Answer: Should two and three letter words in titles be capitalized?

[skroberts]

...with episode titles from Monk, Kyle XY, Psych, Magnum, p.i., Supernatural, The Rockford Files, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Doctor Who, Angel, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

mirankos asks: Should two and three letter words in titles be capitalized ("is," "or," "the," "and," etc.)? If not, is there ever a proper instance for doing so?


The answer depends on what style manual you follow, if only slightly. If you use the Modern Language Association (MLA) manual or The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), the guidelines are as follows:

Capitalize
In a title or subtitle of a literary or artistic work, capitalize the first word, the last word, and all principal words, including those that follow hyphens in compound terms. Therefore, capitalize the following parts of speech:

Nouns e.g., employee and month, as in "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month"

Pronouns e.g., it, as in "Blame It on the Rain"; he, as in "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops He's Dead"

Verbs e.g., eat, as in "Don't Eat the Snow in Hawaii"; is, as in "What Is and What Should Never Be"

Adjectives e.g., cashmere, as in "The Oracle Wore a Cashmere Suit"; little, as in "Mr. Monk and Little Monk"

Adverbs e.g., so, as in "If You're So Smart, Then Why Are You Dead?"; very, as in "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man"

Subordinating conjunctions e.g., after, although, as if, as soon as, because, before, if, that, unless, until, when, where, while, as in "Find Me If You Can" and "Holmes Is Where the Heart Is"

Do Not Capitalize
The first and last words must be capitalized regardless. Beyond that, do not capitalize the following parts of speech when they fall in the middle of a title:

Articles a, an, the, as in "Last of the Time Lords" and "Message in a Bottle"

Prepositions e.g., from, with, in, of, to, as in "Conversations with Dead People" and "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco"

Coordinating conjunctions e.g., and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet, as in "Infinity and Jelly Doughnuts"

The to in infinitives e.g., as in "It's Good to Be King"

The manual published by the American Psychological Association (APA) has the same guidelines, except that it also requires you to capitalize any word that has four or more letters, including prepositions. For example:

"Local Man Eaten by Newspaper"
"A Matter of Time"
"Letters from Pegasus" [MLA and CMS]
"Letters From Pegasus" [APA]


Summary:
So, mirankos, to answer you question, two- and three-letter words in titles may or may not be capitalized depending on their parts of speech and what style manual you follow. If it's all very confusing to you, I suggest just focusing on what you shouldn't capitalize, since it's the shorter list. Whether you use MLA, CMS, APA, or another manual, it is important to follow one style consistently throughout your work. When you are uncertain whether to capitalize a particular word, look it up in a good, recent dictionary. A good dictionary is an indispensable tool for writers.


Resources:
Hodges' Harbrace Handbook, Fifteenth Edition (Cheryl Glenn, Robert Keith Miller, and Suzanne Strobeck Webb)
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Sixth Edition (Joseph Gibaldi)

Comments

[mirankos.livejournal.com]

That is so helpful! I understand a lot better now. Thank you. :)

[theemdash]

I was just about to comment to tell you that your question was answered. Guess I don't have to! ;)

[mirankos.livejournal.com]

Nope! ;)

[skroberts]

Yeay! :)

[mirankos.livejournal.com]

I'm happy it was you who answered it, too. :)

[skroberts]

*bats eyelashes* ;)

[roadrunner1896.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. I was always wondering about this.

And wise choice to go for episode titles as examples.

[skroberts]

I originally want to use episode titles but got excited and forgot about it while writing the post. But then talking to you made me remember. :)

[roadrunner1896.livejournal.com]

YAY!

[amazonsun.livejournal.com]

This one is very helpful. Thanks!

Question: Why is the "Be" capitalized in the below example of yours?

The to in infinitives e.g., as in "It's Good to Be King"

[skroberts]

Answer: Because it is a verb, and all verbs should be capitalized.

Helpful?

[amazonsun.livejournal.com]

Perfect! Thanks! :)

[theemdash]

Though if you were using APA style, you wouldn't capitalize it because it is less than 4 letters. Right, skroberts?

[skroberts]

As I don't have an APA manual, I'm not sure if it has the same rule for verbs or not...

*is checking*

[theemdash]

I hope you know that after this I'm going to consider you the Title Expert. ;)

[skroberts]

Woot! ;)

[skroberts]

It seems APA follows all the same rules as MLA, etc, but also adds on the capitalizing 4-lettered words rule.

[skroberts]

Even when using APA, you would still capitalize verbs. However, if there are any four-letter words that you wouldn't capitalize in MLA, you would capitalize in APA. So, basically MLA and APA are the same, except the extra rule for APA.

I hope all that made sense. :)

[amazonsun.livejournal.com]

Yup! I think I have it. :)

[akasha-lilian.livejournal.com]

Lovely answer. You're such a pro! ;-P

[skroberts]

Teehee. ;)

[maychorian.livejournal.com]

Ooh, what a neat site.

Just wanted to add that the way I learned it, prepositions of five letters or more should be capitalized, even though they're prepositions. So about, though, above, below, etc. should be cap., even if they come in the middle of the title.

Of course, this is a somewhat new rule--within the last few decades, I think? And old grammar books still say that all prepositions should be lower-case.

I'm a proofreader for a living, so forgive me if I go on a bit.

[skroberts]

That sounds similar to APA rules, which say to capitalize words with four letters or more...

If you have any sources that have different rules, let us know! We like to be up to date. :)