How many of you have been forced to use the APA style for academic articles? If you have you know it can be a pain in the butt.

What do capitalized letters matter when we are doing science?!

It’s one of those boring necessities of writing. But if you are say, Wikipedia, or the New York Times, then you can invent your own rules. And they have, these rules have even become new standards for different industries.

The NY Times style is the most commonly used style for journalists to say, capitalize their headlines.

It’s a pretty interesting factor in how our language is evolving. The styles are as follows:

NY Times Style Capitalization Rules

NY Times style capitalization is mainly used by writers for the NY Times but is also used widely throughout journalism.

  1. Capitalize major words, e.g. nouns, pronouns, verbs.
  2. Capitalize the first and the last word.
  3. Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions.
  4. Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.

NY Times Style Guide

Wikipedia Style Capitalization Rules

Wikipedia editors must follow certain capitalization rules for any posts to Wikipedia.

  1. Capitalize major words, e.g. nouns, pronouns, verbs.
  2. Capitalize the first and the last word.
  3. Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions.
  4. Lowercase indefinite and definite articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.
  5. Prepositions that contain five letters or more.
  6. The word “to” in infinitives.

Wikipedia Style Guide