How to Capitalise Titles in APA 7

APA 7 uses both title case and sentence case, which is a polite way of saying it gives students two chances to get confused instead of one. The trick is knowing which kind of title you are looking at. Once that part is clear, the rest becomes much less irritating.

APA 7 does not use one single capitalisation rule for every title. It uses title case in some places and sentence case in others. That is the whole problem, really. Most mistakes happen because students remember one rule and then apply it everywhere with absolute confidence. APA does not reward that kind of optimism.

The short version is this. Title case means you capitalise major words and leave most short minor words in lowercase. Sentence case means you capitalise the first word of the title, the first word after a colon or dash in the title, and any proper nouns, while leaving the rest lowercase. If you can keep those two ideas separate, you are already in better shape than a surprising number of papers.

Title case in APA 7

In APA 7, you use title case for the title of your paper on the title page. APA’s title page guidance says the paper title should be centered, bold, and written with major words capitalised. Headings in APA 7 are also written in title case.

So if your paper is about sleep and exam performance, the paper title would look like this:

Sleep Quality and Exam Performance in First-Year Psychology Students

That same logic applies to APA headings inside the paper:

Sleep Quality and Academic Stress

Results of the Main Analysis

Implications for Student Well-Being

Table titles also use title case in APA 7. The APA Style guidance for tables says each table should have a brief descriptive title, and that title should be in italic title case. Figure titles follow the same general pattern, and Purdue’s APA figures guidance also notes that axis labels and similar headings use title case.

So these would be fine:

Table 1
Descriptive Statistics for Sleep Quality and Exam Scores

Figure 1
Mean Stress Scores by Condition

Sentence case in APA 7

Sentence case is where students usually start muttering. In APA 7 reference lists, the titles of books, articles, webpages, chapters, and similar works are usually written in sentence case, which means only the first word of the title, the first word after a colon or dash, and proper nouns are capitalised. APA Style states this directly, and Purdue says the same in its APA reference guidance.

So in a reference list, you would write:

Sleep quality and exam performance in first-year psychology students

Not:

Sleep Quality and Exam Performance in First-Year Psychology Students

That looks neat, but APA is not interested in neatness for its own sake. It wants consistency.

The same sentence-case rule applies to subtitles. If there is a colon or dash in the title, the first word after it is capitalised as well. APA’s sentence-case guidance and Purdue’s reference rules both make that point.

For example:

Sleep quality and exam performance: A study of first-year psychology students

The bit that catches people out

One of the more annoying APA habits is that a title can appear in sentence case in the reference list but in title case when you mention it in your paper. Purdue’s APA citation guidance explains this clearly: when you refer to a source title in the text of your paper, you use title case, even if the reference entry uses sentence case.

So your reference list might include:

Smith, J. A. (2024). Sleep quality and exam performance in first-year psychology students.

But in your essay, you might write:

In Sleep Quality and Exam Performance in First-Year Psychology Students, Smith argued that...

That difference is real. It is not you imagining APA has decided to be tiresome for sport.

Journal titles are different

Journal article titles use sentence case in the reference list, but journal titles themselves stay in title case. Purdue’s APA reference guidance is very clear on this point. It also notes that journal titles keep their own established capitalisation.

So an article reference would look like this:

Smith, J. A. (2024). Sleep quality and exam performance in first-year psychology students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 116(2), 210–225.

The article title is sentence case.
The journal title is title case.

That split is one of the most common places students go wrong.

How to remember the rule without making your life worse

A decent shortcut is this:

If the title is functioning as part of your paper’s structure or display, APA usually wants title case. That includes paper titles, headings, table titles, and figure titles. If the title is part of a reference entry, APA usually wants sentence case, unless it is the title of a journal.

That is not the entire manual, but it is enough to stop most avoidable mistakes.

A quick side note on proper nouns

Even in sentence case, proper nouns stay capitalised. APA’s sentence-case guidance says this directly. So names of people, countries, brands, specific tests, and other proper nouns do not suddenly lose their capitals because the reference list has chosen a different mood.

So this is correct:

Using the Beck Depression Inventory with UK university students

Not:

Using the beck depression inventory with uk university students

That version looks like your keyboard gave up halfway through.

Common APA 7 capitalisation mistakes

The most common one is using title case for everything in the reference list. Students do this because title case looks more natural in ordinary writing. APA does not especially care what feels natural. It cares what is standardised. APA’s official sentence-case guidance and Purdue’s reference rules both show that reference titles should usually be in sentence case.

The second common mistake is forgetting that headings use title case. Purdue’s APA headings guidance makes clear that APA 7 headings are written in title case, not sentence case.

The third is treating article titles and journal titles as if they follow the same rule. They do not. Article titles are sentence case in references; journal titles are title case.

The fourth is forgetting to capitalise the first word after a colon or dash. APA’s sentence-case and title-case guidance both preserve that capitalisation point.

A simple APA 7 capitalisation cheat sheet

Use title case for:

Paper title
Headings
Table titles
Figure titles
Titles of works when you mention them in the text of your paper

Use sentence case for:

Titles of journal articles in the reference list
Titles of books in the reference list
Titles of webpages in the reference list
Titles of chapters and reports in the reference list

Keep journal titles in title case in the reference list.

Free Utility

Text Case Converter

Convert text into uppercase, lowercase, title case, sentence case, kebab-case, snake_case, PascalCase, or camelCase. Useful for quick formatting jobs, especially when you are fixing headings, titles, or labels.

Convert your text

Paste your text, choose the format you want, and copy the result. This is best used as a quick formatting helper rather than something to build your life around.

Your Text

UPPERCASE lowercase Title Case Sentence case kebab-case snake_case PascalCase camelCase

Converted Text

Copy Clear

This utility is fine for quick formatting. For more substantial academic writing help, that is better handled by the wider Simply Put tools and guides.

Simply Put

APA 7 title capitalisation is much less mysterious once you stop treating it as one rule.

If it is part of your paper’s visible structure, it probably wants title case.
If it is the title of a source inside a reference entry, it probably wants sentence case.
If it is a journal title, keep it in title case.

That is most of the battle. The rest is just catching the small details before they catch you.

References

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Sentence case capitalization. APA Style.

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Title case capitalization. APA Style.

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Title page setup. APA Style.

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Table setup. APA Style.

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). APA headings and seriation. Purdue OWL.

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). In-text citations: The basics. Purdue OWL.

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Reference list: Basic rules. Purdue OWL.

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). APA tables and figures. Purdue OWL.

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