Log in

View Full Version : Correct punctuation of sentence


tank.gregory
Sep 1, 2011, 08:59 AM
What is correct punctuation of this sentence?

The article calling the shots has helpful information about starting a business.

ebaines
Sep 1, 2011, 09:07 AM
It would appear that the phrase "calling the shots" is the title off the article. Titles of articles, books, movies etc. are shown with initial caps (I assume you know how to do that) and differentiated from the rest of the text either with quotation marks or a different font such as italics. Like this:

The movie "Gone with the Wind" is four hours long.

Wondergirl
Sep 2, 2011, 10:00 AM
A magazine or newspaper article is enclosed in quotes ("Ten Tricks To Keep Your Baby Happy"), whereas a book or movie title is italicized (Gone With the Wind). All important words are capitalized.

ebaines
Sep 2, 2011, 10:20 AM
There are different styles for determining which words to capitalize in a title. Some say you should capitalize only nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, but not conjunctions (and, or, nor), articles, or prepositions (such as "with"). Others say that whether you capitalize depends also on the length of the word - thus "Although" may be capitalized because it's more than 4 letters long. I guess it all depends on the specific style you were taught. A Google search on "gone with the wind" shows that about half the sites that come up have "With" capitalized and half as lower case. The Warner Bros site (which owns the rights to the movie) comes up in the Google search as "Gone With the Wind," but on the web site itself refers to the movie as "Gone with the Wind." So even they can't make up their minds!

Wondergirl
Sep 2, 2011, 10:32 AM
Library catalogers capitalize only the first word and any proper nouns.

Kahani Punjab
Sep 8, 2011, 06:14 AM
The article 'Calling the Shots' has helpful information about starting a business.

This is the most acceptable punctuation.