[manual-of-style] Sentence case instead of Title case

[koalie]

Section 5.1 Document Title says:

Capitalize title words following U.S. usage.

But as part of the W3C website redesign, Studio 24 (the agency we worked with) let us know of research findings that title case is hard to read (fwiw, I concur!) and they recommended we use sentence case for titles and headings. Which we have applied to the best of our ability on new pages we had to re-create for the CMS.

I would like to extend that rule for the rest of the site, including our Specs so would like to add it to section 11.4 Case, Combining Words, and Hyphenation in the form of a new paragraph.

We would probably make this applicable starting a certain date to all future specs, and not retro-active (because there are several thousands of files to update which has in some cases hundreds of headings).

Note: There is likely other documentation for authors and editors and other "manual of style"-like documents to adjust (or to combine in one document).

[tamsinewing555]

@koalie - I agree and best practice for readability of web content is to use sentence case for titles and headings (except where there is a proper noun, of course). This also makes it easy to identify when a term is a proper noun.

If we go ahead with this, I will help to update the other style guides W3C uses, although it would be good to have one source of truth that the other style guides link to for information that applies across W3C web content.

[xfq]

See also w3c/manual-of-style#27

[Myndex]

...let us know of research findings that title case is hard to read...

I would love to know what research study claims that!

Traditionally, title case is used because it improves readability, in a way similar to camelCase—at least that's the general consensus. Title case is the de rigueur of typesetting, but then, typesetting implies someone is manning the controls... whereas in web content, text flows out willy-nilly, and sometimes in unpredictable ways depending on the device. I'm wondering if thay plays into said research?

[TallTed]

@koalie —

Is https://studio24-24.com/ the "Studio 24 (the agency we worked with)"?

I would also be interested in seeing the "research findings that title case is hard to read", and especially in their testing methodology.

[shawna-slh]

+1 to gathering data, agreeing on a style, documenting it, communicating it, and setting parameters for implementation

First, let's acknowledge that there is not a clear right or wrong capitalization style.

• Different style guides and different studies have different recommendations.
• Individuals have different preferences and accessibility needs — indeed conflicting.
  • For some, sentence-style capitalization is easier to read — including some people with cognitive disabilities.
  • For some, headline-style capitalization makes it easier to recognize heading text — including some people with low vision who use magnification and some people with cognitive disabilities. For some of us, sentence-style headings increase cognitive load.

I also think age, education, geographic location, etc. impacts people's preferences and perceptions — thus, my point 1 below.

To inform the decision, I think it would be best to find a resource that has collected recent guidance from several authoritative sources — primarily leading style guides, and possibly well-vetted and documented research.

(and avoid cluttering this issue with links to and analysis of un-authoritative info)

Three points I want to make for now.

1. I think that W3C standards, specs, and probably Notes and other such formal documents should use headline-style for the title — partly because it conveys formality and authoritativeness.
2. If we go with sentence-style capitalization for headings within documents, I think we need to provide some guidance on referring to section headings.
   Rationale: I've found sentence-style headings get lost in sentences, such as: Please see the Draft questions for review section on the first page. I assume we would include in the style guide that they are wrapped in single quotes: Please see the 'Draft questions for review' section on the first page.
3. While we should have a W3C style, we probably want to be fairly loose with it when there are compelling reasons to do differently in a particular document. (e.g., even with headline-style in the past, WAI resources had situations where sentence-style worked better, e.g., Tips)

[Myndex]

The Chicago Manual of Style is authoritative for the english language, and is the one most used in publishing. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html It is the most comprehensive style guide, weighing in at over 1100 pages. When typesetting a book or magazine, Chicago is the style guide I've invariably been directed to use. It is the gold standard.

The Associated Press Stylebook https://www.apstylebook.com is focused more on journalism, and has some quirks that relate to legacy methods of printing (i.e. Linotype), such as discarding the Oxford comma, and spaces around an em dash. Personally, I've only been directed to use AP when working at a newspaper. The sections on grammar are good, though not the point of this thread.

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association https://apastyle.apa.org is aimed at academic papers. When writing a paper for a scientific journal, APA is the go-to, specified by many such publications. Side note, I find it amusing that their website does not follow their own style guide as it pertains to headings.

Modern Language Association MLA Handbook https://style.mla.org seems to be a simpler style guide, aimed at students and academic papers like the APA. I have not used it myself.

Opinion

Chicago Manual of Style is the authoritative, preferred style guide, especially for technical details of formatting. W3 can't go wrong by aligning to Chicago.

Some of AP may be useful, mainly the portions that pertain to grammar. But the formatting aspects of AP are somewhat archaic IMO.

APA and MLA seem less relevant to W3's needs.

[Myndex]

Found it, @Myndex! Ready, Set, Go!

I vaguely recall "Ready Set Go"... but that jogged my memory, the other one that was on the tip of my pointy head was "PageStream", which I had for my Amiga2500. Jeeze that was 5 lifetimes ago...

And I found pre-acquisition Aldus Pagemaker a darn sight better than post-acquisition Adobe PageMaker.

A Dough Bee's main contribution to software is slapping a coin-slot on the side, like in a laundromat...