capitalize title of an essay

The Editor’s Manual

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Capitalization

Title Case: Capitalization of Titles, Headings, and Headlines

Capitalization styles: Title and sentence case

Capitalize the first, last, and all major words in a book title, headline, or first-level heading. Major words are all words except articles ( a , an , the ), prepositions ( on , in , of , etc.), coordinating conjunctions ( and , or , but , etc.), and the word to . This capitalization style is called title case .

Title case: T he C urious I ncident of the D og in the N ight- T ime
Title case: T he S trange C ase of D r. J ekyll and M r. H yde

Capitalize lower-level headings using sentence case , in which you capitalize only the words you would normally capitalize in a sentence.

Sentence case: T he curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Sentence case: T he strange case of D r. J ekyll and M r. H yde

Style guides like the AP Stylebook , Chicago Manual of Style , APA Publication Manual , and MLA Handbook prescribe additional rules, discussed in this article.

Graphic titled "Title Case Capitalization." The left panel shows a bespectacled woman sitting on a human-sized, blocky letter "H," working on a tablet. The right panel lists rules and examples: Capitalize the first and last words; a word after a colon; all other words except articles (a, an, the), prepositions (in, of, at, on, etc.), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, so, yet, for), and the word "to"; the first element and major words in a hyphenated term. Examples: (1)To the Lighthouse, (2) The Year of the Flood, (3) Of Mice and Men, (4) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, (5) Nineteen Eighty-Four, (6) Something to Answer For.

Title case is also called headline style or up style: you see it used in headings and titles of books, movies, TV shows, articles, and other works. Sentence case, also called sentence style or down style, is used for second-level headings and lower. News headlines have traditionally been capitalized using title case, although these days, sentence case is often used, especially online.

Title case: General rules

Here are the general rules for capitalizing titles and headings:

Capitalize the first word and last word of a title.
Capitalize all major words, which are all words except articles ( a , an , the ), prepositions (e.g., on , in , of , at ), and coordinating conjunctions ( and , or , but , and nor ; also for , yet , and so when used as conjunctions).
Always lowercase the word to .
Capitalize the first element of a hyphenated term. Capitalize any subsequent elements only if they are major words.
Capitalize the first word of a subheading that appears after a colon.
Break a rule if you need to—for example, if a preposition is emphasized in a title, capitalize it.

Major words are all words except articles , prepositions , and coordinating conjunctions .

L ove in the T ime of C holera
T hree M en in a B oat
P ride and P rejudice
R equiem for a D ream
C atch M e I f Y ou C an
The P ortrait of a L ady
The W ay W e L ive N ow
The G irl W ho P layed with F ire
M en without W omen
The G round beneath H er F eet
E verything I s I lluminated

The first and last words of a title are always capitalized, no matter what they are.

A Clockwork Orange
T he Mill on the Floss
I n Search of Lost Time
T hrough a Glass Darkly
F rom Blood and Ash
B ut What If There’s No Chimney?
A nd Then There Were None
Something to Answer F or
Something to Believe I n
All We Dream O f
Where We Come F rom

It may not always be clear at first glance whether a word should be capitalized. Check what function it serves in the title.

Capitalize over as an adverb , but lowercase it as a preposition. Adverb: The Soup Boiled O ver Preposition: The Light o ver London

The word to is lowercased, regardless of what function it serves in the sentence (unless it is the first or last word).

Train t o Busan
Zero t o One: Notes on Startups, or How t o Build the Future
A Good Man Is Hard t o Find

In a hyphenated term, the first prefix or word is always capitalized, but the following words are capitalized only if they are major words.

The M an- E ater of Malgudi Eater is a noun and should be capitalized.
The Academy’s O ut- o f- U niform Procedure Lowercase of , which is a preposition, but capitalize uniform , a noun.
The S tep- b y- S tep Guide to Finding Fairies
The T hirty- N ine Steps
The A nti- I nflammatory Diet Cookbook
Originals: How N on- C onformists Move the World
The F ire- B reathing Dragon

Any subtitle or subheading that follows a colon is always capitalized.

Computer: A History of the Information Machine
The Lord of the Rings: T he Return of the King
The View from the Cheap Seats: S elected Nonfiction
A Memoir: O f Mermaids and Waterfalls

Break a rule if you must. If a word is emphasized in a title, capitalize it, even if it is not a major word.

How to Be the Go- T o Person in Your Organization
A Run- I n with Religion and Other True Stories

Capitalize all the words that make up a phrasal verb , even a word that is a preposition.

What to Do When You R un I nto Someone You Don’t Like
How to S et U p Your Spaceship’s AI
Don’t P ut O ff Being Happy

Be and is in a title

Verbs are major words and should be capitalized, including the be verb in all its forms: be , is , are , was , were .

There Will B e Blood
Tender I s the Night
Where the Wild Things A re
Then She W as Gone
Their Eyes W ere Watching God

Also capitalize the have and do verbs in all their forms: have , has , had , do , does , did .

The Heart H as Its Reasons
Owls D o Cry
What Katy Did
Inequality: What Can Be Done ?

That in a title

The word that is always a major word and should be capitalized.

Companies T hat Fleece Their Customers
The House T hat Jack Built

It and me in a title

Capitalize all pronouns , including it , my , me , we , our, you , he , his , she , her , they , them , and who .

How I t All Began
Some of M y Favorite Things
The Best W e Can Do
The General in H is Labyrinth
The Woman W ho Did

No and not in a title

Capitalize the words no and not (a determiner and an adverb) whenever these words appear in titles.

Beasts of N o Nation
Oranges Are N ot the Only Fruit

AP and APA style

The APA Publication Manual (used in academic editing, especially the social sciences) and the AP Stylebook (preferred in journalism, media, and corporate communication) both specify one major exception to the general rules :

Capitalize all words of four letters or more, even if they are prepositions.

One Flew O ver the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Girl Who Played W ith Fire
Men W ithout Women
The Ground B eneath Her Feet
So Far F rom God
Once U pon a Time in the West
Much Ado A bout Nothing
The Light B etween Oceans
The Cat Who Walks T hrough Walls
A Woman U nder the Influence
Three Billboards O utside Ebbing, Missouri
The World U ntil Yesterday
The Man i n the Brown Suit
The Wizard o f Oz
A Home f or Lunatics
The Woman o n the Beach

Rules for AP and APA style capitalization: Capitalize the first word; a word after a colon; all words four letters or longer; all other words except articles (a, an, the), prepositions (in, of, at, etc.), and conjunctions (and, but, if, etc.) three letters or shorter; the first element and major words in a hyphenated term; the last word in AP style (but not in APA). Examples: (1) Gone With the Wind, (2) Of Human Bondage, (3) Volume One: The Real and the Unreal, (4) The Son-in-Law, (5) Something to Answer For (in AP style), (6) Something to Answer for (in APA style)

Thus, in APA and AP style, words four letters or longer are always capitalized, regardless of function. Note that the other general rules apply as usual. Capitalize any major words, even if they are three letters or shorter: be , has , had , do , did , me , who , my , etc.

We Should All B e Feminists
If I H ad Your Face
Marley and M e
The Man W ho Sold H is Ferrari

Another exception is that all conjunctions three letters or shorter are lowercased. Thus, in APA and AP style, lowercase not only the seven coordinating conjunctions ( and , or , but , nor , for , yet , so ) but also subordinating conjunctions up to three letters long (which pretty much boils down to the word if ).

Pride a nd Prejudice
I’d Tell You I Love You, b ut Then I’d Have to Kill You
Catch Me i f You Can

Also, do lowercase articles and any prepositions up to three letters long: a , an , the , for , in , of , to , etc.

The Bridge o n t he River Kwai
Stranger i n a Strange Land
The Catcher i n t he Rye
A House f or Mr. Biswas

Finally, in AP Style, the first and last words are capitalized as usual, regardless of length.

A n American Tragedy
T he Invisible Man
A s I Lay Dying
O f Human Bondage
O n the Waterfront
F or the Green Planet
These Times We Live I n

However, in APA style, the last word is capitalized only if it is a major word or longer than three letters.

Something to Answer f or
These Times We Live i n In APA style, lowercase prepositions, unless they are four letters or longer.

Chicago style

According to the Chicago Manual of Style , the conjunctions to be lowercased are and , or , nor , but , and for . All others are capitalized. Thus, the words yet and so are capitalized regardless of function. The word if is also always capitalized.

Sense a nd Sensibility
The Hobbit, o r There a nd Back Again
Though We Be Dead, Y et Our Day Will Come
Even I f We Break

Rules for Chicago style capitalization: Capitalize the first and last words; a word after a colon; all other words except "to" and "as," articles (a, an, the), prepositions (in, of, with, from, etc.), and five coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for); the first part of a hyphenated term, subsequent elements if major words, but lowercase these if first part is a prefix. Examples: (1) Gone with the Wind, (2) Of Human Bondage, (3) Volume One: The Unreal and the Real, (4) The Son-in-Law, (5) Something to Answer For

In a hyphenated phrase, if the first element is merely a prefix that could not stand by itself (e.g., anti- , pre- , non- ), don’t capitalize the second part.

The A nti- i nflammatory Diet Cookbook
The Thirty- N ine Steps The word thirty can stand by itself, so capitalize nine as well.

Remember to capitalize not just the first but also the last word of a title or heading, even if it is not a major word.

The Things We Believe I n Capitalize the last word, even a preposition.
Only One Way T hrough
It’s You I’m Dreaming O f

The MLA Handbook (used in academic writing for the humanities) specifies no exceptions to the general rules .

T hese T imes W e L ive I n
A H eartbreaking W ork of S taggering G enius
T he M oon I s a H arsh M istress

MLA-style capitalization rules: Capitalize the first and last words; a word after a colon; all other words except the word "to," articles (a, an, the), prepositions (in, of, between, from, etc.), and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, so, yet, for); the first element and major words in a hyphenated term. Examples: (1) Gone with the Wind, (2) Of Human Bondage, (3) Volume One: The Unreal and the Real, (4) The Son-in-Law, (5) Something to Answer For

Differences in AP, APA, Chicago, MLA rules

As you can see, style manuals differ in their guidelines on what qualifies as a “major” word worthy of capitalization in title case. Here’s a quick summary of the key differences between the popular styles.

In both AP and APA styles, capitalize prepositions four letters or longer. In Chicago and MLA , lowercase all prepositions, regardless of length.

APA, AP: The Girl F rom Mars Chicago, MLA: The Girl f rom Mars
APA, AP, Chicago, MLA: The Woman i n Red

Lowercase not just coordinating but also subordinating conjunctions shorter than four letters in AP and APA styles; capitalize all subordinating conjunctions in Chicago and MLA.

APA, AP: Isolate i f You Are Sick Chicago, MLA: Isolate I f You Are Sick

Capitalize the words yet and so in Chicago style. In the other styles, lowercase them when they are used as conjunctions, but capitalize when they are adverbs.

Chicago: Broke Y et Happy APA, AP, MLA: Broke y et Happy
Chicago, APA, AP, MLA: Am I Normal Y et?

Capitalize the last word of the title in AP, Chicago, and MLA styles even if it is not a major word; in APA, capitalize the last word only if it is a major word. (But remember that the APA Publication Manual considers all words four letters or longer major words.)

Chicago, MLA, AP: Something to Answer F or APA: Something to Answer f or
Chicago, MLA, APA, AP: The Places We Come F rom

In all four styles, capitalize the first word (whatever it may be), and lowercase articles.

APA, AP, Chicago, MLA: T he Girl Who Found a Dragon Egg

Sentence case

In sentence case, a title is written as a sentence would be: the first word and all proper nouns are capitalized. This capitalization style is generally used for headings that are second level or lower. These days, it is also increasingly being used for online news headlines.