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Possible Duplicate:
Which words in a title should be capitalized?

I'm not a native speaker of English, and I've asked myself a lot why on many (most?) blogs, all words in an article’s title (except some little words like "of", "for", "with", ...) start with an uppercase letter. From my point of view it makes it less readable. But maybe it's a grammatical rule I don't know.

Example: http://nytimes.com/

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jptsetung
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  • This link should answer your question (maybe some others, too); scroll down to where it says "The major words in the titles of books, articles, and songs..." – J.R. Apr 30 '12 at 16:39
  • Please visit Writers.SE where this and many other related topics are covered. – Kris Apr 30 '12 at 16:43
  • @jwpat7, good find. My question is also about why such a rule in blogs (as it makes things less readable in my point of view). – jptsetung Apr 30 '12 at 16:57
  • @jptsetung - it makes the important parts of the title stand out - think of it as tag highlighting – mgb Apr 30 '12 at 17:20

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The New York Times is not a blog, it's a newspaper that has an online version. Those are headlines, and that is how headlines are written.

More specifically, that is how headlines are written according to the AP (Associated Press) Stylebook.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者
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  • It's far more common in US style than British English style. – Andrew Leach Apr 30 '12 at 16:41
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    "This is how it's done" is not an answer to "Why is it done?" – tenfour Apr 30 '12 at 16:50
  • @tenfour: My mother would not agree with you – at least, not at those moments when she told me, "Because I said so." :^) In any case, I think "This is how it's done" is fine when the O.P. asks, "Maybe it's a grammatical rule, I don't know." – J.R. Apr 30 '12 at 16:55
  • I was thrown by OP's labeling of the Old Gray Lady as a blog. – cornbread ninja 麵包忍者 Apr 30 '12 at 16:58
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    It’s the same capitalization as used for the titles of books, movies, and plays. – tchrist Apr 30 '12 at 17:03
  • @AndrewLeach Not in my (British) experience. It is normal to capitalise all the words of a title (excluding articles – "the", "a" – etc.). Certain publications (in a wide sense) chose their own style to override the usual convention – much as some do with other capitalisation uses. – Richard Apr 30 '12 at 17:22