Capitalize My Title (2024)

FAQs

How do you capitalize your title? ›

In general, titles that come before names are capitalized, and titles that come after names are lowercase. The thing you have to figure out is whether the word is part of an official title (in which case it is capitalized) or just describing someone's role (in which case it is lowercase).

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.

In APA 7, all heading levels use title case. (Note that APA 6 recommended sentence case for Levels 3, 4, and 5.) In title case, the first letters of words with four or more letters are capitalized, while all other letters are left lowercase.

Chicago lowercases all prepositions in titles, including words that aren't always prepositions.

Job Titles and Positions

Only capitalize a job title or position when it precedes the name of the job holder. I interviewed Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Owusu.

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.

For starters, the first word in a title is always capitalized. Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs all need to be capitalized in titles as well. Small words like articles and prepositions are generally lowercased, unless they're the first word in a title.

According to most style guides, all proper nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in titles of books and articles are to be capitalized.

Capitalize the first and last word and all the major words in titles. Major words include nouns (e.g., gel, mouse), adjectives (e.g. small, significant), verbs (e.g., run, deduce), adverbs (e.g., slowly, gently), pronouns (e.g., he, she, it), and subordinating conjunctions (e.g., because, as, that).

Capitalization of 'through' in a title follows certain style rules. In Chicago, MLA, and APA styles, 'through' should be capitalized as it's more than four letters. But according to AP style, 'through' is considered a preposition and isn't typically capitalized unless it's the first or last word.

What four elements do most references contain? ›

A reference list entry generally has four elements: the author, date, title, and source.

When a colon introduces a list of things, do not capitalize the first word after the colon unless it is a proper noun. When a colon introduces a phrase or an incomplete sentence that is meant to add information to the sentence before it, do not capitalize the first word after the colon unless it is a proper noun.

In titles, the general rule is you should capitalize the first word and the last word, as well as all nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs. Articles, prepositions that have fewer than four letters, and coordinating conjunctions shouldn't be capitalized.

In sentence style you capitalize only the first world of the title and subtitle. In headline style, you capitalize all words in the title with the following exceptions: Do not capitalize articles (a, an, the), EXCEPT if it is the first or last word in the TITLE or SUBTITLE.

Use lowercase for minor words that are three letters or fewer in a title or heading (except the first word in a title or subtitle or the first word after a colon, em dash, or end punctuation in a heading): short conjunctions (e.g., “and,” “as,” “but,” “for,” “if,” “nor,” “or,” “so,” “yet”)

To use a keyboard shortcut to change between lowercase, UPPERCASE, and Capitalize Each Word, select the text and press SHIFT + F3 until the case you want is applied.

Titles of nobility are also capitalized when they are the names of titles of state or nobility. Queen Elizabeth, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Duke Gunnar, President George Washington. Good morning, Prime Minister.

Capitalize the first and last word, as well as any major word in a title or subtitle (words such as "a," "an," and "the" are not usually capitalized unless they function as the first word in the title or subtitle).