English Language Arts
Grade 4
15 min
Formatting and capitalizing titles
Formatting and capitalizing titles
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1
Introduction & Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives
Identify 'important' and 'unimportant' words for title capitalization.
Correctly capitalize the first and last words of any title.
Apply capitalization rules to nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in a title.
Correctly use lowercase for articles, coordinating conjunctions, and short prepositions within a title.
Differentiate between using quotation marks for short works (e.g., poems, short stories) and underlining/italics for long works (e.g., books, movies).
Proofread and correct capitalization and formatting errors in given titles.
Have you ever noticed how some words on a book cover are BIG and others are small? 🤔 It's not random; it's a secret code for writers!
Today, we're going to learn the special ru...
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Key Concepts & Vocabulary
TermDefinitionExample
TitleThe special name given to a piece of work, like a book, movie, song, or story.The title of the book is *Charlotte's Web*.
CapitalizationUsing an uppercase letter (a big letter like A, B, C) at the beginning of a word.In the title *The Lion King*, the words 'The,' 'Lion,' and 'King' use capitalization.
Important WordsThe main words in a title that always get capitalized. These include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.In *Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs*, the important words are 'Cloudy,' 'Chance,' and 'Meatballs.'
Unimportant WordsShort connecting words that are not capitalized unless they are the first or last word. These are articles (a, an, the), short prepositions (of, in, to, for), and c...
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Key Rules & Conventions
The 'First and Last' Rule
Always capitalize the first word and the last word of a title, no matter what they are.
This is the most important rule to remember. Even if the first or last word is normally 'unimportant' (like 'a' or 'the'), it gets a capital letter in these two spots.
The 'Important vs. Unimportant' Rule
Capitalize all 'important' words. Do not capitalize 'unimportant' words in the middle of a title.
Important words are the main subjects and actions (nouns, verbs, adjectives). Unimportant words are short connectors like 'a, an, the, and, but, or, for, in, of, on, at, to'.
The 'Long vs. Short' Formatting Rule
Use underlining or italics for long works. Use quotation mar...
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Challenging
A student, Leo, was asked to correct the book title 'a series of unfortunate events'. He wrote: *A Series Of Unfortunate Events*. What feedback should you give Leo?
A.Perfect work! All the rules were followed correctly.
B.Good job on the italics and capitalizing the first and last words, but the preposition 'Of' should be lowercase.
C.Good start, but 'Series' and 'Unfortunate' should be lowercase because they are not proper nouns.
D.This is incorrect. Book titles should be in quotation marks, not italics.
Challenging
You need to write the title for a book series using these words: 'the', 'of', 'a', 'diary', 'kid', 'wimpy'. Which is the perfectly formatted and capitalized title?
A.*The Diary Of A Wimpy Kid*
B.*Diary of a Wimpy Kid*
C."Diary of a Wimpy Kid"
D.*The diary of a wimpy kid*
Challenging
Which of the following new movie titles follows the exact same capitalization and formatting rules as the example *Where the Wild Things Are*?
A.*Journey To The Center Of The Earth*
B.*How to Train Your Dragon*
C.*Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs*
D.*The Princess and the Frog*
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