The two biggest mistakes I see students and adults make on social media focus on capitalization and apostrophes.

1. Capitalization: we think way too many words are upper case

“We’re so excited to Welcome Everyone to our Kickoff Meeting on Tuesday Night!”

Only two words in the above sentence should be capitalized. Do you know what they are?

• We’re (the first word in the sentence)
• Tuesday (proper noun)

Every other word is lower case.

“We’re so excited to welcome everyone to our kickoff meeting on Tuesday night!”

Unless the word is a proper noun, do not capitalize. I know sometimes words feel important (“Welcome Everyone”), but they do not receive the uppercase treatment.

Examples of proper nouns:

• Name of your school (Acme High School)
• Name of your organization (National Honor Society)
• Name of an event (2019 Spring Conclave)
• Name of a piece of technology (Google Chromebook)

2. Apostrophes: we think plural words need an apostrophe

“We expect to have more than 200 student’s at the rally.”

Incorrect. We use an apostrophe to show possession.

“I took the student’s backpack by mistake.”

When we use plural nouns, there’s no need for apostrophes. Add the “s” and leave it at that (ex: “We expect to have more than 200 students at the rally”).

As you compose social media content, keep your capitalization to a minimum and leave apostrophes out of the mix with respect to plural words.