Capitalization of hyphenated words

I guess if it is in the title and you want the words to be capitalized, the first one is correct. This is because "molecular-based" are two words and not one. However, if you are not writing this in the title, neither of them should be capitalized.

-OR-

I could be completely wrong!

Yes; that's right. The rule is that being the second word in a hyphenated expression makes no difference to whether a word should be capitalized in a title.

I think the second one looks BETTER

The Chicago Manual of Style says capitalize only the first word, I believe.
http://www.writers.com/tips_titles.html

I started a small consulting business and named it
Re-employment Resources. I thought that hyphenating the first term would add clarity to the double vowel "e". And, I find some references that support this notion. The trouble is, many of my customers write back like this: Re-Employment Resources (capitalizing the "e" in employment). I think that APA tells me that the the word "reemployment" doesn't require hyphenation. I'm thinking of withdrawing the hyphen and re-registering the company without. I think it is better-appearing than capitalizing both the Re- and the Employment. Is there some difference in meaning between hyphenated and not ? I don't know where to go to settle this-- some reference that would clear up ? Appreciate feedback from grammar geeks, especially with reference citation for me to look at. Much appreciated

Follow-up: The quote below is from Jeran Dahlquist who contributed above on 05/07/08. It seems to support the notion of keeping the second term (Re-employment) lower case: "if both words together constitute a single word." However, employment is a noun, unlike "ernergizing." Also, I don't know what "equal balance with the first" means. Thanks in advance for any clarification

Jeran Dahlquist said: "As a rule, you capitalize both words if the second word is a noun or adjective, or if it has equal balance with the first word.

You use lower case on the second word if it is a participle modifying the first word, or if both words together constitute a single word (e.g. "Re-energizing")."

Hello,

In my opinion, I would not capitalize "based" because of the following rule from the Chicago Manual of Style:

Do not capitalize the second element if (a) it is a participle modifying the first element or (b) both elements constitute a single word.

English-speaking People

Medium-sized Library

E-flat Minor

Re-establish

Self-sustaining Reaction

As Marjorie pointed out, "based" is a past participle. As such, it should not be capitalized (in my opinion).

"Do not capitalize the second element if (a) it is a participle modifying the first element or (b) both elements constitute a single word.

English-speaking People

Medium-sized Library

E-flat Minor

Re-establish"

Thanks for your contribution above, Sandy. Where can I find your reference (quoted above) ? I've looked carefully in Chicago Manual Of Style, on-line.

Wow! That was baffling.

I disagree with the APA comment. If you have the Consise Rules of APA Style, you'll find on p.43 that both are capitalized.

What about putting "T-shirt" into a title? According to Marjorie R. Seldon I should write T-Shirt, since the second word is a noun. According to Sandy (Sep-3-08 8:41PM) I should write T-shirt because it constitutes one word together.

How about Senator-Elect Johnson?

Hello everyone. My primary language is not English and I am not a major in English. My college English was only 3 units. I searched for the proper way to capitalized hyphenated words for the slogan of my blog. I am so surprised that this thread don't have a unison voice about it. Here is my slogan:

I am currently using "Journey Through Life of a Trying-Hard Blogger" or should I use
"Journey Through Life of a Trying-hard Blogger"?

Best Regards,
RTFVerterra

http://www.businesswritingblog.com/business_writing/2010/08/capitalizing-hyphenated-words-in-titles-.html

What about "all-metallic device" in the title according to the Chicago Style Manuel?

@RTFVerTerra: You should use "Journey Through Life of a Striving Blogger". "Trying-hard"
is not English no matter how you capitalize it.

@CStaffa: An improper usage could be appropriate in a title if the author is using the title to parody improper usage. Perhaps capitalization wouldn't matter in that case, but I always like my "bad English" to stand out against an otherwise correct construction.

Overall, I agree with gssilver. There are plenty of instances in which Chicago, MLA. and APA do not correspond, i.e. whether or not to include the comma before "and" preceding the last item of a list.

interesting

Some comments from a professional writer:

1. On "Personally I think the first one looks best.": English does not care what looks good, or what doesn't look good. English cares about grammar.

2. On "This is because "molecular-based" are two words and not one.": Wrong. Molecular-based is one word. A compound word.