photo credit: creativedc
Do you know how to capitalize titles?
A lot of people have learned through red pen that they shouldn’t capitalize the prepositions. Even long ones (like “before”) should be in lower case.
But there are some weird little exceptions that you may not know.
Style guides differ, but here are some items that may surprise you from The Chicago Manual of Style
A River Runs Through It
“Through” is capitalized because it’s emphasized.
“It” is capitalized because it’s the last word in the title.
And “A” is capitalized because it’s the first word in the title.
Sign In to Web Mail
“In” is capitalized because it’s part of phrasal verb. That is, it’s part of the verb “sign in.” You’re not signing one way or the other. You’re signing in.
Look Before You Leap
“Before” is capitalized because it’s being used as a conjunction. (Not that all conjunctions are capitalized. But prepositions used that way usually are. USUALLY.)
Did you know all those? Any other interesting grammatical or punctuation rules I should know about?
See:
Why “sign in to” should never be “sign into”
