Uppercase/Lowercase in Titles 1

[manhunter2826]

Please bear with me on this one. It's good practice (maybe even Good English??) to emphasize and deemphasize uppercase/lowercase in titles. Does anyone know what this is called (where the unimportant words are lowercase)??

Examples:

The Village of the Damned. (NOT The Village Of The Damned)

Night at the Museum. (NOT Night At The Museum)

Sex and the City.

etc.

 

[AnotherHiggins]

I think it's just called Title Case.

And I wouldn't say those are "unimportant" words that aren't capitalized - the titles you listed wouldn't make much sense without them....

Off the top of my head (I'm sure someone with more knowledge and/or an authoritative link will provide a more detailed list), in titles one does not capitalize articles (a, the, etc.) or other "short" words of just a few letters. Those short words include at least some prepositions (of, at, etc.).

You always capitalize the first and last word(s) in a title.

And I think (I'm really reaching for memories of high school here) that you can capitalize any short word if it would be the only non-capitalized word in the title. Example: Little Shop Of Horrors and Little Shop of Horrors would both be correct.

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[manhunter2826]

Thanks AH, really appreciated. Didn't mean to say they were 'unimportant'; just didn't have the terminology at hand. Any other replies appreciated.

 

[CajunCenturion]

As a general rule, you should always capitalize the first and last words in a title, as well all other nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. However, you should not capitalize coordinating conjunctions, articles, and short (four or less letters) prepositions.

The two examples "of the Damned" and "at the Museum" follow these rules where the 'of' and 'at' are lowercase since they're short prepositions along with the lowercase article 'the'.

As far as a term for this, I've always known it as Title Capitalization.

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[manhunter2826]

Thanks CC also.

 

[traingamer]

One of many references on the web:

Always capitalize the first and last words of titles of publications regardless of their parts of speech. Capitalize other words within titles, including the short verb forms Is, Are, and Be.

Exception: Do not capitalize little words within titles such as a, an, the, but, as, if, and, or, nor, or prepositions, regardless of their length.
Examples: The Day of the Jackal
What Color Is Your Parachute?
A Tale of Two Cities

from GrammarBook.com: Capitalization

Greg
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[manhunter2826]

Thanks Greg, very useful also.

 

[Thargy]

I believe this is referred to as "book case" where the significant words are initcaps and the ordinary words such as "and" and "of" are not.

This from a friend in the printing industry.

Regards

T

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
According to this,Title Case is the term:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=349913

To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[2ffat]

I was always told that it was called, "That's the way you do it or I flunk you!"


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[GSCaupling]

Correction: [red]"That's the Way You Do It or I Flunk You!"[/red]



GS

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[2ffat]

I stand corrected!!!!

James P. Cottingham
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I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[manhunter2826]

Thanks all, for the superb replies. Much appreciated

 

[kjv1611]

[ROFL]
@"That's the way you do it or I flunk you!"

--

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[BillyRayPreachersSon]

I've known this for a very long time to be called 'American Headline Syndrome', where even 'non important' words have uppercase initials.

http://badj.it/badj/americanheadlinesyndrome

Dan



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[vaoldschl]

I was looking this up and am astounded that the rule mongers (no offense intended to those rule mongers among the readership) state that regardless of the capitalization used by the author and/or editor and/or publisher of a work that Title Case be used when citing any work. By that standard when my opus (why i hate capital letters) is published I will be forced to wince my way through all of the glowing reviews that cite it as Why I Hate Capital Letters. Obviously art is dead. Long live the critics.

 

[ingresman]

What I would like to know is why do Americans spell english words differently e.g. color when it's actualy colour.

 

[Grenage]

A lot of the spellings are different because we (the English) changed our spelling of some of the words. The same language, when used on opposite sides of the world will 'evolve' at both ends. I suspect the immense use of the Internet will slow down the introduction of endemic mutations.

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer

 

[2ffat]

Part of the "evolving came in the early 19th century when there was a movement to "Americanize" words led by Noah Webster (think Webster's Dictionary)

Some of those words stuck, like color, while others did not, like tung for tongue. Side note, tung is a type of nut used to derive oil for wood finishes so that may be why it didn't catch on. I'm told that tung is Chinese (which dialect?) for heart. The Tung Nut is heart shaped.



James P. Cottingham
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I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[ingresman]

I suppose for me I'll knw the langues have diverged when I can't understand CSI !