Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we’re saving the English language sixty seconds at a time! I’m Lauren Smyth, and I have to write a paper for a college class. One of the most important parts of a paper is, of course, the title, and one of the most important parts of a title is how it’s capitalized. Don’t believe me? Well, you should.

Here are the basic rules of title capitalization:

Always capitalize the first and last words, no matter what parts of speech they are

Don’t capitalize prepositions, like “to” or “in.” Don’t capitalize “to” when it’s in front of a verb, either – in which case it’s not technically a preposition, but that’s not important

Don’t capitalize articles, including “a,” “an,” and “the”

And that is how you impress a professor.

That’s your Grammar Minute! Visit thegrammarminute.com for more tips and tricks.