Do You Capitalize “A” In A Title? Learn The Rules To Follow

Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are the Mount Rushmore of the written word, and without either of them, we find ourselves lost in meaning when reading. What is reading if not escaping? How can we run if we are lost?

Proper grammatical rules dictate the pace and manner in which written words must be put down. They state that we shouldn’t capitalize prepositions, coordinate conjunctions, or articles such as “a” and “the,” but when writing a title, there are exceptions that allow us to do all of the above.

Now, what are the rules to follow when capitalizing the article “A” when writing a title? We know we must capitalize the first letter of a sentence, but a different set of rules may apply when you are to capitalize a title using articles, prepositions, and conjunctions.

When Should We Capitalize?

We should always capitalize the first word in a sentence, and this is still consistent when jotting the title of what we are writing. We know this thanks to the linguistic morphology that grammar administers. Grammar provides the music and the environment that allows you, my reader, to understand the structure under which all these words are formed and how they start relating to each other in a beautiful symphony of meaning.

While the morphology may be the conductor’s baton, the syntax would be sheet music used for this concert if I can continue abusing this analogy. The syntax provides the set of processes and principles that command the sentence structure needed to convey a coherent message. It can be described simply as word order as it allows for the proper coordination of words.

There are eight elements of speech that compound grammar and they are the following: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, interjections, and adjectives, and almost all of these are capitalized when used in a title regardless of their position within the sentence.

What Is Capitalization?

Having established what grammar is and does very eloquently for us, we must return to the subject at hand, capitalization. Capitalization signals when a new sentence is about to begin, but it also indicates uniqueness. This is why we capitalize proper nouns – a person, place, or thing that is singular. This is not done just so words can look essential, but it is a reward that a word deserves due to its distinctiveness and, sometimes, a case of being at the right place and the right time.

Regardless of the reason behind a word’s uppercasing, the distinction being bestowed upon remains the same. Now, did you know that there are many styles of capitalization with contrasting sets of rules? The most employed and well-known technique would be the sentence case; it states that we should capitalize only the first letter in a sentence and the proper nouns within it.

Since they are not nouns, coordinate conjunctions such as “and,” “but,” “yet“; prepositions like “by,” “along,” “with” and, more importantly, the articles “a,” “an” and “the” are not to be capitalized when writing a headline unless they are the first or last words in it. The first letter of a sentence always gets capitalized, and that is a universal rule.

It is worth adding that out of these three elements, conjunctions would be the ones with the most malleable set of rules, given that they are split into four types: coordinating, subordinate, adverbial, and correlative. A fun way to conjointly discern between these and save me from further branching out into this broad subject would be using the acronym FANBOYS. This acronym perfectly encapsulates all of the coordinating conjunctions by being broken down as For And Nor But Or Yet So. These are the conjunctions that are not to be capitalized when making a headline unless they are in the sentence’s foremost position.

For example: “An Answer to a Faithful Critic” sounds like a pretty average title to stumble upon. Now, do you notice how the first article, “an,” is capitalized because it has the distinction of kickstarting the sentence followed by the noun “answer,” which is always capitalized when in a headline? What comes after would be the preposition “to” and the article “a,” which do not get capitalized. Lastly, they are accompanied by the adjective “faithful” and the noun “critic,” and they both rightfully receive the uppercase treatment according to the Chicago style of writing I am currently utilizing.

What Are Title Capitalization Styles?

You may be wondering what I mean by Chicago style and, put shortly, depending on what is being written and the audience it is for, there are title capitalization style guides or manuals of style (MOS) used to pilot your writing. Most styles are essentially linked to particular industries due to their subject matter, and they can be cataloged as the following:

• Chicago style for corporate communications and business, academic and publishing writing
• APA style for social sciences
• Oxford style for academic reading and publishing
• AMA style for writing about medicine
• ACS style for writing about chemistry
• Bluebook style for writing about law.
• USGPO or AGPS style used for writing government publications
• CSE style to write about multiple physical sciences

Please do not be intimidated by all of these different styles of headline writing because we shall just focus on the most used one. There are multiple styles because of the different orthography, language compositions, and typography that all of these contrasting industries possess and employ in their writing.

The truth is that most of the styles we would never get to use unless we belong to these particular niches of writing. So, unless you were a nuclear physicist or a social sciences professor, you may never need to employ their industries’ pertinent styles.

Now, further elaborating on The Chicago Manual of Style, the set of rules it brings is better applied to journalism. It is one of the most well-respected and most used methods of capitalization. Its rules state that we should capitalize the first and last words in a headline and the first letter of every adjective, noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, and subordinate conjunction regardless of their standing inside a sentence. Additionally, we must abstain from capitalizing the first letter of any preposition, conjunction, or article unless it is the first word in the sentence.

An example would be: “I Want to Play Bass Guitar.” Everything is capitalized except the preposition “to,” which is never capitalized unless at the beginning of the end of a sentence.

Suppose you are still a bit unclear about which rules to use and when; stay calm because English capitalization rules are complicated and are constantly being changed over time, generally, to reduce the frequency and amount of capitalized words. It is an ever-changing process that is constant as the language continues to exist and evolve.

In fact, newer versions of style sheets tend to appear within 20 years of each other, and the subject matter and industry usually determine who the incidence is meant for. For example, the Chicago Manual of Style is currently on its 17th iteration since its publication in 1906, with the last updated print coming out as late as 2017.

Perfection when writing is a tall order to foot, but luckily there are more intelligent and more dedicated people constantly looking to improve these rules and making them narrower for my benefit and yours. Even after an entire century, new solutions are being found and implemented to have more appropriate and harmonious written communication.

Capitalization is paramount when writing because it gives words a weight they wouldn’t otherwise have. How to do it has never been the question, but when is. Capitalization is like so many things in life; it is all about timing and being able to react accordingly to the changes that it brings.