When you write the title of a book, a song or your own essay, you use title case: the important words get capitals and the small connecting words don’t. It builds on capitalization and titles.
Key idea
Capitalize the first word and every major word: nouns, pronouns, verbs (including short ones like Is and Be), adjectives and adverbs. Lowercase a, an, the, the conjunctions and, but, or, and short prepositions such as in, on, of, to, at, by in the middle of the title. Style guides differ on longer prepositions.
| Preposition in the middle | Lowercase in | Capitalized in |
|---|---|---|
| of, in, to, at (two or three letters) | all four guides | none |
| with, from, into, over (four letters) | Chicago, MLA | APA, AP |
| about, under, through, between (five or more) | MLA | Chicago, APA, AP |
Why it works
Title case makes a title stand out as a name. The guides agree on the big picture and differ on the edges, so the real rule is to know which guide your teacher, school or publisher uses, and follow it the same way every time.
Worked example: All guides agree
“the secret of the old mill”
- First word: The.
- Nouns and adjectives: Secret, Old, Mill.
- Article and short preposition in the middle: of, the.
Answer: The Secret of the Old Mill
Worked example: Guides differ
“a walk through the woods”
- A, Walk, Woods: capitals in every guide; the: lowercase.
- through is a seven-letter preposition.
- MLA lowercases it; Chicago (18th ed.), APA and AP capitalize it.
Answer: MLA: A Walk through the Woods. Chicago, APA, AP: A Walk Through the Woods.
Common mistake
Capitalizing every word (“The Secret Of The Old Mill”). Small words like of and the stay lowercase in the middle in all the major guides. One more difference: in an APA reference list, titles of articles and books use sentence case (only the first word and names capitalized).