Is the word drama capitalized

Last Update: Jan 03, 2023

This is a question our experts keep getting from time to time. Now, we have got the complete detailed explanation and answer for everyone, who is interested!

Asked by: Zoey Marks

Score: 4.3/5
(37 votes)

The rules are that if there is a formal department called the Drama Department, then you can capitalize it. However it’s sometimes optional. I’d be more inclined to capitalize ‘Department of Drama’ than ‘drama department’.

Should Acting be capitalized?

Therefore, «acting» should be treated as a part of the formal title – capitalized when appearing before the name and lowercase when appearing after.

Is drama class capitalized in a sentence?

When you are talking about a school subject in a general way, you do not need to capitalize it unless it is the name of a language. … When you are talking about the name of a specific class or course, such as Math 241 or Chemistry 100, always capitalize it.

Do you capitalize English language arts?

When referring to the phrase “English language arts”, the noun “English”, of course, is capitalized as it’s a proper noun or name of a specific language. However, “language arts” in the phrase is not capitalized because, as mentioned above, it’s a general noun.

Do you capitalize names of classes?

Also, names of school subjects (math, algebra, geology, psychology) are not capitalized, with the exception of the names of languages (French, English). Names of courses are capitalized (Algebra 201, Math 001). You should capitalize titles of people when used as part of their proper name.

32 related questions found

Asked by: Zoey Marks

Score: 4.3/5
(37 votes)

The rules are that if there is a formal department called the Drama Department, then you can capitalize it. However it’s sometimes optional. I’d be more inclined to capitalize ‘Department of Drama’ than ‘drama department’.

Should Acting be capitalized?

Therefore, «acting» should be treated as a part of the formal title – capitalized when appearing before the name and lowercase when appearing after.

Is drama class capitalized in a sentence?

When you are talking about a school subject in a general way, you do not need to capitalize it unless it is the name of a language. … When you are talking about the name of a specific class or course, such as Math 241 or Chemistry 100, always capitalize it.

Do you capitalize English language arts?

When referring to the phrase “English language arts”, the noun “English”, of course, is capitalized as it’s a proper noun or name of a specific language. However, “language arts” in the phrase is not capitalized because, as mentioned above, it’s a general noun.

Do you capitalize names of classes?

Also, names of school subjects (math, algebra, geology, psychology) are not capitalized, with the exception of the names of languages (French, English). Names of courses are capitalized (Algebra 201, Math 001). You should capitalize titles of people when used as part of their proper name.

32 related questions found

No. Drama begins with a ‘D’ at the beginning of the sentence,
the rule ‘first word of a sentence is capitalised’ applies. But
drama in an ordinary sentence is an ordinary noun of a subject, and
therefore not capitalised. The fact that it is a ‘name’ of subject
does not make it a proper noun (like John, or Arianna, or England).
The school subject of English is already a proper noun as it refers
to the language of England and follows the capitalisation of that
proper noun, as do other derivations like Englander. [A proper noun
is the name of one specific person or country, but not an abstract
entity and properties like justice or energy.) It is easy to get
confused with the practice of using title case in typsetting of
titles, eg ‘English and Mathematics’. This is a matter of
house-style, a text book or the Times newspaper may not follow it,
a magazine might. Once a house-style is selected, the editor will
enforce it. The choice of the house-style is subjective and only
overrides the normal rules of grammar and accidence on
presentational grounds. For professional standards on
proofreading/house-style/etc consult something like ‘Hart’s Rules
for Readers and Compositors at the Oxford University Press’.

When we talk, read or write about movies, music, and even books, we always end up discussing our favorite genre. However, when we are writing, there are rules we must abide by; one of such rules is the right capitalization rules. With these established rules, you might be wondering if genres are capitalized and when you should capitalize them.

No, you must not capitalize genre when writing. A genre can be a category of music, movie, art, or literature. These are all nouns, so genres are nouns, but you cannot capitalize them because they are not proper nouns. So, when you write, you cannot capitalize genres at all.

It looks pretty easy, right? You should know that it can become complicated when writing because some genres ought to be capitalized. Be rest assured we will explain the rules of capitalization.

Before we proceed to find out if genres are capitalized when writing, we will look at the word genre, the types, and the forms. A basic understanding of the word is an added advantage before we look at the rules of capitalization.

A genre is a specific type or category of music, literature, painting, movies, and other forms of entertainment or art. The word genre has its origin from a French word that means type or kind. Genres of music include hip-hop, reggae, blues, pop, jazz, opera, symphony.

Genres of movies include action, romance, comedy, horror, drama, fiction, thriller, documentary, amongst others. We can go on looking at the genres of each of these, but that would take a lot of our time. We will see if genres are capitalized when writing.

Genres are not capitalized when writing. It is unacceptable to write a genre of music in capital letters, for example, «David is a big fan of Hip-Hop music.» This is unacceptable in the English language. «David is a big fan of hip-hop» is the accepted way.

Although genres are nouns, it is a countable noun. In the English language rules of capitalization, only proper and common nouns can be capitalized when writing. They are capitalized because they are general (common nouns) and specific (proper nouns) names of people, things, or places.

Genre is often used with different types of nouns. When you refer to a genre of music, it becomes an uncountable noun. A genre of movie is a countable noun, a genre of literature is an uncountable noun. Art is an uncountable noun, so a genre of art is an uncountable noun.

You can see, there is no time genre is either a proper or a common noun. So you cannot capitalize any genre when writing; that would be a violation of the capitalization rules of the English language.

Rules For Capitalizing Nouns

There is one basic rule for capitalizing nouns: the first letter of a proper and common noun must be capitalized, regardless of where it appears in a sentence or how it is used in that sentence.

For example, David lives in California; he is a Christian, and his date of birth is the 7th of October 1998. In the example above, David, California, Christian, and October are proper nouns. David is the name of a person, California is the name of a geographical location, Christian is the name of a religion, and October is a month.

Although you must capitalize all proper nouns, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Let us look at these few exceptions.

• While it is important to capitalize months and days, you must not capitalize seasons. Fall, winter, summer, and spring cannot be capitalized except as the first word of the sentence.
• Although the capitalization of general courses and subjects is a must, you cannot capitalize it when it has a general usage. For example, I am studying biology. The «biology» is not capitalized as opposed to Physics 204.
• You must capitalize any title if it is part of a name, but when it is used generally, you do not capitalize it. For example, President Biden would visit the president of Spain next week.
• Unless they are part of a list of astronomical names, you cannot capitalize the words moon and sun.

Countable nouns are not capitalized when writing, neither are uncountable nouns. From the name, you can infer the meaning; countable nouns are things that you can count, and uncountable nouns refer to things you cannot count.

If you look at proper and common nouns, you would see that countable and uncountable nouns fall under neither proper or common nouns. Hence, the reason you cannot capitalize them.

Genre is neither a general nor specific name. It is a subdivision of uncountable nouns like art and music as well as countable nouns like movies. And according to the rules of capitalization of nouns, only proper and common nouns can be capitalized.

Alternative Rules

So far, we have clarified the rules that govern the capitalization of nouns, including proper, common, countable, and uncountable nouns. However, there are a few exceptions to the capitalization of the genre.

There are a few exceptions where the capitalization of genre is justified, and you would not be violating the capitalization rules on nouns in the English language.

If the genre is the first word in a sentence, it must be capitalized. It is an established rule of capitalization in the English language, the first word in a sentence must be capitalized, and if it is a genre of music, movie, art, or literature, you must capitalize it. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Another exception to the rule of capitalization of the genre is if the genre name contains a proper noun, you must capitalize it. For example, it would be incorrect to write Jane loves listening to French pop. The correct way is Jane loves listening to French Pop. In the example above, the genre name contains a proper noun, in this case, the name of a place. So, it must be capitalized.

These are the two exceptions to the capitalization of genres when writing.

Illustrative Examples

Now that we have explained the basic rules that govern the capitalization of nouns, we will look at some examples for better clarity.

Incorrect Capitalization

1. John is a big fan of Contemporary music; he has a closet filled with different albums and mixtapes of Contemporary musicians.
2. On our arrival in Spain, we met a band of musicians playing different Spanish funk music. It was a beautiful and soothing time.
3. hip-hop has become the most popular genre in the world. Many hip-hop artists are breaking into the music industry.

 Correct Capitalization

1. John is a big fan of contemporary music; he has a closet filled with different albums and mixtapes of contemporary musicians.
2. On our arrival in Spain, we met a band of musicians playing different Spanish Funk music. It was a beautiful and soothing time.
3. Hip-hop has become the most popular genre in the world. Many hip-hop artists are breaking into the music industry.

Some things to take note of from the examples above;

• In the first example, «contemporary» is capitalized; it should be written in lowercase.
• In the second example, the exception to the rule comes to play. The funk should have been capitalized because it has a proper noun in the name.
• In the third example, you can see the second exception to the rule. «Hip-hop» is the first word in the sentence, so it must be capitalized.

Final Thoughts

When writing, there should be no reason for you to capitalize words wrongly. The wrong capitalization of words makes your writings difficult to read and comprehend. And for you to capitalize correctly, you must have learned the rules for capitalization in that particular language.

If you have been getting the capitalization of genres wrongly, read this blog post to know and understand the proper capitalization. So, read up and stay correct when writing.

Very few people (writers) know which words to or not to capitalize in a title or section headings. Usually, people just write the full title in caps or capitalize words which have three or more letters.

Post on social media and blogs usually get away with such mistakes, after all, who has time to police people on platforms where everyone just wants to have fun?

But as a professional writer or somebody writing academic papers, your knowledge and application of capitalization rules is of the essence. There are a lot of styles that have their title capitalization rules, and I recommend you know one style at the least (one applicable to your writing).

There is no mystery attached to these rules; they are simple and frequently used by most professional writers (you might even have used some of them unknowingly). 

Among the many areas that I have covered, I have introduced the major title capitalization styles to help you understand the basics. So, there’s no need for any crystal balls; no more wandering around the world wide web, searching for the perfect title capitalization formula.

Why Do We Not Capitalize Every Word in A Heading?

There are a couple of reasons—three, actually—why we don’t capitalize each and every word in a title or heading.

Capitalizing every word makes the text less legible and readable. We actually capitalize words to indicate emphasis and provide clarity, so if we capitalize each and every word regardless of their importance or the intended message, we’re flinging this clarity.

You could decide to switch to all caps if you have that liberty. As a matter of fact, a lot of writers have done it this way, but capitalizing each and every word only makes the text have a rough tone and appear obnoxious.

We usually use all-caps to indicate shouting or a bossy tone, so it would be appropriate when that’s the intention. Otherwise, it isn’t a good way to capitalize your titles.

How Do You Know What to Capitalize and What Not to?

If you are just writing your titles without following any rule, then it all boils down to preference—does the word feel that important for you to capitalize or not? Perhaps you just like to write your entire title in capital letters?

But as I have iterated already, there are capitalization rules which people use depending on preference or requirement. Some writers prefer the NY Times style because they’re journos or the APA style because they are writing an academic research paper and are required to use it.

Word processors usually have most of these rules programmed into them and all you have to do is indicate that a particular sentence is a title, the word processor identifies the words that you should and should not capitalize.

Examples of Correct Title Capitalization

To show you how correctly written titles look like—using generally accepted rules—I have listed a couple of examples.

They might be titles for books, poems, news articles, headings of a passage in a book or newspaper, etc.

The Seventh Sea: A Perilous Journey by the World’s Greatest Pirates.

When Curiosity Failed to Kill the Cat.

If you’re the title inside a paragraph or sentence, these are correct ways to write them:

Best of Dana was a famous book by Gina Lewinski.

“The Truth Behind the Helsinki Murders” is the only horror story in her collection.

He loves sitcoms and his favorite is Two and a Half Men.

There are a lot of different correct ways to capitalize, and I couldn’t fit all of them in this post but as long as you are following rules appropriate for the type of text that you’re writing, you’re good.

List of Words Not Capitalized in Titles

Although we have different capitalization styles, there are words which are generally capitalized and others not generally capitalize in titles.

The words in this bracket include:

• Articles (a, an, the)
• Short words (fewer than 4 letters)
• Prepositions (at, by, to, etc.)
• Coordinating Conjunctions (and, but, for)

Here’s the full list:

And, as, as if, as long as, at, but, by, even if, for, from, if, if only, in, into, like, near, now that, nor, of, off, on, on top of, once, onto, or, out of, over, past, so, so that, than, that, till, to, up, upon, with, when, yet.

Why Are Capitalization Rules Important?

For professional writers, reputation is—to a great extent—contingent on producing tidy work which conforms to generally accepted linguistic rules.

There are different styles of title capitalization rules for different genres, agencies, and associations. For example, if you are editing a page on Wikipedia, there are rules you must follow for your page to be legible.

Capitalization rules indicate tidiness, legibility, and professionalism.  Therefore, in many scenarios, they are usually one of the things that stand between you and success as a writer.

Different Styles of Title Capitalization Rules

There are four main title capitalization styles, namely Chicago style, APA style, MLA style, and AP style. I have also added NY times and Wikipedia styles in case one of my readers is a journo or edits Wikipedia pages.

It must also be noted that the title case capitalization or sentence case capitalization rules in each of these capitalization styles fractionally differ.

Here are the title capitalization rules classified by style.

Chicago Manual of Style Capitalization Rules

The Chicago Style is one of the most employed and venerated headline capitalization styles in journalism.

These are the title case rules according to this style:

• Capitalize the first and the last word.
• Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions.
• Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.
• Lowercase the ‘to’ in an infinitive (I want to play guitar).

MLA Style Capitalization Rules

The MLA style requires that you capitalize:

• The first word of the title or subtitle.
• All major words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns).
• The second part of hyphenated words (e.g., Self-Doubt)
• All words of four letters or more.

APA Style Capitalization Rules

Capitalization of APA style titles follows these rules:

• The first word of the title or subtitle should be capitalized.
• All nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns should be capitalized.
• Both parts of major hyphenated words (e.g., Self-Doubt).
• Words with four letters or more should be capitalized.

AP Style Capitalization Rules

This is a style used by writers for the Associated Press. However, AP style capitalization rules are also employed by many other journalists.

The rules demand that you capitalize words with three or more letters, the first and last words, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions. Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions should be lowercase.

Wikipedia Style Capitalization Rules

The following are the title capitalization rules that Wikipedia editors must follow:

• All major words should be capitalized.
• The first and last words should be capitalized.
• Capitalize subordinate conjunctions.
• Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions should be lowercase.
• The word “to” in an infinitive (e.g., I Want to Leave) should be lowercase.

NY Times Style Capitalization Rules

The capitalization for the NY Times style—which is, for the most part, used by writers for the NY Times—requires that you capitalize major words (e.g., nouns, pronouns, verbs), the first and last words, and subordinate conjunctions. Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions should be lowercase.

Style Guide Differences and Exceptions Between the Major 3 Styles of Title Capitalization

Although the styles have a lot of similarities, they also have their differences, and it’s crucial to pay attention to these differences.

AP Stylebook

When you use the AP Stylebook, you’re supposed to use lowercase for all words with three letters or fewer in a title. But, if any of those short words happen to be verbs (like “is,” “are,” “was,” “be”), you should capitalize them.

Chicago Style

The Chicago style requires that you use lowercase for all prepositions except when they are the first or last word of the title. The length doesn’t matter in the case of prepositions and you have to use lowercase for words as lengthy as “between,” “throughout,” and other prepositions. 

MLA Style

MLA style has its own exception; words with three letters or fewer should always be in lowercase except when they are the first or last word of the title.

Write Your Titles the Write Way

There’s no need for you to memorize all the different capitalization styles, but you at least need to be aware of the generally accepted rules.

If it’s not compulsory for you to follow a particular style of capitalization, use the general rules provided by an established writer in your genre and make sure that you are consistent with your chosen style.

With consistency, everything becomes easier.

Convert text to make each word start with an initial uppercase or capital letter. For example “See me run” becomes “See Me Run” instead. One rule of standard English is to capitalize a proper noun that is a specific person (such as John Smith), place (such as Paris), or thing (such as the Eiffel Tower).

Another rule is to capitalize the first word of a sentence or quote such as he said, “Yes, I will.”  The names of days and months such as Tuesday and January are also capitalized as are holidays such as Halloween and Memorial Day. Capitalize a person’s title when used with their name such as President Smith will speak, and when a president speaks we always attend.

Capitalize a direction when it refers to an area such as when you come from the West, but do not capitalize if you refer to a direction such as I go north on Main Street every day.  Capitalize words such as Main Street when they refer to a specific location not just a street in the city.  Concerning capital letters in other languages, these vary greatly from language to language with German a particular example of rules that depart from English standard usage.

Some writing systems make no distinction between uppercase and lowercase.

When do you capitalize a word?

The capitalization of a word (meaning its first letter is in the upper case) often depends upon its context and placement within a sentence. While there are some words that are always capitalized no matter where they appear in a sentence—such as “proper” nouns and adjectives, as well as the first-person pronoun I—most words are only capitalized if they appear at the beginning of a sentence.

Determining when to capitalize words in the titles of creative or published works (such as novels, films, essays, plays, paintings, news headlines, etc.) can be very difficult because there is no single, generally accepted rule to follow. However, there are some standard conventions, which we’ll discuss a little further on.

Capitalizing the first word of a sentence

The first word of a sentence is always capitalized. This helps the reader clearly recognize that the sentence has begun, and we make it clear that the sentence has ended by using terminal punctuation marks (e.g., periods, exclamation points, or question marks).

We also capitalize the first letter of a sentence that is directly quoted within another sentence. This is known as direct speech. For example:

• John said, “You’ll never work in this city again!”
• Mary told him, “We should spend some time apart,” which took him by surprise.
• The other day, my daughter asked, “Why do I have to go to school, but you don’t?”

Sometimes, a portion of a larger statement will be quoted as a complete sentence on its own; this is especially common in journalistic writing. To preserve capitalization conventions, we still usually capitalize the first letter of the quoted speech (if it functions as a complete independent sentence), but we surround the capital letter in brackets to make it clear that the change was made by the person using the quotation. For instance:

• The president went on to say, “[W]e must be willing to help those less fortunate than ourselves.”

Note that we do not capitalize the first word in the quotation if it is a word, phrase, or sentence fragment incorporated into the natural flow of the overall sentence; we also do not set it apart with commas:

• My brother said he feels “really bad” about what happened.
• But I don’t want to just “see how things go”!

Trademarks beginning with a lowercase letter

Sometimes, a trademark or brand name will begin with a lowercase letter immediately followed by an uppercase letter, as in iPhone, eBay, eHarmony, etc. If writers decide to begin a sentence with such a trademarked word, they may be confused about whether to capitalize the first letter since it is at the beginning of a sentence, or to leave the first letter in lowercase since it is specific to the brand name. Different style guides have different requirements, but most guides recommend rewording the sentence to avoid the issue altogether:

• «iPhone sales continue to climb.» (not technically wrong, but not ideal)
• “Sales for the iPhone continue to climb.” (correct and recommended)

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns are used to identify a unique person, place, or thing (as opposed to common nouns, which identify generic or nonspecific people or things). A proper noun names someone or something that is one of a kind; this is signified by capitalizing the first letter of the word, no matter where it appears in a sentence.

The most common proper nouns are names of people, places, or events:

• “Go find Jeff and tell him that dinner is ready.”
• “I lived in Cincinnati before I moved to New York.”
• “My parents still talk about how great Woodstock was in 1969.”

Proper nouns are similarly used for items that have a commercial brand name. In this case, the object that’s being referred to is not unique in itself, but the brand it belongs to is. For example:

• “Pass me the Frisbee.”
• “I’ll have a Pepsi, please.”
• “My new MacBook is incredibly fast.”

The names of organizations, companies, agencies, etc., are all proper nouns as well, so the words that make up the name are all capitalized. However, unlike the nouns of people or places, these often contain function words (those that have only grammatical importance, such as articles, conjunctions, and prepositions), which are not capitalized. For example:

• “You’ll have to raise your query with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.”
• “I’ve been offered a teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania.”
• “Bay Area Rapid Transit workers continue their strike for a fifth consecutive day.”

These are often made into acronyms and initialisms, which we’ll discuss a bit later.

Appellations

Appellations are additional words added to a person’s name. These may be used to indicate respect for a person (known as honorifics) or to indicate a person’s profession, royalty, rank, etc. (known as titles). Some appellations are always abbreviated before a person’s name, such as Dr. (short for Doctor), Mr. (short for Mister), and Mrs. (originally a shortened form of Mistress), and some may be used in place of a person’s name altogether (such as Your Honor, Your Highness, or Your Majesty).

Appellations are considered a “part” of the person’s name and are also capitalized in writing as a proper noun. For example:

• “Dr. Spencer insists we perform a few more tests.”
• “I intend to ask Professor Regan about her dissertation on foreign policy.”
• “Prince William is adored by many.”
• “Please see if Mr. Parker and Mrs. Wright will be joining us this evening.”
• “I have no further questions, Your Honor.”

Normal words can also function as appellations after a person’s name to describe his or her appearance, personality, or other personal characteristics; these are formally known as epithets. They are usually accompanied by function words (especially the article the), which are not capitalized. For example:

• Alexander the Great
• Ivan the Terrible
• Charles the Bald

Proper Adjectives

Proper adjectives are formed from proper nouns, and they are also capitalized. They are often made from the names of cities, countries, or regions to describe where something comes from or to identify a trait associated with that place, but they can also be formed from the names of people. For example:

Proper Noun	Proper Adjective	Example Sentence
Italy	Italian	I love Italian food.
China	Chinese	How much does this Chinese robe cost?
Christ	Christian	In Europe, you can visit many ancient Christian churches.
Shakespeare	Shakespearean	He writes in an almost Shakespearean style.

Sometimes, a word that began as a proper adjective can lose its “proper” significance over time, especially when formed from the name of a fictional character. In these cases, the word is no longer capitalized. Take the following sentence:

• “He was making quixotic mistakes.”

The word quixotic was originally a proper adjective derived from the name “Don Quixote,” a fictional character who was prone to foolish, grandiose behavior. Through time, it has come to mean “foolish” in its own right, losing its association to the character. As such, it is no longer capitalized in modern English.

Another example is the word gargantuan. Once associated with the name of a giant in the 16th-century book Gargantua, it has come to mean “huge” in daily use. Since losing its link with the fictional monster, it is no longer capitalized:

• “The couple built a gargantuan house.”

Other capitalization conventions

While proper nouns, proper adjectives, and the first word in a sentence are always capitalized, there are other conventions for capitalization that have less concrete rules.

Reverential capitalization

Traditionally, words for or relating to the Judeo-Christian God or to Jesus Christ are capitalized, a practice known as reverential capitalization. This is especially common in pronouns, though it can occur with other nouns associated with or used as a metaphor for God. For example:

• “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.”
• “We must always model our actions on the Lord’s will, trusting in His plan and in the benevolence of the Almighty.”

However, this practice is one of style rather than grammatical correctness. It is becoming slightly less common in modern writing, especially in relation to pronouns, and many modern publications (even some editions of the Bible) tend not to capitalize pronouns associated with God or Jesus Christ (though nouns such as “the Lamb” or “the Almighty” still tend to be in uppercase).

Finally, note that when the word god is being used to describe or discuss a deity in general (i.e., not the specific God of Christian or Jewish faith), it does not need to be capitalized. Conversely, any name of a specific religious figure must be capitalized the same way as any other proper noun, as in Zeus, Buddha, Allah, Krishna, etc.

Acronyms and Initialisms

Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations of multiple words using just their initial letters; like the initials of a person’s name, these letters are usually capitalized. Acronyms are distinguished by the fact that they are read aloud as a single word, while initialisms are spoken aloud as individual letters rather than a single word. (However, because the two are so similar in appearance and function, it is very common to simply refer to both as acronyms.)

Acronyms

Because acronyms are said as distinct words, they are usually (but not always) written without periods. In some cases, the acronym has become so common that the letters aren’t even capitalized anymore.

For example:

• “Scientists from NASA have confirmed the spacecraft’s location on Mars.” (acronym of “National Aeronautics and Space Administration”)
• “The officer went AWOL following the attack.” (acronym of “Absent Without Leave”)
• “I need those documents finished A.S.A.P.” (acronym or initialism of “As Soon As Possible”; also often written as ASAP, asap, and a.s.a.p.)
• “His scuba equipment turned out to be faulty.” (Scuba is actually an acronym of “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus,” but it is now only written as a regular word.)

It’s worth noting that in British English, it is becoming increasingly common to write acronyms of well-known organizations with only the first letter capitalized, as in Nafta (North American Free Trade Agreement) or Unicef (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund), while initialisms, such as UN or UK, are still written in all capital letters.

Initialisms

Like acronyms, it is most common to write initialisms without periods. However, in American English, it is also common to include periods between the letters of some initialisms. This varies between style guides, and it is generally a matter of personal preference; whether you use periods in initialisms or not, be sure to be consistent.

Here are some examples of common initialisms (some with periods, some without):

• “I grew up in the US, but I’ve lived in London since my early 20s.” (initialism of “United States”)
• “It took a long time, but I’ve finally earned my Ph.D.” (initialism of “Philosophiae Doctor,” Latin for “Doctor of Philosophy”)
• “I need to go to an ATM to get some cash.” (initialism of “Automated Teller Machine”)
• “The witness claimed to have seen a U.F.O. fly over the field last night.” (initialism of “Unidentified Flying Object”)

Notice that the h in Ph.D. remains lowercase. This is because it is part of the same word as P (Philosophiae); it is spoken aloud as an individual letter to help make the initialism distinct. While this mix of uppercase and lowercase letters in an initialism is uncommon, there are other instances in which this occurs. Sometimes, as with Ph.D., the lowercase letters come from the same word as an uppercase letter; other times, the lowercase letter represents a function word (a conjunction, preposition, or article). For example:

• AmE (American English)
• BrE (British English)
• LotR (Lord of the Rings)
• DoD (Department of Defense)

Finally, there are two initialisms that are always in lowercase: i.e. (short for the Latin id est, meaning “that is”) and e.g. (short for the Latin exempli gratia, meaning “for example”). The only instance in which these initialisms might be capitalized is if they are used at the beginning of a sentence, but doing so, while not grammatically incorrect, is generally considered aesthetically unappealing and should be avoided.

Abbreviations in conversational English

In conversational writing, especially with the advent of text messages and online messaging, many phrases have become shortened into informal abbreviations (usually initialisms, but occasionally said aloud as new words). They are usually written without periods and, due to their colloquial nature, they are often left in lowercase. While there are thousands of conversational abbreviations in use today, here are just a few of the most common:

• LOL (short for “Laugh Out Loud,” said as an initialism or sometimes as a word [/lɑl/])
• OMG (short for “Oh My God.” Interestingly, the first recorded use of this initialism was in a letter from Lord John Fisher to Winston Churchill in 1917.)
• BTW (short for “By The Way”)
• BRB (short for “Be Right Back”)
• BFF (short for “Best Friend Forever”)
• IDK (short for “I Don’t Know”)
• FWIW (short for “For What It’s Worth”)
• FYI (short for “For Your Information”)
• IMHO (short for “In My Humble/Honest Opinion”)
• P2P (short for “Peer-To-Peer,” with the word To represented by the number 2, a homophone)
• TLC (short for “Tender Loving Care”)
• TL;DR (short for “Too Long; Didn’t Read”)
• TTYL (short for “Talk To You Later”)

Because these are all very informal, they should only be used in conversational writing.

What to capitalize in a title or headline

There is much less standardization regarding how to capitalize titles or article headlines; different style guides prescribe different rules and recommendations.

That said, it is generally agreed that you should capitalize the first and last word of the title, along with any words of semantic significance—that is, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs—along with proper nouns, proper adjectives, acronyms, and initialisms. “Function words,” those that primarily add grammatical meaning rather than anything substantial (prepositions, articles, and conjunctions), are generally left in lowercase. This convention is sometimes known as title case, and some style guides recommend following it without exception, even for longer function words like between or upon.

For example:

• “New Regulations for Schools Scoring below National Averages”
• “An Analysis of the Differences between Formatting Styles”
• “President to Consider Options after Results of FBI Investigation”
• “Outrage over Prime Minister’s Response to Corruption Charges”

Some words can pose problems because they can in some instances be prepositions and in other instances be adverbs. For example, in the phrasal verb take off, off is functioning adverbially to complete the meaning of the verb, so it would be capitalized in a title:

• “Home Businesses Taking Off in Internet Age”
• “Home Businesses Taking off in Internet Age”

Another group of words that often gives writers problems is the various forms of the verb to be, which conjugates as is, am, are, was, were, been, and being. Because many of its forms are only two or three letters, writers are often inclined not to capitalize them; however, because to be is a verb, we should always capitalize it when using title case:

• “Determining Who Is Responsible for the Outcome” (correct)
• “Determining Who is Responsible for the Outcome” (incorrect)

Capitalizing words longer than three letters

Function words are usually not capitalized in title case, but longer function words (such as the conjunctions because or should or the prepositions between or above) are often considered to add more meaning than short ones like or or and. Because of this, it is a common convention is to capitalize function words that have more than three letters in addition to “major” words like nouns and verbs. Here’s how titles following this convention look:

• “New Regulations for Schools Scoring Below National Averages”
• “An Analysis of the Differences Between Formatting Styles”
• “President to Consider Options After Results of FBI Investigation”
• “Outrage Over Prime Minister’s Response to Corruption Charges”

Some style guides specify that only function words that are longer than four letters should be capitalized. Following this convention, the first three examples would remain the same, but the word over in the fourth example would remain lowercase. However, the “longer than three letters” rule is much more common.

Capitalizing hyphenated compounds

When a compound word features a hyphen, there are multiple ways to capitalize it in a title. Because compound words always serve as nouns or adjectives (or, rarely, verbs), we always capitalize the first part of the compound. What is less straightforward is whether to capitalize the word that comes after the hyphen. Some style guides recommend capitalizing both parts (so long as the second part is a “major” word), while others recommend only capitalizing the first part. For example:

• “How to Regulate Self-Driving Cars in the Near Future”
• “Eighteenth-century Warship Discovered off the Coast of Norway”

Certain style guides are very specific about how to capitalize hyphenated compounds, so if your school or employer uses a particular guide for its in-house style, be sure to follow its requirements. Otherwise, it is simply a matter of personal preference whether hyphenated compounds should be capitalized in full or in part; as always, just be consistent.

Compounds with articles, conjunctions, and prepositions

Some multiple-word compounds are formed with function words (typically the article the, the conjunction and, or the preposition in) between two other major words. While capitalizing the major words in the compound is optional and up to the writer’s personal preference, the function words will always be in lowercase:

• “Are Brick-and-Mortar Stores Becoming Obsolete?”
• “Prices of Over-the-counter Medications Set to Rise”
• “Business Tycoon Appoints Daughter-In-Law as New CEO”

The only exception to this rule is when writers choose to capitalize every word in the title.

Start case

To eliminate the possible confusion caused by short “substance” words (e.g., forms of to be), long function words (e.g., because or beneath), and hyphenated compounds, some publications choose to simply capitalize every word in a title, regardless of the “types” of words it may contain. This is sometimes known as “start case” or “initial case.” For instance:

• “New Regulations For Schools Scoring Below National Averages”
• “An Analysis Of The Differences Between Formatting Styles”
• “President To Consider Options After Results Of FBI Investigation”
• “Outrage Over Prime Minister’s Response To Corruption Charges”

This is especially common in journalism and online publications, but it is usually not recommended for academic or professional writing.

Sentence case

“Sentence case” refers to titles in which only the first word has a capital letter, the same way a sentence is capitalized. (Again, proper nouns, proper adjectives, acronyms, and initialisms remain capitalized.) As with start case, sentence case is useful because it eliminates any possible confusion over which words should be capitalized. Titles following this convention look like this:

• “New regulations for schools scoring below national averages”
• “An analysis of the differences between formatting styles”
• “President to consider options after results of FBI investigation”
• “Outrage over Prime Minister’s response to corruption charges”

Sentence case is not typically recommended by academic or professional style guides, though this is not always true. Some magazine and news publications use the style for their headlines as well, as do many websites.

Capitalizing subtitles

When a piece of work has both a main title and a secondary subtitle (separated by a colon), we apply the same capitalization rules to both—that is, the same types of words will be in uppercase or lowercase depending on which style is being used. We also capitalize the first word after the colon, treating the subtitle as its own. For example:

• The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir
• Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero (sometimes written as Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero due to the preference of capitalizing words longer than three letters)

This convention is also true in academic essays, whose subtitles tend to be longer and more detailed, giving the reader a brief explanation of what the essay is about:

• From the Television to the Supermarket: How the Rise of Modern Advertising Shaped Consumerism in America
• True Crimes: A Look at Criminal Cases That Inspired Five Classic Films

Note that if the main title is written in sentence case, then we only capitalize the first word of the subtitle (after the colon):

• In their shoes: Women of the 1940s who shaped public policy

However, this style is generally only used when a title appears in a list of references in an essay’s bibliography (individual style guides will have specific requirements for these works cited pages).

Alternate titles

Sometimes a subtitle acts as an alternate title; in this case, the two are often separated with a semicolon or a comma, followed by a lowercase or (though the specific style is left to the writer’s or publisher’s discretion). However, the alternate title is still capitalized the same way as the main title, with the first word after or being capitalized even if it is a short function word. For example:

• Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
• Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
• Twelfth Night, or What You Will
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Capitalizing headings

Headings are titles that identify or introduce a specific section within a larger academic essay or business document. In general, headings will be capitalized in the same manner as the document’s title, usually having the first and last word capitalized as well as any nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs (and, depending on the style guide being followed, any prepositions or conjunctions longer than three letters).

Sometimes a written work will have multiple subheadings of sections that belong within a larger heading. It is common for subheadings to be written in sentence case, but most style guide have specific requirements for when this can be done (for instance, if the subheading is the third or more in a series of headings), if at all.

Deciding how to capitalize a title

Ultimately, unless your school or employer follows one specific style guide, it is a matter of preference to decide how the title is formatted. No matter which style you adopt, the most important thing is to be consistent throughout your body of writing.

When should you capitalize someone’s title? We get this question quite often so here are some rules and guidelines:

Guideline: Though there is no established rule on writing titles in the complimentary closing of a letter, we recommend capitalizing a person’s title when it follows the name on the address or signature line. However, you may also leave it in lowercase since titles are generally not capitalized when following a name in text. Choose a method and be consistent.

Examples:
Sincerely,
Margaret Haines, Chairperson

Sincerely,
Margaret Haines, chairperson

Rule: Capitalize the titles of high-ranking government officials when used with or before their names. Do not capitalize the civil title if it is used instead of the name.

Examples:
The president will address Congress.
All senators are expected to attend.
The governors, lieutenant governors, and attorneys general called for a special task force.
Governor Connelly, Lieutenant Governor Martinez, and Senators James and Hennessy will attend the meeting.

Rule: Capitalize a title when used as a direct address even when the person is not named.

Examples:
Will you be holding a press conference, Madame President?
Please give us your opinion of this latest development, Senator.
We need your response quickly, Mr. President.
We need your response quickly, President Obama.
Will you help me with my homework, Dad?

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