The GrammarPhile Blog

Headline Style -- Read All About It!

If you're in the newspaper business, you know how to properly capitalize headlines. But people writing white papers, press releases, brochures, and even résumés need to know what's right and what's wrong in order to retain the respect and admiration, to say nothing of the trust, of their readers. So take note!

Most style guides call for lower-casing prepositions, articles, and many conjunctions. But there are lots of extenuating circumstances that call for uppercasing those words sometimes. Read on, but first:

- A preposition is a word that could describe your relationship to a cloud: you're in the cloud, under the cloud, above the cloud, around the cloud, by the cloud, before the cloud, after the cloud. These italicized words are prepositions.
- The articles are the, a, and an -- they point out things: the boy, a man.
- Conjunctions join things: and, or, nor, while, etc.

The Chicago Manual of Style says to always capitalize the first and last words of a headline, no matter what. Lowercase prepositions, regardless of length, except when they are stressed (as through in A River Runs Through It), are used adverbially or adjectivally (as up in Look Up, down in Turn Down, on in The On Button, etc.), are used as conjunctions (such as before in Look Before You Leap), or are part of a Latin expression used adjectivally or adverbially (e.g., De Facto, In Vitro, etc.). CMS specifies lowercasing the conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor. Always lowercase to and as.

Examples:

• Mnemonics That Work Are Better Than Rules That Don't
• Singing While You Work
• A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing (is is a verb, and verbs in headlines are always capped)
• The Water Skier as Bride
• Tired but Happy
• Traveling with Bosco, but A Good Dog to Travel With
• Progress in In Vitro Fertilization
• Voting For and Against the Tennis Court Proposal

The Gregg Reference Manual says to capitalize all words with four or more letters, including four-letter-plus prepositions. You might find this rule more attractive especially with regards to long prepositions such as through and multisyllabic prepositions such as around and underneath.

Standard newspaper rules call for capitalizing the first word in every line of a column headline that is forced to wrap onto two or more lines. For example,
Federal Tax
Dollars Wasted
In "Big Dig" Fiasco

Always refer to your chosen style guide and be consistent.

Fun with Adverbs

Let's spend some time this week on parts of speech. This post is on the adverb. The fun is in getting them right, and, if your personality is such, helping others with their adverbs.

An adverb is a word used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. An adverb can also modify an entire sentence, as in Regrettably, my opponent won the slalom competition.

Almost all words that end in ly are adverbs (quickly, largely), but some are not (friendly and leisurely are adjectives, though the latter is correct, if awkward, as an adverb too). Many common adverbs do not end in ly (very, quite), and some of these are adjectives as well as adverbs (better, long) and may require a hyphen joining them to the word they modify to prevent misreading. Often a word that is usually a preposition becomes an adverb, as in Used-car buyers like to trade up, in which up modifies the verb trade rather than acting as a preposition.

Adverbs are often misused as adjectives, as in I feel badly. Adverbs are also often used when adjectival forms might be better, e.g. first...second vs. firstly...secondly.

Adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses are so called not because they contain adverbs—often they do not—but because they function as adverbs. He swore when shaving and sang while he showered contains the adverbial phrase when shaving, modifying swore, and the adverbial phrase while he showered, modifying sang. Since swore and sang are verbs, the modifying phrase and clause are considered adverbial.

A conjunctive adverb is one used to join clauses or to connect the thought of a sentence to the preceding sentence. In She made the first three buoys; however, she crashed before the end of the course, the adverb however is conjunctive. In However, she didn't win the tournament, the adverb However connects the thought of the sentence to that of some preceding sentence and thus is conjunctive. It is also a sentence modifier.

Now - go have fun writing your own adverbial phrases!