How to Get Your Headlines Right
Back in High School, my English teacher, Mrs. Knöbel, introduced us to all the different manuals of style. As in grammar as style.
Not only did we have to know the different style manuals and where each one is used, but also the specific rules for title capitalization.
There’s the Chicago Manual of Style, the APA, MLA, AP, and many more.
Some are used by journalists, others by lawyers, and yet others by the scientific community.
Each manual has a slightly different set of title capitalization rules. Yikes!
Just like I quizzed my Math teacher about why we’d ever need to know how to calculate the square root of 3, I questioned Mrs. Knöbel about why we needed to know all these different elements of style.
Turns out they are important.
Not only if you’re a writer like me.
We’re all writers.
If you write status updates on Facebook or Twitter, you’re a writer.
If you have a blog, send emails to your list, or wrote a novel, you need to know how and when to capitalize your headlines and (book) titles.
Even if you want to break the rules, you still have to know them. (Picasso was a great painter who knew fine art. He was consciously breaking the rules. But if you don’t know them, you look ignorant.)
So. I’ll save you (and myself) from embarrassing ourselves ever again. ('Cos let’s face it, I don’t remember all those rules either!)
Here’s the title capitalization tool you didn’t even know existed.
It capitalizes all your titles and headlines in any style you want, including for your emails.
They even have tools that tell you how strong (read: clickable) your email subject lines are.
And if you’re a spy, this website can help you decode morse code, too!
Best thing? It’s free.
Just enter your headline, choose your preferred style (I like Chicago; it is the most used and respected manual in journalism), and press enter. The AI will automatically convert your text to the proper capitalization. Yay!
Happy (headline) writing,
Nadja xo