Format Your Paper
More Templates & Checklists
- Professional APA Paper Template - 7th Ed.*Or Professional APA Paper Template - 7th Ed.
*ONLY use if your instructor tells you to - APA Formatting Checklist - Intermediate - 2020For 1st & 2nd year classes
- APA Formatting Checklist - Advanced - 2020For 3rd & 4th year classes
Paper Sections
- List of Davenport Departments for APA Title PageA list by subject, giving the Davenport department name.
Capitalization
When to capitalize?
- Capitalize names (see Proper Nouns)
- Capitalize brand names (Examples: Tylenol, Kleenex) but do not capitalize generic names (Examples: acetaminophen, tissues)
- Capitalize job titles before the name, but not after (Examples; "..speech by Davenport's President Pappas," "Dr. Rick Pappas, president of Davenport University...", Dr. Joe Bishop, executive director of campus life)
- Capitalize racial and ethnic groups (Examples: Black women, First Nations, White, Asian American)
- DO NOT capitalize diseases, disorders, therapies, treatments, theories, concepts, hypotheses, principles, models, and statistical procedures (just personal names that might be found in them) (Examples: autism, Down syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, law of effect, cognitive behavior analysis) (see more)
- DO capitalize tests, measures, inventories, and checklists – only capitalize the word test, measure, inventory, or checklist if it is part of the name of it (Examples: MMPI-2 Depression scale, Apgar test, Stroop Color-Word Interference Test, California Psychological Inventory)
What is title case capitalization and what is sentence case capitalization?
| In Title Case capitalize: | In Sentence Case capitalize: |
| All major words (words of four letters or more), including 2nd word of hyphenated major words | First word of title, subtitle, or heading |
| Minor words (words of three or fewer letters) ONLY when first word of title or sub-title or after punctuation in a heading | First word after punctuation |
| Titles of articles, books, and reports in the text of your paper (not References list) | Titles of articles (not journal/magazine/newspaper titles), books, reports, & webpages in your References list |
| Titles of periodicals – journals/magazines/newspapers (not article titles) in your References list | |
| Proper nouns | Proper nouns |
| Titles of tests, measures, inventories | Nouns followed by numbers or letters |
| Title of your own paper on the title page | |
| Headings level 1-5 in your paper | |
| Table and figure titles | Table column headings, entries, and notes; figure notes |
References: Title Formats
Article Title
- Capitalize first word of title, subtitle, proper nouns
- example:
Toughing it out at Harvard: The making of a woman MBA
Book & E-book Title
- italicize
- Capitalize first word of title, subtitle, proper nouns
- example:
Student cheating and plagiarism in the Internet era: A wake-up call
Dissertation / Theses Title
- italicize
- Capitalize first word of title, subtitle, proper nouns
- example:
On the fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason
Report & Technical Paper Title
- italicize
- Capitalize first word of title, subtitle, proper nouns
- example:
How do we read? Let’s count the ways: Comparing digital, audio, and print-only readers
Periodical (Journal, Magazine, Newspaper) Title
- italicize
- Capitalize All Major Words
- example:
Business and Economics Journal
Website & Webpage Title
- italicize
- Capitalize first word of title, subtitle, proper nouns
- example:
Foods that can cause food poisoning
Work of Art Title
- italicize
- Capitalize first word of title, subtitle, proper nouns
- example:
Girl with a pearl earring
Italics only apply to:
- book and e-book titles
- periodical (journals, magazines, newspapers) titles
- website / webpage titles
- dissertation / theses titles
- report / technical paper titles
- work of art titles
Content adapted from University of Maryland Global Campus, "APA 7th Edition Citation Examples: Titles".
Videos: Format Your Paper
APA 7: Annotated Bibliography Formatting
APA 7: Headings on a Complex Table
Figures & Tables
Table 1], (2) Table Title [e.g.
Descriptive Statistics and Correlations for Study Variables], (3) Table Body, (4) Table Notes