Points taken off in school for capitalizing “Church”

[LundyLund]

I think you’ve got a decent argument against the mark down, as you specified what the “short hand” capitalized terms meant. But, you are at a secular, state institution, so expecting the professor to accept this is a different matter.

Maybe instead of “arguing” for your points to be restored, you could meet with your professor to better understand why what you did was improper, given that you defined your terms. That might result in the points being restored (in whole or in part), or, at the very minimum, you’ll have a better understanding of how your professor is going to look at things in the future.

 

[TheLittleLady]

You would do well to ask which style guide your professor wants you to follow. Some examples:

The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition

Find it. Write it. Cite it. The Chicago Manual of Style Online is the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. ¶ It is the indispensable reference for writers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers, informing the...

www.chicagomanualofstyle.org

Capitalization | Western Michigan University

wmich.edu

https://www.durhamtech.edu/faculty/marketing/capitalization.htm

 

[1ke]

Do I have a defense against her to get her to raise my grade?

You can make a defense. Whether your professor accepts it is up to them. Not all of the examples you cited would be cases for capitalization.

If this is an English class where you’ve been instructed to use the Chicago Manual of Style or the MLA handbook, or your university requires you follow a style guide for all papers, you need to follow the style guide as it pertains to capitalization.

 

[midori]

It’s probably just the difference between whether one usage is a proper noun, and whether another usage is a regular noun.

For example, when you’re using “Church” to refer to an institution, it’s capitalized. “I want to be more active in the Church” can either mean “I want to be more active in the Catholic Church” in the sense of my religious institution, or “I want to be more active in my church” in the sense of my personal parish. So you need to make yourself clear, and throw in a few extra words if you need to.

Same thing with adjectives like “divine”. If it’s being used as a proper noun, like a euphemism for God, as in “Divine Provience”, or as part of a title-- “The Divine Mercy of Jesus”, for example-- it can be capitalized. If you’re just using it as an ordinary adjective to refer to something about God, like, “When I went to the botanic gardens, I felt as though I was surrounded by the divine presence of God”, or “by the divine providence of God, he came home safely from war”-- it would be lower-case.

Same thing for nouns like “mysteries”. If you’re using it as a title, like “The First Glorious Mystery”, that’s appropriate. If you’re using it in just an ordinary-noun-sense, you’d use lower-case, like “The mysteries of Christ’s passion and death.”

But even checking out style guides like this one, you see there are things I’d disagree with-- like, for example, it suggests a writer writing for their imprint say “the immaculate conception”, with is correct if you’re talking about an event, whereas “the Immaculate Conception” is usually used as a title in our circles.

 

[hmikell7]

They were all being used as proper nouns and titles. After speaking with the dean of the English department, and being told there was nothing wrong with the capitalization, especially in light of the professor not giving us any style guidelines for the paper, I’m supposed to be meeting with her and her department’s dean today to get the problem fixed.

 

[midori]

It’s all part of undergrad. I remember my English teacher going on for hours about the subtleties of poetry and symbolism and analysis and stuff like that, and I’m like, “Uhhhh… this is a poem about a sparrow. In a tree. Why does it have to be symbolic about the internal chaos and political turmoil of the despair of human mortality. It’s about a bird.” And then when I wrote an essay about an experience I had as a waitress serving a diner, without actually spelling out that I-was-a-waitress, but making it clear from context. And I still remember he took off points because I didn’t clearly spell out in black and white, “I-was-a-waitress.” And I’m like, “You can make a jump from sparrows to the-despair-of-human-mortality”, but if say I’m bringing someone a hamburger and a beer, you can’t figure out I’m a waitress!"

 

[rfournier103]

Glad it worked out!

 

[Tulitas]

Exactly. No one should capitalize Church unless in the context of liturgy.
Don’t make a big deal of this because it’s not.
@Usagi, great post!

 

[vsedriver]

if you used ‘Church’ as a proper name then the teacher was incorrect. The words ‘divine’ and ‘mysteries’ may or may not be proper names depending on how they were used. When writing an essay it is best to be very clear in the beginning so at the first use of the word ‘church’ you would reference it as the Catholic Church and then could use simply ‘Church’ for the rest of the paper. Likewise with divine and mysteries. You would need to show her that you are grammatically correct in order to dispute her grading. Treat this as a lesson in English grammar and not a case of disputing theology.

 

[JulianN]

But even the Catholic News Service style guide calls for church to be lowercase. Specific example from the style guide: “The church teaches… not the Church teaches.,.”

The OP needs to find out what the professor uses for a style guide.