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upper and lower case in titles

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DaSwede | 19:03 Mon 04th Dec 2006 | Phrases & Sayings
6 Answers
When writing a title (film, book et cetera), is there a general rule for when to use upper case and when to use lower case letters? It seems to me that some lexical categories (nouns, for instance) always get a capital initial in titles, but there are a few word categories that I'm confused about, in this respect.

Example:
Gone With The Wind, or
Gone with the Wind, or
Gone With the Wind, or
Gone with The Wind

...well, you see what I mean, but the above was just an example. It's the general rules I'm after.

Thanks in advance!
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The use of capitals throughout should be avoided. Lower case letters should be employed for prepositions, conjunctions, definite and Indefinite articles unless, of course, they are the first word of the title.
Thus..."Gone with the Wind" and "The Pride and the Passion", "Of Mice and Men" and so on.
At school in the 1950s I was taught to use capitals for the nouns. I would not dream of disagreeing with Quizmonster, and this formula does coincide with his examples.
You need to capitalise more than just the nouns, G. For example, one would never write, "The Hills have Eyes" on the basis that 'have' is a verb or "How green Was My Valley" on the basis that 'green' is an adjective. (Rather dated film-titles, I know...my Movie Guide is well over a decade old!) It all really boils down to what might be called the 'minor' words being in lower-case. Cheers
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Thanks "Rocky" (Quizmonster) and Grunty! In past I have simply stuck to the 'minor words' rule, but there has been some recent confusion for me in this matter. I'm thinking now that it's 'the others' who have been confused! (Which is always a nice thought, isn't it.)
Our style book at work says that "minor" words should be capitalized if they are more than 4 letters long. Thus "All About Eve" and "Driving Around with Miss Daisy" and "Journey Through the Center of the Earth."
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Oh! That's great, Kingaroo, that probably explains the confusion! That style book of yours, is it created for your work place or is it a general guide that I might buy from for instance Amazon?

I may not necessarily be at a computer for the next couple of days, but rest assured I'll be looking for your reply first chance I get.

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upper and lower case in titles

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