“How to Write a Great Heading” or “How to write a great heading”? Both are correct. The first is title case, the second is sentence case, and which one you should use depends almost entirely on who you’re writing for. Academic papers usually want one, tech companies and newsrooms mostly use the other, and the worst option is mixing them on the same page.<\/p>\n
Here’s the difference, what the major style guides say, and a simple way to decide for your own headings.<\/p>\n
Title case<\/strong> capitalizes the first letter of every major word. Short “minor” words (articles like a, an, the<\/em>; conjunctions like and, but, or<\/em>; and short prepositions like in, of, on, to<\/em>) stay lowercase unless they’re the first or last word.<\/p>\n Example: The Complete Guide to Saving for a House<\/em><\/p>\n Sentence case<\/strong> treats the heading like a normal sentence: capitalize the first word and any proper nouns, and lowercase everything else.<\/p>\n Example: The complete guide to saving for a house in Canada<\/em><\/p>\n Proper nouns (names, places, brands, product names) keep their capitals in both styles, which is why “Canada” stays capitalized above.<\/p>\nWhat the Major Style Guides Say<\/h2>\n