Formatting and capitalising titles: review

Key Notes:

1. Capitalisation Rules (Title Case)

Use Title Case when writing titles of books, articles, essays, and movies:

• ✅ Capitalize the first and last word of the title.
• ✅ Capitalize all major words, such as:
  • Nouns (e.g., Book, School)
  • Verbs (e.g., Go, Make)
  • Adjectives (e.g., Beautiful, Quick)
  • Adverbs (e.g., Quickly, Well)
  • Pronouns (e.g., She, They)
• ❌ Do not capitalize short function words, unless they are the first or last word:
  • Articles: a, an, the
  • Conjunctions: and, but, or, nor
  • Prepositions (under 5 letters): in, on, at, of, to

Example:
✅ The Lord of the Rings
✅ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

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2. Formatting Titles

Different types of titles use different formatting styles:

Type of Work	Formatting Style
Books	Italics or Underline
Movies	Italics or Underline
Articles	“Quotation Marks”
Short stories/poems	“Quotation Marks”
Songs	“Quotation Marks”
TV episodes	“Quotation Marks”

Examples:

• To Kill a Mockingbird (Book)
• “The Road Not Taken” (Poem)
• The Lion King (Movie)
• “Let It Go” (Song)

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3. Common Mistakes to Avoid

• ❌ Writing all words in lowercase: the great gatsby
• ❌ Using ALL CAPS: THE GREAT GATSBY
• ❌ Forgetting to capitalize important words: The lord of the rings