Editing Encyclopedia:Manual of Style (section)

===Article titles===
{{Main|Wikipedia:Article titles}}

A title should be a recognizable name or description of the topic, [[Wikipedia:Common sense|balancing]] the criteria of being natural, sufficiently precise, concise, and consistent with those of related articles.

For formatting guidance see the {{section link|Wikipedia:Article titles|Article title format}} section, noting the following:
*Capitalize the initial letter (except in rare cases, such as {{xt|eBay}}), but otherwise follow [[sentence case]]{{efn|name=Sentence case|1=Wikipedia uses [[sentence case]] for sentences, [[Wikipedia:Article titles|article titles]], [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout|section titles]], [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Tables|table headers]], [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images|image captions]], [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists|list entries]] (in most cases), and entries in [[Wikipedia:Infobox|infoboxes]] and similar templates, among other things. Any MoS guidance about the start of a sentence applies to items using sentence case.<!-- Please keep this footnote synced with the version at the MOS:CAPS page. -->}} ({{xt|Funding of UNESCO projects}}), not title case ({{!xt|Funding of UNESCO Projects}}), except where title case would be used in ordinary prose. See [[Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization)]].
*To italicize, add {{tlx|italic title}} near the top of the article. For mixed situations, use, e.g., <code><nowiki>{{DISPLAYTITLE:</nowiki>{{zwsp}}<nowiki>Interpretations of ''2001: A Space Odyssey''}}</nowiki></code>, instead. Use of italics should conform to {{section link|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting|Italic type}}.
*Do not use [[Article (grammar)|articles]] (''a'', ''an'', or ''the'') as the first word ({{xt|Economy of the Second Empire}}, not {{!xt|The economy of the Second Empire}}), unless it is an inseparable part of a name ({{xt|The Hague}}) or of the title of a work (''{{xt|A Clockwork Orange}}'', ''{{xt|The Simpsons}}'').
*Normally use [[noun]]s or [[noun phrase]]s: {{xt|Early life}}, not {{!xt|In early life}}.{{Efn|1=Phrases such as {{xt|In early life}} are acceptable (though not required) as section headings. They are also used frequently as part of longer article titles such as [[Piracy in the Caribbean|{{xt|Piracy in the Caribbean}}]], especially when a shorter construction ({{xtn|Caribbean piracy}}) may have ambiguity issues.}}
*The final character should not be punctuation unless it is an inseparable part of a name ({{xt|[[Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!]]}}, {{xt|''[[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]]''}}) or an abbreviation ({{xt|[[Inverness City F.C.]]}}), or when a closing round bracket or quotation mark is required ({{xt|[[John Palmer (1814 schooner)|''John Palmer'' (1814 schooner)]]}}).
*Whenever quotation marks or apostrophe-like variants appear, add a [[Wikipedia:Redirect|redirect]] for the same title using apostrophes.{{efn|name=curlyq|1=As per [[MOS:CURLY]], curly quotation marks and apostrophes are deprecated on the English Wikipedia because straight quotation marks and apostrophes are easier to type reliably on most platforms.}}

Subject both to the above and to [[Wikipedia:Article titles]], the rest of the MoS, particularly {{section link||Punctuation}}, applies also to the title.

{{crossref|pw=y|See also [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Titles of works]], for cases where an article about a published work has a title that coincides with the work's title.}}