Re: A call for evidence: sentence or title case for headings?

'Knowing that others do x' is actually quite important, isn't it -  
after all, that's how the meaning of words is determined these days  
(that is, from common usage). As Mark put it earlier, it's a genre  
issue. Here in the UK, title case makes something look American, which  
I imagine is a desirable thing in America. Changing common usage is a  
little like spelling reform, but perhaps not as extreme - you'll get  
resistance.

Actually I can think of one functional reason why title case (or  
should I say Title Case) is better (unfortunately): it has redundancy  
and survives when other signals (such as a font change or line break)  
fail.

Rob
__________________________________

Rob Waller

Department of Typography & Graphic Communication
University of Reading
T +44 (0) 118 378 6411
M +44 (0) 7850 665933



On 15 Mar 2010, at 13:17, Gunnar Swanson wrote:

> On Mar 14, 2010, at 7:00 AM, Caroline Jarrett wrote:
>> I'm just having a tussle with an editor about whether to use title
>> case or
>> sentence case in headings in an online column - quite a long one, a
>> few
>> screens-ful.
>>
>> The editor asked me: "What's your data?".
>
> (At first quick read I thought you were saying that the headings were
> very long rather than the column.One might argue that long headings
> are not headings or deks but rather ledes, thus sentence case makes
> sense.)
>
> Making decisions based on data without logic is, tautologically
> enough, illogical. Knowing that others do x should only sway you if
> you want to be like those others in some superficial way. Was the
> editor expecting studies showing that people read faster or retain
> more information one way or another? The question then would be
> whether the purpose of headings is to get someone to read faster or
> retain more of the information in the heading.
>
> It seems like a question of what fits best into the general practice
> of the publication.
>
> Gunnar
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