I can't remember ever having this explained to me in school, ever. Although I have figured it out somewhat on my own, what are the rules for what words to not capitalize? The title "show me love" for example? Thanks in advance
It depends a little on the style you want to use. For the title you mention, I believe "Show Me Love" is correct, and so is "Show me love". Even "show me love" would work if you are happy with that style. If you want other examples, try these (taken from scientific publications, which follow the conventions you are asking about): "Plasmonic Components Fabricated by Two-Photon Polymerization and Nanoimprint Lithography" "Demonstration of Laser-Fabricated DLSPPW at Telecom Wavelength" "Fiber-Coupled Surface Plasmon Polariton Excitation in Imprinted Dielectric-Loaded Waveguides" OR "Nanoimprinting of dielectric loaded surface plasmon-polariton waveguides from masters fabricated by 2-photon polymerization technique" "Fabrication of micromechanical and microoptical systems by two-photon polymerization" I guess you get the idea...
A Google search of the phrase -- Words not capitalized in titles -- will take you to a plethora of sites discussing this topic.
I know, but a lot of the more serious sites seemed to contradict each other, so I got more confused than I was before I began looking. I was mostly hoping someone had some definite rules about it here, or if it's just a certain writing style, and not something "grammatically necessary".
How to Capitalize in Headings If you are asking about this for an essay or something, I suggest you look up the rules for APA style. It's a matter of style, not rules. These APA guidelines are pretty similar throughout the academic world, although they are not hard and fast by any means. Briefly, the first and last words in a title are capitalized. If the title is a sentence, you only need to capitalize as you would a normal sentence (first words, proper nouns etc). Don't capitalize articles and other less important content words like prepositions, as above (unless they are the first and last words). Don't capitalize the whole title unless you are a wannabe journalist, or underline headings. For all the details, Google is your friend.
