APA Fact of the Week: Capitalization

APA Editing

Some of the capitalization rules in APA can be tricky, so please be aware of what the APA Manual outlines. For example, you must capitalize the titles of books and articles but only in the body of the paper and only the major words. A word under four letters should not be capitalized (APA6, p. 101). You must also capitalize references to the titles of sections within your paper and the major words of table titles and figure legends (APA6, p. 102).

Examples:
• The criticism of the article, “Attitudes Toward Mental Health Workers”
• In her book, History of Pathology
• In Liu et al.’s (2008) article, Theory of Mind Development in Chinese Children: A Meta-Analysis of False-Belief Understanding Across Cultures and Languages
However please note the capitalization difference in the reference list citation:
• Liu, D., Wellman, H. M., Tardif, T., & Sabbagh, M. A. (2008). Theory of mind development in Chinese children: A meta-analysis of false-belief understanding across cultures and languages.

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