Introduction

In-Text Citation
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Notes on Capitalization of Titles in APA Style

The APA style does not follow the usual style for capitalization; instead there are two different forms: one for article and book titles that is different, and one for periodical titles.

Article and Book Titles

Article and book titles are written much like standard sentences.  Only the first word, proper nouns, and the first word of a subtitle following a colon are capitalized (Dodds, 352). Capitalize web page titles similarly. 

Periodical Titles

The titles for periodicals (journals, newspapers, and magazines) follow the general rule for capitalization of capitalizing the first, last, and all major words in the title  (Dodds, 352).

The following parts of speech and sentence components are NOT capitalized:

Component

Examples

Articles

 Both definite (the) and indefinite articles (a, an).
Prepositions Click here for a list of common prepositions 
Coordinating Conjunctions and, but, for, yet, so, or, nor
to when used in infinitives (to go, to see)

This type of capitalization is also used for all works in-text.

Several examples of capitalization of titles are given on the citation examples pages for each individual type of source.  

(Dodds, 262-263)

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Created: 06/27/2000
Last Modified: 09/25/2002