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Is OVER a "joining word"?
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorAce_of_Sevens
Registered: December 10, 2007
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Quoting Grendell:
Quote:
When I went to school, I was always taught that EVERY word in a title should be capitalized except for a, an, and the.


The general rule for some time has been everything excepts article, coordinating conjunctions and prepositions (except at the beginning, end and after a colon, on which case you capitalize them anyway), but as mentioned earlier, there's disagreement on some prepositions. The Chicago Manual of Style, which is usually considered the authority on American English, says not to capitalize prepositions ever, but other source do say to capitalize longer ones. See here:

http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/monthtip/tipmar98.htm

http://grammartips.homestead.com/caps.html

It looks like there are three competing rules here, ranked from apparent most to least common:

1. Never capitalize any preposition. (unless it's the first or last word or immediately follows a colon)
2. Capitalize prepositions unless they have fewer than five letters. (plus the usual exceptions)
3. Capitalize prepositions unless they have fewer than four letters. (plus the usual exceptions)

So it looks like there's general, but not total, agreement that "over" shouldn't be capitalized when used as a preposition. Most logos don't used mixed text and most movies don't mention their title in the overview either, but in my collection, it's "The Battle over Citizen Kane."
 Last edited: by Ace_of_Sevens
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorAce_of_Sevens
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The back cover of "Easy Rider:35th Anniversary Edition" lists Jack Nicholson's other movies as "As Good As It Gets" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," so Hollywood gives some support to the four-or-more rule. (For "As Good As It Gets," the first "as" is capitalized because it's the first word, the second is acting as an adverb, so it is also capitalized.)
 Last edited: by Ace_of_Sevens
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorSpaceFreakMicha
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Registered: March 13, 2007
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And I always thought I'm the only one having problems to decide which english words to capitalize, because I'm german...

Most times I just copied episode names from the cover or the disc menues, but since a lot of menues use only capitalized letters...

Luckily I did only very few RC1 profiles (mainly cast), so in case this thread comes to a conclusion (sooner or later  ) I have not too much of correction work ahead.
 Last edited: by SpaceFreakMicha
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorTheMadMartian
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Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting CharlieM:
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According to the Chicago Manual of Style, over should not be capitalized if it is being used as a preposition, but should be capitalized if it being used as an adverb or anything else.

Another set of 'standard' rules which, unfortunately, Invelos chose not to use.  Instead, they chose a non-standard term...joining words...then proceeded to include examples that were not 'joining words'.  This is, yet another, confusing rule that should have been fixed a long time ago. 

In this particular case, since 'over' is not a joining word, it should be capitalized.
No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever.
There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom.
Against this power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand.
The Centauri learned this lesson once.
We will teach it to them again.
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.
- Citizen G'Kar
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorAce_of_Sevens
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Quoting TheMadMartian:
Quote:
In this particular case, since 'over' is not a joining word, it should be capitalized.

Prepositions do join the rest of a sentence to a prepositional phrase, so if you're going to be strict about joining words, they shouldn't be capitalized.
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar Contributorhal9g
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Using the term "joining words" was just a stupid choice of words in the Rules.  It should have said articles, conjunctions and prepositions.
Hal
 Last edited: by hal9g
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantAlien Redrum
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I would vote yes on a proper grammar change in a title. So "Over" was changed to "over", it would have my yes vote.
Reviewer, HorrorTalk.com

"I also refuse to document CLT results and I pay my bills to avoid going to court." - Sam, keeping it real, yo.
 Last edited: by Alien Redrum
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantGraveworm
Registered: April 7, 2007
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I know this is a dead horse but where does it say to use standard capitilisation or indeed to change the capitilisation from what is on the cover for English titles other than joining words?
 Last edited: by Graveworm
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorNexus the Sixth
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Quoting Graveworm:
Quote:
I know this is a dead horse but where does it say to use standard capitilisation or indeed to change the capitilisation from what is on the cover for English titles other than joining words?


Mmmmm dead horse meat tastes funny! 

It doesn't explicitly tell us to other than "Check capitalization of the title." and it also gives a number of examples of what I assume is capitalization checking...

Quote:
"Lord of the Rings" is correctly capitalized. "Lord Of The Rings" is not. "The Matrix Reloaded" is correctly capitalized. "The matrix reloaded" is not.


I guess neither matrix nor reloaded are examples of "joining words", yet we are told to use one and not the other.
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorAce_of_Sevens
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"Over" is a preposition, like "of." The rules say "of" should not be capitalized. Therefore, the rules consider prepositions to be among the joining words that shouldn't be capitalized.
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorTheMadMartian
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Quoting hal9g:
Quote:
Using the term "joining words" was just a stupid choice of words in the Rules.  It should have said articles, conjunctions and prepositions.

^This. 
No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever.
There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom.
Against this power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand.
The Centauri learned this lesson once.
We will teach it to them again.
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.
- Citizen G'Kar
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