How to Capitalize Titles Correctly!

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Before learning about the special words that should and should not be capitalized in titles, let's define this interesting word.

• What is a title?

A title is simply the name of something. You could think of your name as your title!

We see titles in many places.

We see titles on books. We see titles of songs. We see titles of artworks like the Mona Lisa. We can even see titles on essays, research papers, and more!

Some important rules must be remembered when writing a title. The most important rule is which words to capitalize in a title.

The first letter of all the words in a title should be capitalized except for some special types of words. We sometimes think of these words as small, short, and maybe even unimportant; however, they are essential to identify, especially when writing a title.

These words are coordinating conjunctions, articles, and prepositions. These words are easy to spot because they are usually super short. They usually are made of only three letters or less. WOW!

Learn more about the words that should and should not be capitalized in titles with the following video.

All words in a title are typically capitalized except coordinating conjunctions, articles, and prepositions unless one of these short, little words is the first word or the last word in the title.

The first and last words in a title should always be capitalized.

Here are some examples of popular book titles below. These titles are correctly capitalized.

• Can you find the words that are capitalized and those that are not capitalized?

• Anne of Green Gables
• The Three Little Pigs
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• To the Lighthouse
• The Horse and His Boy

The words that are not capitalized in the titles above are either coordinating conjunctions (and), articles (the), or prepositions (of, in), unless of course, they are the first or last word in the title (The).

Take a closer look at some common examples of these words so you can recognize them in a title!

Awesome work learning about how to correctly capitalize titles!

Now, move to the Got It? section to see what you remember.