What's in a Title?

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oursilverstrands
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What's in a Title?

Post by oursilverstrands »

Jan,

I know that certain words in a title are written in lower case, but is there a cardinal rule or list to determine which words?

Lillian
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I have a love affair with words. I write, even when I think I can't. I'm hooked on words!

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Re: What's in a Title?

Post by glorybee »

lish1936 wrote:Jan,

I know that certain words in a title are written in lower case, but is there a cardinal rule or list to determine which words?

Lillian
A general rule would be to keep articles (a, an, the), small conjunctions (and, so...), and small prepositions (for, by, on, to...) lower case. That's not a complete list, and I don't think there's a definitive list, because sometimes a small word may be significant in the title and need to be capitalized.

Different styles are preferred by different publications, however. Some capitalize every word, and others only capitalize the first word and proper nouns.

If you're publishing for yourself, or for a publication or site that doesn't have a preferred style, use your best judgment. If you're uneasy about your choices, you wouldn't be wrong to capitalize every word.
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Deb Porter
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Re: What's in a Title?

Post by Deb Porter »

The simplest is to use the Associated Press style. It has the least rules. Here is the list of words you use lower case for:

a
an
and
at
but
by
for
in
nor
of
on
or
so
the
to
up
yet

The Chicago Manual of Style is more complicated, so I stick with the above list and stay consistent.

Love, Deb
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