Writers often refer to the titles of published and unpublished material (works) in their content. There are different rules for styling the titles of various types of works such as books, magazines and podcasts. The rules use capitalisation (sentence case and title case), punctuation, and italic or roman type to help users identify titles easily.
The terms ‘sentence case’ and ‘title case’ describe 2 different styles of capitalisation. We mention both styles throughout the Style Manual.
Today I want to focus on a specific use of sentence case and title case. We use both styles for the titles of works (published and unpublished material) when we mention them in body text.
Think about all the works we write about that have titles. For example, we might mention the title of a book, website, musical composition, unpublished conference paper or an Act of parliament. There are titles for many different types of content. This variety of works is why capitalisation plays an important part in the treatment of titles.
But before I get carried away, I should describe how to write a title in sentence case and title case.
Sentence case
Capitalise the first letter (‘initial capital’) of the first word in a title.
Use an initial capital for proper nouns (the names of people, places or things).
Use lower case for all other words in the title and subtitle.
Title case
Use an initial capital for each word in a title except for:
- articles (e.g. ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’)
- prepositions (e.g. ‘of’, ‘in’, ‘to’, ‘at’, ‘from’)
- common conjunctions (e.g. ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘but’).
Use an initial capital for the first word in a subtitle.
Example
- Nexus: a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI
- [Sentence case – initial capitals for the first word (Nexus) and proper nouns (Stone Age, AI); lower case for all other words]
- Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
- [Title case – initial capitals for the subtitle (A) and all other words except an article (the) and prepositions (of, from, to)]
Capitalisation doesn’t work alone
Sentence case and title case are only part of title style. They always work with italics or quotation marks to style particular titles. The best way to illustrate this is with some Style Manual rules.
These rules come from ‘Musical compositions’ and ‘Plays and poetry’. Their examples show how you might refer to the title of a work in a sentence.
Rule: Write titles of plays in italics and use sentence case.
Example
- The theme of Williamson’s Emerald city is in stark contrast to that of The club. [Sentence case and italics]
Rule: Use title case and quotation marks for Australia’s National Anthem.
Example
- The crowd stood as the choir sang ‘Advance Australia Fair’. [Title case and quotation marks]
A useful convention
Our rules for writing titles are simply conventions that developed over time. Like many style conventions, they stuck around and became rules because they served a useful purpose. Style rules for titles:
- remove the guesswork when writing titles of different works
- promote the consistent treatment of titles in content
- ensure titles stand out in body text
- help users identify types of works
- improve readability and clarity by varying the style of titles
- allow writers to refer to – and users to identify – different parts of the same publication.
Our style rules for book titles are an example of the final 2 bullet points.
We use sentence case and italics for book titles, but quotation marks and roman type for book chapters.
Example
- Read Harari’s discussion of truth in ‘What is information?’ from Nexus: a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI. [Chapter title and book title]
Here, the 2 styles act as shorthand for the words ‘chapter’ and ‘book’. We understand the titles’ relationship without having to be explicit.
Imagine if our rule was to use the same style for all titles? The sentence above becomes harder to scan.
Example
- Read Harari’s discussion of truth in What is information? from Nexus: a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI.
- Read Harari’s discussion of truth in ‘What is information?’ from ‘Nexus: a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI’.
Where to find the rules
The style rules for the titles of works appear in the various pages of our ‘Referencing and attribution’ section. This section includes the ‘Musical composition’ and ‘Plays and poetry’ pages we mentioned earlier.
This link to ‘Referencing and attribution’ has its genesis in another long-standing convention. We just don’t spell it out in the manual.
In Australian Government style, we write the titles of works in body text as they appear in Style Manual referencing rules.
This is also the usual practice of other style guides (with the occasional exception for certain titles). For example, the Chicago manual of style states that 'most of the advice' in its section covering titles of works ‘applies equally to source citations’.1
Mind you, Chicago’s dominant style for titles is title case, while ours is sentence case. Our style works happily with our principle of minimal capitalisation.
How the convention works
You can copy a title’s style from the relevant referencing page and apply it to the title you’re writing about.
Here’s how it works.
The Author–date rules for citing government sources and reports include this rule and example:
Media release with authors listed
Rule: Author A (Day Month Year) Title of media release: subtitle of media release [media release], Organisation Name, accessed Day Month Year.
Example
- Black F and Jacobsen N (4 February 2020) ACT has highest student participation and employment [media release], ACT Government, accessed 5 February 2020.
The rule shows that the style for a media release title is sentence case and italics. So that’s the style you follow when mentioning it in body text.
Example
- The findings were summarised in ACT has highest student participation and employment, a media release by the report’s authors.
When this approach isn’t possible
This is a helpful convention – until it isn’t. System limitations can reduce your ability to follow referencing style in body text. For example, your intranet might not be able to render italics.
If so, the most important thing is to ensure your title stands out from the surrounding text. Pay particular attention to titles that:
- appear in the middle of a sentence
- don’t have a hyperlink.
Without italics, hyperlinks or forethought, this is how the title of a government report will appear.
Example
- I relied on the Economics of sport and physical activity participation and injury for recent data. [What’s the title?]
And your options:
Example
- I relied on the Economics of Sport and Physical Activity Participation and Injury for recent data. [Title case]
I relied on the ‘Economics of sport and physical activity participation and injury’ for recent data. [Quotation marks]
You won’t be following the Style Manual’s referencing rule of sentence case and italics, but needs must.
Choose the style that works for your agency. Record the decision in the agency or product style sheet and use that style consistently.
You made it to the end
This blog covers a style-heavy topic that requires lots of words and examples. Thanks for persisting.
The Style Manual also has capitalisation advice about things other than the titles of works – for example, job titles, placenames and government terms. But these are topics for another day.
1 University of Chicago, '13:87: Additional discussion of titles', Chicago manual of style, 18th edn, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2024.