Saturday, January 14, 2012

When citing sources in APA format (6th edition)?...?

When citing a source for my reference page, if only the first word of a title is capitalized, do I leave it that way?

And what if every word of the title is capitalized (except article words)? Do I write the title as it appears in the article/journal, etc.?When citing sources in APA format (6th edition)?...?
APA format changes the title to fit its style.

APA style capitalizes the first letter of the first word only of a title in the References list, and the first letter of the first word of a subtitle. So no matter how the title looks in the original source, you change it to "sentence" style (only capping the first letter of the first word of the title) for your APA list. Proper names keep their capital letter:

Author, X. (2009). The man from Kentucky: He never went home. ....

When you mention the title in text, however, you capitalize not just the first letter of the first word (including The), but all the other words, except these ones if they are 3 letters long or less: conjunctions (eg. and, but), articles (a, an, the) and prepositions (eg. on, of, in). ALL words of 4 letters or longer are capitalized in text no matter what they are.

The Man From Kentucky. [from is a preposition but is capped because it is 4 letters]

but

A Man Who Is in the State of Kentucky. [Is is a verb so is capped. in and of are prepositions less than 4 letters, and the is an article less than 4 letters]When citing sources in APA format (6th edition)?...?
Book titles are italicised, with the first letter of the first word of the main title and the subtitle in capital letters. Proper nouns also begin with a capital letter.

Journal titles (including magazines and newspapers) are italicised and all key words in the journal title begin with a capital letter.

Chapters in books and journal article titles are in lowercase except for the first letter of the first word of the title, subtitle, and any proper nouns (Publication Manual, pp. 102-103). The book or journal title is italicised, not the chapter or article.

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