Formatting and capitalising titles: review

Key Notes:

What Is a Title?

A title tells what a book, story, poem, article, movie, or song is about.
It helps the reader understand the main idea and attracts attention. 🎯

Examples:

• 📖 To Kill a Mockingbird
• 🎬 The Lion King

Capitalisation Rules for Titles

Follow the Title Case rule — that means capitalize important words.

✅ Capitalize:

• The first and last words of the title
• Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
• Subordinating conjunctions (like Although, Because, When)

❌ Do not capitalize:

• Articles (a, an, the)
• Short prepositions (in, on, at, to, of, for)
• Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet)
• Unless they are the first or last word in the title!

Examples:

• Correct ✅: The Sound of Music
• Incorrect ❌: The sound Of Music

Formatting Titles

Different types of titles are formatted differently depending on what they are:

📚 Italicize or underline titles of:

• Books
• Movies
• Plays
• Magazines
• TV shows

🗞️ Use quotation marks (“ ”) for:

• Short stories
• Poems
• Songs
• Articles
• Chapters of books

Examples:

• Book: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Poem: “The Road Not Taken”
• Movie: Avengers: Endgame
• Song: “Shape of You”

Common Mistakes to Avoid

🚫 Don’t capitalize every single word.
🚫 Don’t use all capital letters (LIKE THIS) unless it’s a design choice.
🚫 Don’t forget to italicize long works (books, films).

✅ Do check style consistency — pick one rule and follow it throughout your writing.

Quick Practice

Identify correct title formatting:
a) “Gone with The Wind” ❌
b) Gone with the Wind ✅

a) “A Dream Within A Dream” ❌
b) “A Dream Within a Dream” ✅

Summary

Type	Formatting	Example
Books / Movies	Italics or Underline	The Jungle Book
Songs / Poems	“Quotation Marks”	“Firework”
Articles / Short Stories	“Quotation Marks”	“The Tell-Tale Heart”
TV Shows	Italics	Stranger Things

Remember:

👉 Capitalize the first, last, and important words.
👉 Use italics for big works, quotes for short ones.
👉 Be consistent and clear in presentation!