Capitalization in titles and headings
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Melisa Bestel
- August 25, 2023
When capitalizing titles and section headings, you need to know the two standard styles: Title case and sentence case, which can also be combined.
That means you can either capitalize all the essential words, only the first word, or combine the two for a third option when writing an essay or a research paper.
Three common methods
Title case
You must capitalize every significant word if you are using title case. Here is a list of significant words that should be capitalized in this style:
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The first and the last word
- Of Mice and Men
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Nouns (including proper nouns) and pronouns
- Paris, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down (pronoun)
- Little House on the Prairie (noun)
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Verbs and helping verbs
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (helping verb and verb)
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Adjectives and adverbs
- A Quiet Place (adjective)
- Happily Ever After (adverb)
Although the list above provides a list of significant words, it is still not an exhaustive list, and it is much easier to focus on what is not considered significant. So, unless they are the first word in a heading, do not capitalize:
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Articles (a, an, the)
- The Lord of the Rings
- Portrait of a Lady on Fire
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Prepositions (e.g. on, of, for)
- Lawrence of Arabia
- No Country for Old Men
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Conjunctions (e.g. and, but, nor)
- Bonnie and Clyde
- Sweet but Psycho
You can use the table below as an example of a table of contents with chapter and section headings written in the title case.
Sentence case
A sentence case is much easier than using a title case. You only need to capitalize the first word of your title or section heading (e.g. Capitalization in titles and headings).
Sentence case resembles the way we communicate via emails, texts, or letters. As it is more natural, your writing might seem more approachable to your reader.
The combination method
What is the right option for you?
Pro Tip
So, if you are free to decide, we advise you to narrow down your options to either title case or sentence case. Note that between sentence case is easier as it saves time from not determining significant words.Capitalizing proper nouns
Regardless of your capitalization style or type of academic paper, you must always capitalize the following:
- Names of people
- Organization names
- Place names
Some theories, laws, models, and schools of thought are not accepted as proper nouns (e.g. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)
Importance of consistency
Consistency is a must to create effective headings. So, whichever option you choose, always pay attention to being consistent during your writing process.
Your table of contents can help you detect any unnoticed inconsistency. This way, you can observe your headings closer and see whether they create an anomaly.
Lastly, make sure that you don’t have other inconsistencies in the formatting, outline, English type, verb tenses, personal pronouns, and the layout of your document as a whole. Proofread your paper.
