Capitalize My Title (2024)

FAQs

What words do you not capitalize in an essay title? ›

If all else fails and you don't have a reference guide to help, a good rule to follow is to capitalize all words in a title. Exceptions include the following: a, an, and, as, at, but, by, for, in, nor, of, on, or, the, and up. Again, this trick holds true unless they're the beginning or ending words in the title.

According to most style guides, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are capitalized in titles of books, articles, and songs. You'd also capitalize the first word and (according to most guides) the last word of a title, regardless of what part of speech they are.

That's your quick and dirty tip: capitalize job titles when they come before a name and are an official title, and lowercase job titles when they come after a name or are merely descriptive.

In title case, the first letter of each word in the title should be capitalized except for certain small words like “a,” “the,” and “of.” Example: Title case I read The Catcher in the Rye yesterday.

In title case, the word 'under' is typically lowercased in all major style guides, including Chicago, MLA, APA, and AP due to being a short preposition. However, when 'under' is the first or last word of the title, capitalize it for proper emphasis.

Under AP Style: Capitalize only the first word of your headline and all proper nouns or abbreviations; all other words should be lowercase (e.g. “The people making North Dakota's future bright”). Use numerals for all numbers (e.g. “3 ways to write headlines” as opposed to “Three ways to write headlines”).

Proper nouns are always capitalized in English, no matter where they fall in a sentence. Because they endow nouns with a specific name, they are also sometimes called proper names.

Keep in mind that principal should only be capitalized if it's part of someone's title (or if it's at the beginning of a sentence). “Principal” can refer to someone who runs a school. Principal can also refer to anyone who is in a leading position. Gilbert is the director and principal of the consulting agency.

The names of teams, leagues, and conferences are capitalized. Team names are capitalized even when they do not include the city or school associated with the team.

Do not capitalize articles (a, an, the), the coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet), or the words to and as unless such a word is the first or last word in the title or subtitle.

Do you capitalize after a hyphen in a title? ›

If you are using title case, the word immediately preceding the hyphen should be capitalized. The word following the hyphen is capitalized, unless it is an article, preposition, or coordinating conjunction.

Capitalize only the first word of a book or article title. Capitalize proper nouns, initials, and acronyms in a title. Separate a subtitle with a colon and a space. Capitalize the first letter of the subtitle.