Text & writing
How to Capitalize Titles of Books and Articles
When you mention or cite a book, article, film, or website, its title is capitalized — and sometimes italicized or put in quotation marks — according to the style you are using. The rules differ more than most people expect: APA writes some titles in sentence case in the reference list, while MLA uses title case throughout. This guide summarizes the common conventions.
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APA Style
- In the reference list, titles of works such as articles, books, reports, and webpages are written in sentence case — only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalized.
- The names of periodicals, such as journals and magazines, stay in title case and are italicized.
- In the body of a paper, titles of works mentioned in the text are written in title case.
MLA Style
- Titles are written in title case in both the text and the works-cited list.
- Titles of self-contained works, such as books, films, websites, and journals, are italicized.
- Titles of shorter works contained in larger ones, such as articles, chapters, poems, and web pages, go in quotation marks.
Chicago style
- Titles use headline-style (title case) capitalization.
- Books, journals, and other standalone works are italicized; articles and chapters go in quotation marks.
Side by side
These are the general conventions; each style has further rules for subtitles, translated titles, and unusual sources. Check the current edition of the manual your instructor or publisher requires.
| Style | Book title | Article title |
|---|---|---|
| APA (reference list) | Italic, sentence case | Plain, sentence case |
| MLA | Italic, title case | In quotation marks, title case |
| Chicago | Italic, title case | In quotation marks, title case |
Capitalizing Titles of Works FAQ
- Does APA use title case or sentence case for article titles?
- Sentence case in the reference list. Journal and magazine names stay in title case and italics.
- Does MLA use title case for all titles?
- Yes. MLA writes titles in title case, italicizing self-contained works and putting shorter contained works in quotation marks.
- Should a book title be italicized or in quotation marks?
- In APA, MLA, and Chicago, book titles are italicized. Quotation marks are used for shorter works such as articles and chapters in MLA and Chicago.
- Is the first word after a colon capitalized in a title?
- In the major styles, yes — including in APA’s sentence-case reference titles, where the first word after a colon is capitalized.
- Can a title case converter format my citations?
- It can capitalize titles, but it does not apply citation rules such as sentence case in APA references, italics, or quotation marks. Apply those separately.
Related guides
- Title Case Edge CasesHow to capitalize the tricky parts of a title: hyphenated compounds, phrasal verbs like “Log In”, acronyms, brand names such as iPhone, numbers, and words after a colon.
- Title Case in Word, Docs, and ExcelWhat Word’s Change Case, Excel’s PROPER, and Google Docs’ capitalization options actually do, why they are not true title case, and how to get correctly capitalized titles.
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