How to Capitalize Essay Titles

Start by capitalizing the very first word and the very last word of your title. This rule is absolute and overrides all other rules regarding parts of speech. Even if your title ends with a small preposition or starts with an article like 'A' or 'The,' those words must be capitalized. This creates a clear visual boundary for your title. For example, in the title 'A Study of What We Stand By,' both 'A' and 'By' are capitalized because of their positions.

Identify the major words in your title and capitalize them. Major words include nouns (people, places, things), pronouns (he, she, it, they), verbs (action or state of being words), adjectives (descriptive words), and adverbs (words describing actions). Many students mistakenly lowercase short verbs like 'Is,' 'Am,' or 'Be.' Always capitalize these 'linking verbs' as they are essential parts of the sentence structure. If a word carries significant meaning or content, it belongs in uppercase.

Keep minor words lowercase unless they are the first or last word of the title. Minor words consist of articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, or, nor), and short prepositions (at, by, in, of, on, to, up). Note that different style guides have different thresholds for prepositions. APA style requires capitalizing any word with four letters or more (like 'With' or 'From'), while MLA style keeps all prepositions lowercase regardless of length. When in doubt, keep short, functional words lowercase to maintain a standard academic appearance.

If your essay has a subtitle separated by a colon, apply the capitalization rules to the subtitle as if it were a new title. Always capitalize the first word immediately following the colon, even if it is a minor article or preposition. This indicates the start of a new structural element in your heading. For instance, in 'The Great Gatsby: A Story of Wealth,' the 'A' must be capitalized because it follows the colon, despite being a minor article.