Headlines, Subheads and Body Copy
We follow the Chicago Manual of Style for headlines. The key takeaways:
- Headlines with up to five words should be title case with no end punctuation.
- Seriously, never include a period at the end of a title case headline.
- Headlines with six words or more should be sentence case, and punctuated appropriately.
- The Hudl Blog is an exception, we always used title case for blog headlines regardless of length.
- Always capitalize the first and last word of a headline.
- Don’t capitalize prepositions (e.g., in, on, about, below).
- Capitalize pretty much everything else, including:
- All verbs, even short ones like is and am
- Pronouns (e.g., it, my, our)
- Subordinating conjunctions (e.g., if, that, when, so that)
This isn't A good Headline
Don’t capitalize prepositions or articles.
This Is a Better Headline
Do capitalize everything but prepositions and articles.
A Long, Complete Sentence Is Quite Common
Don’t add title case headlines with six or more words.
Common? Not this one.
You can use sentence case to emphasize a message in marketing copy.
A subhead is any headline that follows under the main one. Use sentence case. Again, complete sentences get a period, while fragments don’t.
Body copy is always sentence case with appropriate punctuation. Easy as that.
Check out how to write effective headlines for blog posts, modals and more.