Salam!
We sometimes take it for granted that a given piece of information is true as, logically, it seems so.
But, at a moment of self-conscience, one feels the necessity to review things, ensure about things, questioning everything, doubting about everything, however simple they may seem.
While ‘launching the Capital Letters and Punctuation Marks Campaign’, I felt really that I should make sure that everything I say should be based on well-checked rules. I thus found myself ignoring whether the word ‘earth’, as a planet, is considered to be as a proper noun or a common noun. This has urged me to make a little and immediate research, since the word would appear in the second exam paper. I felt really surprised when I learnt the following:
The earth, moon, and sun are not capitalized unless in a list of celestial objects or part of another name.
Correct: I was born on the earth.
Correct: The first three planets from the Sun are Mercury, Venus, and Earth. (In a list)
You’ll find very useful information through this link.
Capitalising Proper Nouns
http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000045.htm
Names Not Capitalised
http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000046.htm
Rules for Capitalisation Contents
-Capitalising sentences
-Capitalising quotations
-Special cases for capitalising
-Capitalising in letters. And others…
Here is the link:
http://englishplus.com/grammar/captcont.htm
As for subjects-disciplines , ‘Maths’, ‘Physics’, still I’m not sure, whether they are considered as proper nouns in all situations… In MS4 book, I found the word ‘Physics’ capitalised (File 3); and since it’s not trustworthy, I should make a small research…
I’ve read somewhere that subject-disciplines such as Chinese, English, and Physics are proper nouns.
But there isn’t a unified view…Still I should make sure.
While searching, I bumped into very interesting ways of teaching, reinforcing Capitals and other points:
A useful video…
http://www.ricecookerstudios.com/assets/animation/anim00A.swf
A learning site
http://www.harcourtschool.com/index.html
Quizzes
http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/grammar/proper_noun/quiz223.html
Useful games
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/basketball/index.html
You may find other things you need through this link, Punctuation Marks comprised.
http://englishplus.com/grammar/contents.htm
Wish you’ll find them useful.
Salam!