The infuriating rules of title capitalization
Jan 9th, 2009 | By Jennifer Roach | Category: Grammar@mikenichols0 suggested that we cover the rules of capitalization in titles. This is one of those special cases in writing that can get so complicated that it almost warrants a book of its own.
There are two main forms of title capitalization:
- Sentence case — only the first word is capitalized, except for proper nouns and other words that normally demand capitalization. Sentence case is the most common form of title capitalization.
- Title case — Most or all of the words are capitalized, depending on their part of speech.
Take a look at the differences in the cases:
- Sentence case: A toddler takes over the world and demands cookies and ice cream.
- Title case: A Toddler Takes over the World and Demands Cookies and Ice Cream.
When deciding which case to use in your title, consult your style guide first. Here’s a summary of various styles’ approaches:
- MLA says to capitalize all words in the title except for articles, prepositions, and conjunctions.
- Chicago style demands capitalization of the first and last word of the title, plus all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions.
- AP says to only capitalize the first word and proper nouns.
The official Pro Writing Tips recommendation is to use sentence case if you can. It has a more modern appearance and is easier to read.
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This article was written by Jennifer Roach http://jennifermroach.com Jennifer is a fiction writer, blogger, and freelance editor/proofreader. You can follow her on Twitter @jennifermroach or on MySpace . To see more posts click here |
But…but…I just finally got over the habit of taping the space bar twice after periods! This could take me decades to master with a long intermediary period of random capitalization and a nervous heart.
Thanks, John, for this post. I’ve been trying to title case my titles and keep stumbling on words that are correct by one standard and incorrect by another. My gut (and Mrs Linthicum) say to title case the titles; my head (and you) say to sentence case them.
Actually, I’m doing both. I’m title-casing post titles, and sentence casing the headers within posts.
Wishy-washy? Perhaps. After this post, I’m going to seriously consider making it easy on myself and use sentence casing for everything.
[...] Pro Writing Tips » Capitalization of titles and headlines [...]
Tracy: Quit while you’re ahead! The human brain cannot unlearn both double-spacing and sentence casing. If I were you, I’d turn on Caps Lock, just to be safe.
Mike: Sentence case is a boon in one major sense: we no longer have to ask ourselves how long is a long preposition.
Many style guides say to capitalize prepositions shorter than 4-5 letters. I kid you not. Why someone out there decided this would be a good rule is beyond me.