Some confusing parts
of APA formatting
>And or &: Use ampersand (&) for two or more authors listed in in-text citations, footnotes, endnotes and references, but use and when citing authors outside of the parentheses in the main text of the paper.
>Capitalization of titles in text of paper: Capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source. Exceptions apply to short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs (capitalize them also); short prepositions and conjunctions are not capitalized: War and Peace; Writing New Media;There Is Nothing Left to Lose; A Man for All Seasons. The same rules of capitalization of titles holds true for headings within the paper.
>Capitalization of titles in reference list (titles of journals, books, etc.): Capitalize all major words of periodical titles (journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters) and also names of Web sites, but not for book titles--capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns.
>Capitalization of first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word: Do capitalize in in-text citations of titles, but in reference list do not capitalize when referring to any work that is not a journal, such as a book, article, or Web page.
>Capitalization of proper nouns: Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials (no exceptions here).
>Italics or non-italics in titles in reference list: Italicize (not underline) the titles of longer works such as books, edited collections, encyclopedias, periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters), plays, long poems, movies, television series (not episodes), news broadcasts, documentaries, or music albums, long musical pieces. Also italicize artworks, brochures/pamphlets, famous speeches, names of vehicles (but not if they are combined with the name of the company or brand).
Do not italicize (and do not put within quotes) the titles of shorter works such as journal articles, articles from edited collections, encyclopedia articles, television series episodes, song titles, titles from chapters or articles from books, or chapters or sections of Web documents, long sacred works like the Bible or Koran (or books of the Bible or Koran), well-known foreign words or phrases, names of Web sites, message titles from online forums or discussion board postings. (Note: reference entries are not needed for the Bible and other major classical works, unless required by an instructor.)
>Page abbreviation in in-text citation: Use p. or pp.
>Page abbreviation in reference list: Do not use p. or pp. in periodical references, except for newspapers and when you list the pages of a chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title.
>Page numbers in in-text citations: Include page numbers when directly quoting a source (include author and publication). Page numbers are not required when referring to an idea from a source (but not directly quoting), summarizing, or when making reference to an entire book, article or other work. Page numbers are also not required when paraphrasing a source, but APA encourages including page numbers. Giving page numbers of summaries from long articles is also preferable.
>Quotation marks: Use quotes for article and chapter titles cited in the text.
>Quotation marks: Do not use quotes for article and chapter titles in the reference list (titles are in normal type).
>URL: Include URL for websites in reference list, but not for articles from library databases.
>URL: A URL is not required for online scholarly journals if there is a print version of the article (place [Electronic version] in brackets after the article’s title in the reference list).
Prepared by Ed Sadowski, Librarian, Arapahoe Community College
updated 8.24.08
