Is, not is and It, not it: How to Capitalize Correctly

Although my oldest (who is in his 30s) disagrees with me about the importance of this because–he says–rules are changing, I am sticking with my principles and training for now. And I want to make sure we all know how to capitalize correctly. So let’s take a quick dive into the rules you need to know…

How to capitalize correctly

Although it might not happen too often, there might be times when you will write headlines, titles, headings, subheadings and the like as part of your writing at work–or you might be proofreading someone else’s work. So let’s quickly talk about how to capitalize correctly, because details count in business writing.

It’s not rocket science. It’s simple. To do it correctly, capitalize every:

• Noun
• Verb
• Adjective
• Adverb
• Pronoun
• Word over a certain length (usually four or five letters)

In general, don’t capitalize the word “the” or a preposition (a, an, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, or and nor) unless it belongs to a verb, as in “Back Up.”

Your turn to capitalize correctly…

Knowing the rules, what’s wrong with these headlines?

Minding the Gap: How In-Store Mobile Marketing is Reaching Across Generations

The Reason Why Clichés are OK in Your Writing

Nurture is a Framework for your Content, Not a Story with a Fixed Plot

The answers…

In the first two headlines, a verb is lowercase when all verbs should be what? Capitalized, right. These should be written as:

Minding the Gap: How In-Store Mobile Marketing Is Reaching Across Generations

The Reason Why Clichés Are OK in Your Writing

In the third headline, the word not is capitalized for no reason. It doesn’t fit into any category on our list of words to capitalize, so therefore it should be lowercase like this:

Nurture is a Framework for your Content, not a Story with a Fixed Plot

But what about is and it?

(Pardon me for a minute while I pound my head on my desk.)

I see writers making the words is, are and it lowercase because these words are only two or three letters, but that is wrong.

First off, is and are are verbs, so they should be capitalized. And it is a pronoun so should also be capitalized. “Your Favorite Shirt is Back in Stock” is wrong because is is a verb.

We don’t seem to know how to properly capitalize the words in a title. As a result, I often see the word “is” lowercase when it should be capitalized because it’s verb…as just one example. Do you see the error in this title?

How to Craft The Perfect Online Course Title

The should not be capitalized. If the writer had capitalized to as well, it would be okay because we’d have consistency with every word capitalized. Then it would look like:

How To Craft The Perfect Online Course Title

That, to me, is kind of abrasive, in-your-face and hard to read, although it is consistent. But mixing up the upper- and lowercases like in the original makes zero sense. And it’s so blatantly obvious in a headline, and then there’s the irony in that this is a title about titles!

Your turn to capitalize correctly…

All of these real-life examples are wrong. Do you see why they are wrong?

• Site Security: Bad Bots are Everywhere
• 5 Ways to Know if Your Process is Working
• How To Start a Career in Cloud Computing

The answers…

They are wrong because verbs weren’t capitalized in two of them and a preposition was in the third. Corrected they look like:

• Site Security: Bad Bots Are Everywhere
• 5 Ways to Know if Your Process Is Working
• How to Start a Career in Cloud Computing

Your turn to capitalize correctly…

Do you see the errors in these two titles?

• Face your Holiday Planning Fears with Our Guide to Holiday Marketing
• Reading Helps End Writer’s Block, Letting you get Back to Writing

The answers…

They should be written as:

• Face Your Holiday Planning Fears with Our Guide to Holiday Marketing
• Reading Helps End Writer’s Block, Letting You Get Back to Writing

What kind of capitalization choices do I have?

I’m glad you asked, because it’s a good question! Why? Because you don’t have to capitalize following the rules above unless you choose to use Title Capitalization.

Huh?

I know. Let me explain…

When you as a copywriter write titles, headings or subheadings, you have two choices for capitalizing words correctly.

First, you can use sentence capitalization and only capitalize the first word as in this example:

This is a title written with sentence capitalization

Or you can use title capitalization meaning you capitalize every noun, verb, adjective, adverb and pronoun plus words over a certain length (usually four or more letters as we said above), as in this example:

This Is a Title Written with Title Capitalization

In general, I think title capitalization is more engaging.

So yes, you have a choice between these two ways to capitalize. But you do not have a choice when it comes to doing it correctly. Be the writer your boss can count on: Capitalize correctly.

What’s the best way to make sure you capitalize correctly is to proofread. You know the rules now, right? But proofread to make sure you’ve followed them before clicking Send or Print and putting your writing out into the world.

But capitalization is only one of the things to keep track of when looking back over your work. For all the rest, consider taking this Free Proofreading Class. 

Photo by Lisa Fotios: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-white-ceramci-be-happy-painted-mug-851213/