Major Spelling Rules:

Use i before e except after c or when sounded like the letter a as in neighbor or weigh:

I before E: friend
E before I: weigh
EXCEPTIONS: seize

Drop a silent e when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel. Keep the silent e if the suffix begins with a consonant:

Leave Leaving
Move   Moving
EXCEPTIONS: Argument, Truly, Changeable

When adding s or d to words ending in y, ordinarily change the y to ie when the y is preceded by a consonant but not when it is preceeded by a vowel:

Money Monies, Monied (Also Moneys or Moneyed)
Penny  Pennies
Try Tried

For proper names ending in y, do not change the y to i even if preceded by a consonant:

Kennedy Kennedys

If the final consonant is preceded by a single vowel and the consonant ends in a one-syllable word or a stressed syllable, double the consonant when adding a suffix beginning with a vowel:

Get Getting

Add s to form the pleural of most nouns; add es to singular nouns ending in s, sh, ch, and x:

Chair Chairs
Index Indexes

Ordinarily add s to nouns ending in o when the o is preceded by a vowel; add es when it is preceded by a consonant:

Lasso Lassoes
Patio Patios

To form the pleural of a hyphenated compound word, add s to the chief word even if it does not appear at the end:

Father-In-Law Fathers-In-Law

English words derived from other languages such as Latin or French sometimes form the pleural as they would in their original language:

Medium Media
Chateau Chateaux

Do not misspell a word because of mispronunciation:

Mischievous, Surprise, Arctic

Abbreviations:

Use standard abbreviations for the titles immediately before and after proper names:

Mr. Tom Jones Ms. Lily Conners
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Mohan Kumar M.D.

Do not abbreviate a title if it is not used with a proper name:

The doctor (NOT M.D.) saw many patients.

Use familiar abbreviations for the names of organizations, corporations, and countries:

UPS, ABC, USA

When using an unfamiliar abbreviation throughout a paper, write the full name followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis at the first mention of the name. Then use the abbreviation in the rest of the paper.

use BC, AD, a.m, p.m, and $ only with specific dates, times, numbers, and amounts:

2000 AD 3:30 P.M.

Avoid using a.m., p.m., No., or $ when not accompanied by a specific figure:

We left late in the p.m. (AVOID THIS USAGE)
What apartment No. is it? (AVOID THIS USAGE)

Be sparing in the use of Latin abbreviations. This is acceptable only on rare occaisions: in footnotes and biographies, and in informal writing for comments in parenthesis:

e.g For example
etc. And so forth

In formal writing, use the appropriate English phrases:

Many laws are obsolete, for example (NOT e.g.): spitting on the sidewalk and curbing the horse.

In formal writing, abbreviations for the following are not commonly accepted:

Personal names Courses of study
Units of measurement Divisions of written work
Days of the week States and countries
Holidays Dates and times
Months Metric units

Do not abbreviate company and incorporated unless their abbreviated forms are part of an official name.

Capitalization:

Capitalize proper nouns and words derived from them; do not capitalize common nouns:

Proper Nouns Common Words
God A god
Japanese gardens An ornamental garden

Months, holidays, and days of the week are treated as proper nouns; the seasons and numbers of the days of the month are not.

My birthday falls on a Friday in October.
The last day of summer school is July seventh.

Names of school subjects are capitalized only if they are names of languages. Names of particular courses are capitalized:

I am taking English, Anthropology 105, And a Geology course.

Do not capitalize common nouns to make them seem important:

John is an influential computer programmer (NOT Computer Programmer)

Captialize chapter titles and titles of other major divisions of a work:

"I Was" is the last chapter in Robert's" book On Colin.

Capitalize the first word of a sentence:

Tony did well in class.

When a sentence appears in parenthesis, capitalize the first word unless the parentheses appear within another sentence:

The number of birds migrating south this year declined (see Table 1).
The number of birds migrating south this year declined. (This information is represented inTable 1).

Capitalize the first word of a quoted sentence unless it is blended into the sentence that introduces it:

Fran wrote her thesis on "The Fall of Corporate America."

Do not capitalize the first word after a colon unless it begins an independent clause, in which case capitalization is optional (but remember to be consistent with whichever option you choose):

The class can be divided into two groups: new students and returning students.

Capitalize abbreviations for departments and agencies of government, other organizations, and corporations; capitalize trade names and the call letters of radio and television stations:

KVIQ-TV CIA
WKRP IBM
Hewlett - Packard