The other elements of the compound are generally capitalized, unless they are parts of speech that are not capitalized articles, conjunctions, or prepositions. In this example, Half-Blood is a hyphenated compound. Blood is capitalized because it is a noun.
If you come across a title that contains a hyphenated compound with a prefix that cannot stand as a word on its own, the second element of the compound should be written in lowercase unless it is a proper noun or proper adjective. Examples of this include such words as "Co-owner" and "Re-elect. When a spelled-out number or simple fraction is used in a title, both components require capitalization.
You're getting to be an expert with title case capitalization, so instead of rehashing what we have already learned, let's move on, shall we? This is one of those picky rules that is easy to overlook. This rule will most often apply to the titles of academic works in the medical or scientific fields.
If you are working with a title that contains the scientific name of a species, then the second portion of the name must be lowercased. The rules outlined above are the usual conventions when it comes to title case capitalization rules, but make sure that you check the specific style guide that you are using.
In addition to formatting, many style guides have established their own rules for the proper use of title case. And though many of these style guides follow the basic rules outlined in this article, there are some variations that you definitely must consider. For example, remember the previous point about prepositions always being written in lowercase? Well, let's compare two style guides to clarify some of the differences that exist.
According to The Chicago Manual of Style 8. However, some style guides allow words that are longer than five letters to be capitalized such as the style guide of the Associated Press. Here are some useful links that provide more information on the rules for title case capitalization according to various style guides:.
Though properly capitalizing a title of your own might be difficult, we hope that this guide has eliminated some of the confusion regarding what to capitalize in a title.
The majority of the rules are pretty straightforward, but others such as the capitalization of prepositions vary among style guides. Make sure you know which style guide you want to use and that you stick to it. Scribendi's in-house editors work with writers from all over the globe to perfect their writing. They know that no piece of writing is complete without a professional edit, and they love to see a good piece of writing transformed into a great one.
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Toggle navigation. Infographics Videos Podcasts Articles. Written by Scribendi Confused about what to capitalize in a title?
The Recommended Books page on my website syntaxtraining. I wish I lived close to you. I would gladly want to attend your lesson where you have 12 students at a time. Is there any idea how much you sell your DVD and other books to someone unable to attend the room that you will personally teach?
I am happy that you are out there to help everybody by making writing rules simple. I always look up your site for tips! Or the administrative assistant position has been filled. Or, I am applying for the administrative assistant position. Patty, it is a question of company style. You do not need to capitalize a title unless it comes directly before a name example: Board Chairman Robert Burke.
However, many companies do capitalize job titles. Sign in. Log into your account. Forgot your password? Privacy Policy. Password recovery. Recover your password. Get help. Grammar and Usage Writing Tips. Here is what to capitalize: All words of four or more letters, no matter what or where the words are more on this rule later The first word of the title and of the subtitle The last word of the title ALL OTHER WORDS except conjunctions and, or, but, nor, yet, so, for , articles a, an, the , and short prepositions in, to, of, at, by, up, for, off, on.
Parallelism in Writing. Lester, thank you for responding to Penny. I would have had to research an answer. Sentences, especially questions, can be perfect headings. As always, I appreciate your input. Whatever works. Yours, Jean M. Hi, Jean. I am glad these rules were helpful to you and Harry. Thanks to all! I would not agree that title case is best for tag lines, for instance. Sentence case faster to read than title case. Would you think a tagline was presented incorrectly if you saw it displayed using title case?
Hi, Joanne. Thank you for your interesting question. Are you supposed to end a sentence describing your skills like this: Lynn is great as a writer in business, fiction, helping people, etc. OR should there actually be three periods at the end, as a law website suggested. Good luck! Hi Lynn! Thank you very much for helping me out! I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. The bad thing is I have epilepsy so I really have no chance of attending anything like that.
Thank you again. We reference two of the most common style guides, AP and Chicago, throughout this post. According to most style guides, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are capitalized in titles of books , articles, and songs.
A few parts of speech tend to be lowercase. For instance, articles the , an , and a are lowercase. Some conjunctions e. For instance, in AP style title case, prepositions of four letters or more are capitalized. But in Chicago-style title case, all prepositions are lowercase, no matter their length. We explain this more below. Our examples below can help orient you to capitalization rules across different style guides, so you can title your books, articles, essays, and more like a pro in no time.
Incorrect: Girl on A Train is a thriller by A. Correct: Girl on a Train is a thriller by A. In each of these titles, the and a are not capitalized because they are articles. Next are conjunctions. Conjunctions are words that link other words, phrases, or clauses together.
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