How to Write Titles on the University of Maine System Website
The University of Maine System website follows the Associated Press Online Stylebook (External Site). Because the University of Maine System is an institution of higher learning and an institution that prioritizes accessible web content, consistency and accuracy are important. Please review your web content for errors in style, spelling and grammar.
Guidelines about titles of works (otherwise known as composition titles) can be found below.
Apply the following guidelines to the titles of books, movies, plays, poems, albums, songs, operas, radio and television programs, lectures, speeches and works of art:
- Capitalize all words in a title except articles (“a, an, the”); prepositions of three or fewer letters (“for, of, on, up” etc.); and conjunctions of three or fewer letters (“and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet” etc.) unless any of those start or end the title
- Capitalize prepositions of four or more letters (“above, after, down, inside, over, with” etc.) and conjunctions of four more more letters (“because, while, since, though” etc.)
- Put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the Bible, the Quran and other holy books, and books that are primarily catalogs for reference material. In addition to catalogs, this category includes almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, handbooks and similar publications
- Do not use quotation marks around such software titles such as Windows; apps; or around names of video, online or analog versions of games
- Do not use quotation marks for sculptures