Make sure iit is gramatically correct TITLE CASE

[auntnini]

Too late to join in “closed thread” about capitalizing TITLE heading.

One of my big bugs (along with double-negatives “I did not see nothing”) is incorrect capitalization of titles. When Bill Gates “reverse-engineered” Word Perfect to steal that technology for Microsoft Word, he did not get the intelligence behind Word Perfect. When you asked Word Perfect to capitalize a title, that program did it grammatically correct – it did NOT initial capitalize ALL words (the way Microsoft Word does). Read some grammar books. You do NOT capitalize connective words (like and) and articles (like the}

Capitalization | Capitalization Rules

Common Title Capitalization Rules

In Titles: Do Capitalize

Generally, these parts of speech are capitalized in titles.
Nouns (man, bus, book)
Adjectives (angry, lovely, small)
Verbs (run, eat, sleep)
Adverbs (slowly, quickly, quietly)
Pronouns (he, she, it)
Subordinating conjunctions (as, because, that)

In Titles: Do Not Capitalize

As you have probably noticed “small’ words are generally lowercase in titles, unless they are the first or last words in a title. However, some title styles that do capitalize these words.

Generally, we do not capitalize:
Articles: a, an, the
Coordinating Conjunctions: and, but, or, for, nor, etc.
Prepositions (fewer than five letters): on, at, to, from, by, etc.

When in doubt and you do not have a reference guide in front of you, here is one general rule to remember recommended by The U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual: “Capitalize all words in titles of publications and documents, except a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, it, or, and nor.”

A “small word” that is a verb such as “Is” should be capitalized.

[ralphm]

Hi auntnini. Welcome to SitePoint.

All good points, although I’m not convinced that this is a grammar issue, but rather how words are presented in print.

I’m surprised you didn’t put these principles into practice in the title of this thread, though.

that program did it grammatically correct

Now there’s a grammar issue.

[Michael10]

Don’t forget about correct spelling in the title, too!

[carlhenson]

Capitalizing every word on the title is certainly a matter of style and not really about a strict grammatical issue.

Both are accepted nowadays.

[albanya]

@Michael10

Don’t forget about correct spelling in the title, too!

Michael is correct aside from grammar that you check, you must also take note about you spell. It is very important!

When your on first sentence with your small word like “is” it should be “Is” then.

[Mikl]

Auntnini,

Welcome to the forum. You’ve raised some interesting points, although personally I don’t competely agree. Although I generally use title case myself (which is what you’re advocating), I’ve seen many publications that favour proper case (capitalising only the first word), and these are perfectly valid as well.

You mentioned the U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual. No doubt that’s perfectly valid for U.S. government publications, but I’ll bet that for every style manual or publisher’s style guide that tells you to capitalise every word, you’ll find another that tells you the opposite. Surely, the important thing is to define the style and then to apply it consistently.

Just to add … as others have said, this is nothing to do with grammar, as the title of your post suggests.

Mike

[Stevie_D]

@Mikl

You mentioned the U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual. No doubt that’s perfectly valid for U.S. government publications, but I’ll bet that for every style manual or publisher’s style guide that tells you to capitalise every word, you’ll find another that tells you the opposite. Surely, the important thing is to define the style and then to apply it consistently.

Exactly. Where I work, our house style is to capitalise only the first word in headings.

[system]

Hi,
You have shared nice information. I think, grammar and spelling mistakes are very common practice among English speakers because speaking and writing have a difference. and this happens with everyone whether it is the user or the website developer.

[Shyflower]

@Mikl

Auntnini,

Welcome to the forum. You’ve raised some interesting points, although personally I don’t competely agree. Although I generally use title case myself (which is what you’re advocating), I’ve seen many publications that favour proper case (capitalising only the first word), and these are perfectly valid as well.

You mentioned the U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual. No doubt that’s perfectly valid for U.S. government publications, but I’ll bet that for every style manual or publisher’s style guide that tells you to capitalise every word, you’ll find another that tells you the opposite. Surely, the important thing is to define the style and then to apply it consistently.

Just to add … as others have said, this is nothing to do with grammar, as the title of your post suggests.

Mike

Certainly correct, The AP, The Chicago, and the MLA style manuals all have different style rules for capitalizing titles. You should also take into account that many businesses create and use their own style guides. As long as you are consistent throughout your pages, just about any title capitalization style is okay.

[GeraldNitram]

If I’m going to check any grammatical error, it would be those that violate the general rules. About the titles, I can go ahead and just capitalize the first word and leave the rest in small caps, except when the words are proper nouns, or acronyms. Oh, and I’d care more about the content more than the title, of course. Even if you said that Microsoft word didn’t have that ability to properly change the capitalization of titles, it still can be used as something that can check your overall grammar and spelling issues, if there are any. Well, it doesn’t always “work,” but it’s still a good use of it.