G-G-Grammar post?!
In the ever relevant words of Eminem (who I thought was actually this when I first heard his name, don’t act like you didn’t):
Come on, let’s cut the bullshit, enough
Let’s get it started, let’s start addressing this issue and open it up.
Post titles are some of the most important things to bloggers. Screw writing, LULZ, image dumps and all that other stuff associated with Tinternet, what captures (feed) reader’s eyes is a post title; it’s the reason you take that one-click route to analysis and entertainment.
However, there’s something that always bothers me with post titles and that is non-capitalised letters. For some reason, I feel that not capitalising at the very least the nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs in a post just creates less of an impact when I take a gander at my feedburner. I can confidently say I’m less inclined to read a lower-case titled-post than an upper case one. Before you accuse me of grammtical segregation, I’m not saying that bloggers should go the way of capitalising every single word like I do; that’s just overkill and an addiction to which there shall never be a cure (except maybe over at OH!.)
Capital letters stand out on any surface that they’re read from more than their lower-case counter-parts, that’s simply fact. I mean, just look at Baka-Raptor’s comments on ef- a tale of memories. The very first thing he mentions as an undeniable improvement is using capital letters for most of the words in the title. And we all know he’s right about everything around 70% of the time, so I’d hedge my bets that capitalisation = better.
So why even bother with lower case letters in post titles? Do bloggers wish to underwhelm and slash numbers from their audience before their post has even been read? Of course not, that’s absurd. But nevertheless, as with every absurdity there is a grain of truth at it’s core.
Perhaps there is some sort of balance to be struck. Let’s take an example:
I Hate Christmas On The Blogosphere.
Let’s ignore the fact that “on” should probably “in” and look at some aspects of the grammar. Despite the gratuitous over-use of capital letters applied to “On The”, the title stands out, in an almost bold, authoratitive, commanding-to-the-point-of-being-terrifying way. But what of its opposite?
I hate christmas on the blogosphere.
Not only is this an insult to the holiday itself (Christmas deserves capital letters dammit) but in contrast the title is uninteresting, meek and dull compared to the superior original. However, if we somewhat mix the two:
I Hate Christmas on the Blogosphere.
A delicate balance has been struck between the two styles, creating an attention grabbing but not imposing title.
These were simply some thoughts I had after his Mightyness Lord Riex told us to make with the correct post title…ings. However, in my opinion, no-one should be using the weaker and boring lower-case method. It should be all capitals or a mixture, not none. This isn’t so much a command as an order friendly advice. I can guarantee that there may possibly be a slight increase in your hits if you use the superior better alternative methods. Or just copy me, as mine is the one and only correct way.
Don’t even consider using capital letters in the middle of a word, that’s a whole other can of worms.
Actually…
Capital letter use on microcontent is often a stylistic choice. Although if you’re going by, say, Chicago Manual of Style or something, then the balance approach is the way to go.
And post titles are usually the most important microcontent any blogger writes. There’s no point fretting over capital letters as long as they recognize it matters and it can be used to express something about their blogs.
Good post. Personally, I capitalize all my post titles but display them with text-transform:lowercase.
Yeah, I’m just that dumb.
I always capitalize the words in the titles of my posts. I follow this:
“I Hate Christmas on the Blogsphere.”
more than this though:
“I Hate Christmas On The Blogsphere.”
I guess it’s my training. ^_^
What the heck. You actually made me go through my entire blog (all the way back to the beginning) to see how I was doing my capitalization on my post titles.
But I am proud to say I did it right! So much capitalization in my posts (except I don’t necessarily capitalize every word)! Of course, there’s one exception, but to be honest I was trying to let that one sneak by everyone since it was a rant. So, I did good, right? (Praise me!)
I was gonna say I almost always capitalize particularly with Japanese titles you don’t have the’s and if’s you have “Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka” So then I’ll uncapitalize the ni maybe because in my mind 2 letter words shouldn’t be capitalized ?_?
jp on the other hand loves lower case. 😆
MHRA Style Guide: Learn It, Love It, Live It!
I’m a ‘balanced capitaliser’, but I can see that there’s an aesthetic attraction to all-lower case titles. Consistency’s the main thing. If you’re a real pedant like me, you’ll italicise anime titles that appear in your post titles, too.
Gordon Brown’s in our camp, too: he’s always recapitalising banks, or something, they were saying the the radio . . .
* on the radio. Meh. Long day.
An Agreement and Endorsement of One Omo’s Commentary in Relation to this Post on Grammar in Blog Post Titles
Chalk it up to style, boy. I personally only capitalize the first letter of the first word and nouns in the title. Riex made that post back in camp because he let my intro post through without noticing my sylistically opposed to OH! post title non-capital letters use.
I love grammar. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I’m a totalitarian grammar nazi and will interrupt AIM conversations to tell you that you’re using the wrong “your.” As such, it has always bothered me when titles of almost anything are incorrectly capitalized. Sometimes, it can be difficult to decide what stays lowercase or not, and I know that all lowercase is sometimes the “in” thing, but come on. The English language is being devolved at such a fast rate on the Internet, I feel that some of us should at least try to fight back. I regard bloggers on nearly the same level as journalists — sure, we’re a bit more laid back, but come on. Have a little pride in yourself and your work. Structure isn’t such a bad thing.
…I’ll get off my soapbox now.
I think what hurts your view there is that I’m not sure many animebloggers care that much. I know I don’t, even though you see me capitalizing titles (and even then, my two co-authors do their own capitalizing things :P).
As others have said, what the title says is more important then how it’s presented, but if it’s capitalizing or lack thereof makes you notice it more, than the better for you. :3
[ID SOJOURNER]
Subtle and interesting point. SO WHAT ARE YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT WRITING LIKE THIS?
i would believe you but i always write my comments in lower case and you still read and reply to them.
i would call you a grammar nazi but… you read my blog so i don’t believe you.
title-wise… i think people do it as style, or because they apply actual sentences as their titles instead of formal headers. that’s what i think anyway.
If you’re going to copy me, at least post some ShizNat.
Capitalizing Letters Seems To Turn The Larger Sentence Into A Trope.
All my post titles seem to auto lower case when viewing, but they still seem to retain their upper case letters when I look at them in my dashboard and feed reader.
Although, honestly, people being able to spell and write proper sentences is more of a pet peeve with me than capitalization.
Well, capital letters are like … taller than un-capitalized letters so I guess it stands out more … But I would click on any title that captures my interest. Whether they’re written with caps or not doesn’t really bother me, but it does make the title look prettier
I never knew that a blogger will post this kind of uhhh.. post. I know. The title has a BIG role and has a big effect for the readers. What will the readers see first on your post? The title. So in other words, GET A KICKASS TITLE!
Capitalising (Or is it capitalizing?) is my problem too before. See my old post title with capital letters every word except the article? Example, “Oh shit! New WP Dashboard Design!” But on the latter posts, “Eclipse First Impressions: I never knew I would go this far”
Well I dont know what to choose. Capitalise all initials on every word. Or just whatever you want to do on your shitty post title. GRR!
@omo
But that kind of raises the question why you’d prefer one style over another. Is there some facet of not capitalising/ capitalising post titles that conveys something about your blog?
@lolikitsune
And yet you shall probably continue to do so. It boggles the mind.
@picchar
Interesting theory (or I could just be reading too much into it) by saying that it’s part of your “training”. Perhaps even before you begin being an active part of the community (i.e before you make a blog), having seen post titles capitalised in such a way, your naturally inclined to do the same.
@FuyuMaiden
Just as planned.
You have obtained 6 Omi-points. Praise achieved m (- -) m!
@Hinano
Raging Fangirl = Inclined to capitalising.
“…the title stands out, in an almost bold, authoratitive, commanding-to-the-point-of-being-terrifying way.”
Fiancee = Inclined to lower case.
“…in contrast the title is uninteresting, meek and dull compared to the superior original.”
😉
@The Animanachronism
*runs off to buy*
Oh, don’t get me started on inconsistency *shudders*.
@ghostlightning
Riex wishes for complete conformity under his regime.
And I know I’m younger and 18 but why did I suddenly become a “boy” ;_;?
@Kiri
I must say that if we didn’t have grammar
nazisadvisors then the Internet woudl fall into an abyss of horribly written articles which are nigh incomprehensible. I, for one, respect your endeavours.@TheBigN
Of course the post title doesn’t matter! If it was simply made up of a grouping of capital letters, it would still be fantastic. IOUBFSDUOGNISUOG <— Post on Toradora!
@The Sojourner
^^bb
@biankita
Holy hell, people must think I’m becoming a troll blogger. I was exaggerating quite a lot, but at the core I just thnk capitalising looks nicer. But each to their own, anyway. Don’t woory about not capitalising, everyone has their own writing quirks and that’s just yours ^_^.
@Baka-Raptor
Never. I don’t support ShizNat.
@lelangir
Hmm, so it does. Perhaps we should stop this capitalisation, lest we drown in a see of double entendres and metonymy.
@nazarielle
If I had a theme that did that, it would scrapped witin 10 seconds. I’ve become much more forgiving, since I think of it like this: many bloggers are from foreign countries. Could I write as well in Portugese or Filipino?
@blissmo
And we all love pretty things. Especially when they’re shiny.
@Kairu Ishimaru
It’s all about the words in the title, but capitalising is like taking a girl and dressing her up in the finest clothes in my opinion. If I really didn’t care, would I make up such an awesome title for my post?
I’m late to the party with this comment, but I vary.
I use capital letters for the first letter of names, titles, names of post types, and the beginning of the post title, but not really for anything else.
Examples: “To Heart is rather boring,” “Obligatory November post; What I’ve been watching in the fall” (dunno why I capitalized “what”), “[Dinner Discussion] Manga aisle freeloaders.”
Otherwise, I do use the mix. Capital letters for the first letter of everything except minor words… like so: “Mizunashi Mode – Day 0,” “(Anime – TV) Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2 21 – Metareview.”
@Icystrum
No! You must not vary! Then “they” will win >_>…
Capitalizing Makes Blogging Seem Lyk It’s Totally SRS BSNS. (not sure whether we even need a dot(.), but I just felt like using one)
@omisyth
no… no one believes you’re a troll since everyone already knows you’re a tsundere. ^^
@usagijen
I always take a stance of relaxed profesionalism in blogging; like thinking before I speak, as it were.
@biankita
O U ^^
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