The capitalization of words, especially in titles, is very specific to the style of writing of the person, publication or institution controlling the pen. It may come as no surprise therefore that consensus on strict rules governing writing styles may vary. So when writing, should the word “will” be capitalized and if so, when do we capitalize “will”?
Is Will Capitalized?
The first and most obvious instance where one should capitalize “will” is where it occurs at the beginning of a sentence (or just after a full stop). Regardless of the context, will is capitalized whenever it is used to begin a sentence. Upon closer examination, it is more than likely that this sentence will form a question rather than a statement describing intent or conviction.
In titles, a good principle to remember is that all nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns and subordinating conjunctions are capitalized. “Will” is a modal verb, meriting its capitalization when you include it in a title. A good example to draw from looks as follows:
TITLE: “There Will Be Blood.”
Above, the word “will” is capitalized along with all words falling into the classification described above. It is necessary to state that if “will” is being used as a proper noun, that is, a name for some person or entity you are writing about, then it should be capitalized regardless of where it occurs in the sentence.
Overall, the key principle in discerning when to capitalize “will” is consistency. Should you decide to stylistically omit capitalization of all words shorter than five letters, it is recommendable to do this consistently throughout your writing such that even if a reader diverges with your take on writing styles, they note it as your exercise of preference rather than a blunder in writing.
