Book title - definite article?

Question

Hello,

I'm preparing a professional publication, and I'm not sure about the grammatical correctness of the title.

"Jewish Cemeteries in ..."

or

" The Jewish cemeteries in ..."

Thank you for your opinion!

Answer 1

one perspective is to eliminate unnecessary words

the ABC's of writing, Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity

Brevity would mean eliminating words like "the" unless they serve some real purpose

if you said Holocaust, people probably know what you mean, Auschwitz, Buchenwald & more death camps

but if there were other genocides that might be referenced, then say "The Holocaust" which narrows it down to just one specific genocide

Jewish Cemeteries vs. The Jewish Cemeteries may hinge on similar considerations,

although dropping the "The" is the horse in 1st place at the start

if you have Jewish readers, they may prefer "The Jewish Cemeteries" as it makes them sound more important that way. So to satisfy readers, you may want to go with "The" in front.

The King of rock&roll is Elvis. A mere "a king" or "king" is just one of many less important singers

Answer 2

Without the definite article, the phrase "Jewish Cemeteries" refers to some of them, and implies generalization rather than comprehensiveness. On the other hand, the phrase "The Jewish Cemeteries" means all of them, and implies a focus on them individually.

Be careful in book or article titles to capitalize common nouns like cemeteries, though not articles, prepositions, or conjunctions unless they start the title. For example:

1. Covered Bridges of New Hampshire
2. When the Cows Come Home
3. The Dragon and the Knight