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Font Styles and Capitalization in APA References

APA Micro-Lesson 1

Formatting text and deciding whether to capitalize parts of references can be complicated in APA style. This micro-lesson walks you through the most essential points.

Font Styles: To Italicize...or Not

In APA style, italics are used for titles of books, web pages, and periodicals, like newspapers, magazines, and journals. Everything else is written in regular font.

“Proper nouns are always capitalized.”

Capitalization: Title vs. Sentence Case

Many students are confused about Title Case or Sentence Case. According to APA Style, the title case capitalizes major words while leaving minor ones in lowercase. In the sentence case, only the first words of titles and subtitles are capitalized. Proper nouns are always capitalized.

Use Title Case for titles of: websites and periodicals. Everything else is sentence case (books, articles, web pages).

Quick Facts

Title case requires the capitalization of major words in the title of a work.
Sentence case is formatted like a sentence. Only capitalize first words and proper nouns.
Proper nouns are specific persons, places, or things, like Starbucks or Tom Jones.

Try This:
Use the change case command to quickly make a title lowercase in Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

Practice Activity

Find a website to support your paper topic. Write the title in the correct case and font style.
Find a web page within the website you found for #1. Write the title in the correct case and font style.