When I was a magazine editor, the first thing I did when I hired someone was to tell him or her to read the middle section of the Chicago Manual of Style. And then memorize it. Some people thought I was joking. Just wait, I'd say to myself, someday you'll be as big a style nerd as I am, and you will think fondly back to the days when you were paid handsomely to sit in your very own office and read about the vocative O.
The section of the Chicago Manual I had them read contained chapters on grammar and usage, proper names, numbers style, and punctuation. (The Manual recommends the use of the serial comma, which you might have noticed in the previous sentence.) One of the rules this section covered was the correct capitalization of words in a headline. An editor cranked out a lot of headlines in the course of a career. Knowing what to capitalize needed to come as naturally as knowing when the editor in chief needed a cigarette (yes, I'm talking about those days).
Easier said than done sometimes. Capitalization, that is. There is a simple general rule, but there are nettlesome exceptions (see the Chicago Manual of Style, 8.167). Since this is the digital age and you're already getting bored, we're going to skip the exceptions.
Do: Capitalize every word in a headline except for prepositions (for, to, of), conjunctions (and), and articles (a, an, the).
Don't: Lowercase verbs. Which brings me to the headline of this post. Is is a verb. Just because it is only two letters long, it should not be mistaken for a preposition, conjunction, or article. Capitalize it. Please.
Now get me a cigarette.
Sighted. Cited.
"Language is a Virus"
Headline of a blog post, the New Yorker online, December 28, 2009
"OMG, it's Christmas"
Headline of a blog post, the New Yorker online, December 25, 2009
"Jason Logan, an illustrator, is the author of ''If We Ever Break Up, This is My Book.'"
New York Times, print edition, December 20, 2009
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