GOOD HEADING, GREAT ARTICLE.

The heading of your essay determines whether your readers should read or abandon your work. 

A kickass essay with an interesting heading would probably draw greater traffic than a good essay with a kickass heading.

Headings should be easy to distinguish from text. One way to make them stand out is to set them in larger and bolder print.

   Our Plan for the Future
   At Miller Textiles, we are anticipating many changes in the market, such as…
  

As in the above example, the first paragraph after a heading does not need to be indented.

Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

Headings set in all capital letters are commanding but difficult to read.

   OUR PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
  

Use all capitals only if all of your headings are short, and you want to make them very prominent.

Usually a better choice is to set headings in a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters known as title case, in which the first letter of every word except for articles, conjunctions, and prepositions of fewer than five letters is set as a capital.

   Our Plan for the Future
  

Another option popular with contemporary designers is to set headings in sentence case. In this style, only the first word and any proper nouns in a heading are capitalized.

   Our plan for the future
  

In addition to being the most readable style, it also can give a heading a modern, casual feel.

Punctuation

If a heading appears on a line of its own, you do not need to add a period after it even if it is a complete sentence. If the heading is a question or an exclamation, though, it should end in a question mark or an exclamation point.

   The Future is Here
   But: What Will the Future Bring?
   The Future is Coming!
  

If a heading is run into the next line of text, you should use a period to separate it from the words that follow.

   Our Plan for the Future. At Miller Textiles, we are anticipating many changes in the market, such as…
  

Length of Lines

A heading does not need to run the entire length of a page or column. A narrower heading is usually more visually appealing and is likely to have more impact.

A long heading may take up more than one line. Try to make the lines of near equal length. For readability, however, avoid placing a line break in the middle of a phrase.

   Awkward: 
   Anticipating Changes in
   the Textile Market
  
   Better: 
   Anticipating Changes
   in the Textile Market.

Titles of Works

 In text the title of a creative work—such as a book, painting, or movie—is styled to distinguish it from the surrounding words. Most words in the title are capitalized, and the title as a whole is either set in italics or enclosed within quotation marks.

Capitalization of Titles

Always capitalize the first letter of the first and last word in a title. Articles, coordinating conjunctions, the to in infinitives, and prepositions of less than five letters are lowercase; all other words should be capitalized. A preposition should be capitalized if it functions as part of a verb.

   Barefoot in the Park 
   How to Write Short Stories 
   Getting Out
  

In long titles that include punctuation, capitalize any word that follows a punctuation mark, such as a colon used to separate a title and subtitle.

   Jackson Pollock: An American Saga
  

Italicized Titles

The titles of the following works are set in italic type:
   books (including poetry collections and anthologies of short stories and essays) magazines newspapers book-length poems plays movies (including made-for-TV movies and animated movies) television series radio shows operas and other long musical compositions record albums ballets and modern dance pieces paintings, sculptures, and other works of art

Titles in Quotation Marks

The titles of these works are set in roman type within quotation marks:

 newspaper articles magazine articles essays short stories short poems television episodes songs comic strips

Articles at the Beginning of Titles

If a title begins with a, an, or the and follows a possessive, omit the article to improve the flow of the sentence.

   Incorrect: The professor assigned Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason. 
   Correct: The professor assigned Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason.
  

Titles After Prepositions

Do not italicize a title after a preposition if the words of the title function as the preposition’s object.

 Incorrect: Darwin’s book on theOrigin of Species…   

     Acceptable: Darwin’s book on the origin of species…   
   Better: Darwin’s Origin of Species…