English Grammar Rules for Capitalizing Titles

"Gone with the Wind" or "Gone With The Wind"? Or is it something else? Improperly capitalizing titles is not an uncommon transgression for writers. Whether it is a high school essay or a professionally published article, it is important that your work adheres to the correct procedures for capitalizing the names of books, movies, songs, poems, plays, events, and any other proper titles. Fortunately for you, the rules are straightforward and easy to memorize.
  1. First and Last Words

    • Always capitalize the first and last words of the title.

    Important Words

    • Capitalize all the important words in the title. This includes all nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and adverbs. Note that this includes short verbs such as "Is" or "Be" and common adjectives such as "His" or "Their."

    Unimportant Words

    • Do not capitalize articles (a, an, the), prepositions (at, by, in, to, etc.) and conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor) that are three letters in length or less.

    Four-Letter Rule

    • Capitalize all words that are four letters in length or more. This includes longer prepositions such as "Before," "With," "Towards," "Across," etc.

    Hyphenations

    • When writing hyphenated words, always capitalize the first element. In most cases, the subsequent element will be capitalized, although some exceptions exist. The second element does not get capitalized if is a word that would not normally be capitalized in a title ("How-to") or if it is a modifier ("B-flat"). The second element also is not capitalized if the first is a prefix ("Re-education"). But the general capitalization rules trump hyphenation rules: always capitalize the final element of a compound that appears at the end of a title.

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