The Capitalization of “into” in Titles — In-depth Guide

Sharing is caring!

You are well aware that titles have to be capitalized because it is, well, the most important part of any given textual data.

But at the same time, you also wonder how exactly capitalization rules work, which is apparently why you’ve found our post today.

If you were to ask writers, editors, and publishers, there’s no doubt that you’re going to get even more flustered with their responses because no single, definite rule governs title cases.

So how do we know whether to capitalize the first letter of a particular word in a title? More specifically, how do we know whether to use the uppercase with the letter “i” in the preposition “into”?

Let’s shed some light on these queries below.

 

Do we have to capitalize “into” in titles?

The APA suggests capitalizing “into” in titles unless it appears midway in an article title in the references section; all minor words with less than four letters must be written in lowercase in APA format. However, CMOS and MLA suggest writing “into” in lowercase regardless of its word length.

 

What style guides suggest capitalizing on titles

Writing can be a tempestuous task for many particularly because of capitalization and punctuation rules that writers have to obey.

So, having a comma cheat sheet in a compact format will not only make your life more convenient. It will also make your writing more impeccable, and therefore, professional.

Capital letters draw attention toward the text, thereby enabling readers to fixate their gaze on the capitalized words. This gives them more time to digest and retain textual information.

But, whether we like it or not, language is inherently ambiguous, and it is thus our responsibility as language users to use it in a more intelligible manner as much as we can.

For starters, please know that in the next few minutes you will be able to critically understand when to use the lowercase or the uppercase in writing the first letter of the preposition “into” in titles.

Ergo, this post mainly focuses on exploring the rules regarding this particular word rather than covering all capitalization rules suggested by every existing writing style guide to date.

The capitalization guidelines in this post are based on the three largest writing style manuals: the American Psychological Association (APA), the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS or CMOS), and the Modern Language Association (MLA).

At some point in the future, you might be tasked to cite job postings in styles like APA, MLA, and Chicago so you had better learn this writing technique in advance for your own good.

The basic title case rule may tell you to capitalize the first letter of “every important word” in a title and leave the “less crucial ones” in the lowercase.

But, you will always be left hanging and wondering about which words can be considered special and which ones are not really that essential.

The only way to find out is to go over the specific rules suggested by each of the three writing style giants.

 

American Psychological Association (APA)

The American Psychological Association or APA is the organization that oversees the fields of social and behavioral sciences, such as psychology, anthropology, sociology, etc.

However, other areas of discipline like engineering, architecture, education, and communication may also adhere to their rules, depending on institutional notions.

The title capitalization rules stipulated in the APA are a little more detailed than the rest of the writing style manuals, so I’m introducing these guidelines before the others for easier reading.

The title or heading as well as the subtitle or subheading capitalization rules that apply to the word “into” are summarized below.

 

Capitalize the first letter of the very first word of the title regardless of the part of speech and word length

This first guideline is pretty much self-explanatory. Following this, we can deduce that the letter “i” in “into” must always be written in uppercase if and when it is used as the first word in the title.

Please note that the titles in the examples below, as well as in the succeeding subsections, are hypothetical ones; thus, they have only been crafted for the sake of showing examples.

Example:

Into the Deep Web: Understanding the Relationship of Deep Web Exposure to Academic Language Competence

 

Capitalize the first letter of the first word in a subtitle regardless of the part of speech and word length

With respect to using “into” as the first word in your subtitle, that is, the contextualizing title in addition to the shorter main title, the capitalization rule still applies.

More specifically, the subtitle is the secondary title that comes after punctuation marks such as colons, dashes, and semicolons in your complete title entry.

Example:

Pandemic Perils: Into the Hot Zone

By the way, the question of how or when to use semicolons is also another common concern that you might want to look into during your free time to make your writing more flawless.

Meanwhile, the use of colons in English is also dictated by several rules, such as in linking clauses, introducing serial lists, quotations, and writing dialogues.

Now, let’s proceed to the next capitalization rule for the word “into” in APA.

 

Capitalize the first letter of all minor words containing four or more letters

To put it simply, this third guideline suggests using the lowercase for the first letter of all minor words containing one to three letters only, such as prepositions, conjunctions, and articles.

As the preposition “into” is made up of four letters, then the APA suggests capitalizing it wherever it appears in your title.

Obviously enough, this guideline summarizes the much-needed response to the inquiry on whether to capitalize “i” in “into” when it appears in a title, at least per the APA style.

Here’s an example for your clearer reference:

Example 1:

Aggression Management: Cultivating Conflict Into Resolution

This capitalization rule also applies to the preposition “with” because of the number of letters it has, as well as to the three different forms of the verb “to be” (i.e., am, is, are) because they are verbs.

To know more about verbs, you may also check the grammatical concept of “transitivity” using our complete guide on transitive verbs as well as on intransitive verbs.

 

Capitalize only the first letter of periodical article titles and subtitles in the reference list

In the references list section, though, the APA manual has a different set of capitalization guidelines, in which only the first letters of the periodical article titles and subtitles must be capitalized.

You can understand this explanation in detail using the example format below.

Example General Format:

Author(s) (Publication Year). Title of periodical article: Subtitle of the periodical article. Title of the Periodical, volume number (issue number), page number(s). DOI or URL

In a nutshell, we must capitalize the first letter of “into” only if it is used either as the first word of a periodical article title in the references section.

Example:

Author(s) (Publication Year). Into the remaining title of the periodical article: Into the remaining subtitle of the periodical article. Title of Periodical, volume number (issue number), page number(s). DOI or URL

 

Capitalize all major words in periodical titles in the reference list

In addition, we also have to capitalize “into” whenever it is used as a part of the periodical title because, one, it contains four letters and, two, the APA referencing guideline suggests doing so.

As shown in the example below, all the major words used in the “title of periodical” have to be capitalized, save for minor function words like “of” and “the” that appear midway.

Example 1:

Author(s) (Publication Year). Title of the periodical article: Subtitle of the periodical article. Into the Remaining Title of the Periodical, volume number (issue number), page number(s). DOI or URL

It is therefore needless to say that you must also capitalize “into” if it appears right after and even beyond the first word of the periodical title in the reference list.

Example 2:

Author(s) (Publication Year). Title of periodical article: Subtitle of the periodical article. Title of Periodical Into X, volume number (issue number), page number(s). DOI or URL

 

3.2 Chicago Manual of Style (CMS or CMOS)

The Chicago Manual of Style or CMS (also CMOS) is the holy scripture in business, arts, and history, that is to specifically say, by authors, publishers, and book editors.

Like the APA, the CMS has also stipulated capitalization guidelines for titles. Some of these guidelines concur with APA, while others don’t.

The following subsections contain the capitalization rules that apply to the word “into” when writing titles.

 

Capitalize the first word regardless of word length and part of speech

If you are adhering to the CMS, you have to bear in mind that the first and the last words of any title must be capitalized all the time, regardless of the part of speech and the word length or “letter count.”

This simply means that you need to write “i” in uppercase if you are using “into” as the initial word in your title.

Example:

Into the Barren Woods of New Jersey

 

Capitalize the last word regardless of word length and part of speech

Also, you must capitalize “i” in “into” if it is the last word of your title, although this is a syntactically stilted case because you would have to put a noun or noun phrase after prepositions.

That said, you would only likely use “into” as the last word in your title for stylistic reasons.

Example:

So Much Into

 

Do not capitalize all articles, prepositions, and conjunctions regardless of word length

Thirdly, CMS suggests lowercasing all “minor” or “function” words in a title, as opposed to “major” or “content” words like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

“Into” is a preposition, so you must always write its first letter in lowercase if you want to abide by the CMS rules, except for, once again, when it is either the first or last word in your title.

Example:

Getting into the Cyclical Rhythm of Time

 

Modern Language Association (MLA)

The Modern Language Association or MLA is the go-to writing authority when it comes to humanities studies.

Writers and students with training and background in literary criticism, foreign language and literature, comparative literature, and cultural studies mostly write their papers according to MLA rules.

Listed below are the capitalization rules that apply to the word “into” in writing titles in light of the MLA guidelines.

 

Capitalize the first word of the title regardless of word length and part of speech

Like the APA and CMS, the MLA also clearly states that all first words in a title or heading must be capitalized notwithstanding the part of speech nor the word length.

As this is the case, always write “i” in uppercase when it is the first word in your title.

Example:

Into the Literary World: A Comparative Analysis of Sanskrit Poems

 

Capitalize the first word of the subtitle regardless of word length and part of speech

The MLA subtitling rules are also in concordance with the APA, and it suggests capitalizing the first letter of the first word in the subtitle part. 

This also means that you need to capitalize “i” in “into” when it appears after the colon that can be found at the end of your main title.

 Example:

Inuit Literature: Into the Sub-Zero Zones of the Arctic

 

Do not capitalize all articles, prepositions, and conjunctions regardless of word length

But this time, the MLA agrees with CMS in not making our life harder than it already is because it rejects word length as a basis for their capitalization rules.

The MLA, therefore, prefers writing minor or less important words like prepositions, conjunctions, and articles in lowercase.

Of course, this only applies to “into” if and when it is found somewhere in the middle of the title or subtitle instead of it being the first or last word in a complete title entry.

Example:

When in Chukchi Peninsula: Stepping into the Life of a Siberian Yupik Shaman

 

Frequently Asked Questions on “Words to be Capitalized in Titles”

 

Should we capitalize “can” in a title?

The American Psychological Association, Chicago Manual of Style, and the Modern Language Association suggest capitalizing all nouns and verbs in a title. Since “can” can be used either as a noun or a verb, then it has to be capitalized wherever it appears in a title. 

 

Do you capitalize “to” in a title?

The American Psychological Association (APA) suggests lowercasing all minor words containing three letters and below, which therefore includes “to”. The CMS and MLA also prefer doing the same thing with the infinitive use of “to,” but the Associated Press (AP) suggests otherwise.

 

Is “after” capitalized in a title?

If you adhere to the writing style of the American Psychological Association, “after” needs to be capitalized because it contains four or more letters. However, the rules in CMS and MLA are dependent on the part of speech for which “after” is used.

 

Conclusion

Title capitalization rules vary from one style guide to another, which is not the most ideal perfunctory explanation if you want to make your life easier.

Hence, the best thing to do is to consistently refer to title case guidelines from a single writing style manual rather than shifting from one source to another.