Self-assessment: Sentence Case vs. Title Case

In your references list, do you use sentence case (capitalizing words in the manner of a sentence) for all titles except for the titles of journals?

If the answer is yes, click here to move on to the next section. If you aren't sure, keep reading for a more in-depth explanation.

Understanding Sentence Case vs. Title Case

There are two ways of capitalizing titles in APA style: sentence case and title case. It's important to use them both correctly.

Sentence case (green in the examples below) is used for the titles of most resources. In sentence case, the title and subtitle are capitalized in the manner of a sentence. The first word and any proper nouns may be capitalized, but most words are not. The first word that appears after a colon is capitalized since it is the beginning of the subtitle, as in the O'Neil example below.

Title case (red in the example below) is used primarily for the titles of journals. In title case, the first word and all major words are capitalized.