpora
3.1.1 On the use of corpora in linguistic research
3.1.2 Corpora used
3.1.2.1 PAROLE
3.1.2.2 BNC
3.2 Creating appropriate databases
3.2.1 Further reductions and divisions of my databases
3.2.1.1 Parsing errors
3.2.1.2 Direct modification
3.2.1.3 Negation and negative polarity items
3.2.1.4 Passives
3.3 Linguistic intuition and informants
3.4 Concluding remarks
基點
東西南北(east, west, south, north)及相關複合詞在用於指涉特定地區或專有名詞中時,需要大寫,但單純用於指方向時不用大寫。
(1) They holiday in [the South].
(2) [The Northeast] has severe storm warnings tonight.
(3) Professor James is an expert on [the Middle East].
(4) Mr. and Mrs. Jones go east every summer.
(5) Kiruna is north of Stockholm and Malmö is south of it.
(6) [Western Australia] and [South Australia] are west of [New South Wales].
(7) The language section is along the north end of the main library.
(8) When you come to the next corner, turn left and drive east for three kilometers.