Capital letters in copy-written material

Question

I am presuming this is a style question, and that it has a name. I presume there is a place to learn about it, such as 'Elements of Style' however I don't know what it is called, if anything, which is why I am asking.

I recently learned of the idea of writing out, in longhand, good copy, for thirty days, in order to unconsciously internalize some of the concepts of powerful copy-writing.

My specific question has to do with capital letters in a sentence. In the back of my mind I seem to recall the idea that one should not capitalize all letters.

If that is true my instinct is to write this headline...

"The Amazing Money-Making Secret Of A Desperate Nerd From Ohio!"

...In this way

"The Amazing Money-Making Secret of a Desperate Nerd from Ohio!"

...Is this a rule, if so what is it called, and how do I learn about it? Or am I just completely off track?

Thanks,

E.W.

Answer 1

The terms you're looking for are sentence case and title case. A number of style guides out there like Chicago Style and APA give different recommendations.

APA supports both title case and sentence case for different contexts. For Title Case e.g. used for headings of level 1 and 2, titles of referenced works and in some other contexts, you capitalize all words except for those of three letters or less, conjunctions, and prepositions (as long as they're not the first word in the sentence).

Sentence Case is used when you are dealing with e.g. headings of level 3 and above:

1. Capitalize the first word of the title/heading and of any subtitle/subheading;
2. Capitalize any proper nouns and certain other types of words; and
3. Use lowercase for everything else.

Chicago Style recommends pretty much using title case: no capitals for all prepositions, except when they are used adverbially or adjectivally, or as part of a Latin expression used adjectivally or adverbially.

MLA also pretty much uses title case: any words with three or less letters should be lowercase.

I would suggest choosing one of these styles and sticking with it, depending on what suits your requirements.