APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021

Standing tall: capitalization
Navigating pages: conventions of style
Earning applause: APA writing for the academic audience

For thousands of years, all letters were capitalized — royal, majestic, and tall. In approximately the ninth century, printers developed a smaller set of letters and stored them in the lower case, with the taller letters stored in the higher or upper case. For hundreds of years, printers preferred either all uppercase letters (called majuscule) or all lowercase letters (called miniscule). Some printers at the time recognized that smaller letters used less ink, thus saving money — possibly the first time that money drove punctuation and spelling.

Fast forward a few hundred years after the two-case alphabet, and letters in the upper case were reserved for beginning special words, capitalized words. Uppercase letters were well positioned until June 29, 2007, when Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone, and the position of tall letters was once again pushed aside.

APA identifies their capitalization style as “down style,” meaning lower case by default unless there is “specific guidance to capitalize them.” For example, when beginning a sentence with a lowercase name such as da Vinci, APA recommends not capitalizing it: da Vinci discovered the principles for flight 500 years before the Wright brothers. However, APA also recommends rewording a sentence rather than beginning it with a noun such as iPhone, eBay, or da Vinci.

Familiar rules for capitalization include the first word of a sentence, people’s names, and proper nouns such as the days, months, holidays, cities, countries, nationalities, historic events (Prohibition), time periods (Middle Ages), parts of the world (Arctic), government bodies (United Nations), special days (Mother’s Day), scientific terminology (Theory of Relativity), and languages.

Most nouns naming diseases and medical terms aren’t capitalized: influenza, measles, smallpox. Many nouns naming diseases and medical procedures affiliated with a person are capitalized: Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease.

Don’t capitalize french fries and irish potatoes.

APA highlights capitalizing the first word of a sentence following a colon. The professor’s directions were clear: A validated study was required to be submitted. If a sentence doesn’t follow the colon, capitalizing isn’t required. The professor’s directions were clear: a rigorous academic paper.

Don’t capitalize seasons or compass directions (unless the direction refers to a specific section of the country: We travelled throughout the South.).

Proper nouns

The largest group of words capitalized in English are classified as proper nouns, fittingly defined as “one only” in some dictionaries. Capital letters help readers visualize the difference between university and University of Notre Dame, between mountain and Mount St. Helens, and between bridge and Golden Gate Bridge.

APA recommends capitalizing the following proper nouns specific to research:

· Names of racial and ethnic groups: The candidates for university president included ten Black women.

· Names of specific university departments and academic courses: Rowan University’s Department of Writing Arts offers Writing as Managers as a requirement for management majors. Don’t capitalize “writing department” unless it’s preceded by a proper noun: Rowan University’s Writing Arts Department offers a number of writing-related majors.

APA also recommends capitalizing nouns followed by numbers or letters that are part of a group or series:

Don’t capitalize paragraph or page when followed by a number: paragraph 2, page 3.

Additional proper nouns frequently requiring capitalization are brand names and business names. Many college students dream of opening a business, an evolution of a childhood lemonade stand. A brand name identifies your product or service and contributes to your company’s success: Joe’s Dough Shop. Your business name is your business’s legal name, the official name on company legal documents: Pizza and Pasta Products. Trade names and business names are generally capitalized: Jeep, Kleenex, and Scotch Tape.

Some brand names are trending against capitalization rules and searching to attract alternate audiences by changing their brand name to all caps, or all lowercase: WALMART, amazon, target, facebook, and at&t. Some brand names are starting their own trend: iPod and YouTube. Research shows that various letter formations attract different audiences.

Inconsistencies in capitalizing medical terms require validation in Merriam-Webster.

Titles and headings

While capital letters guide readers through daily life by highlighting proper nouns — names of streets, buildings, transportation centers, retail stores, restaurants, schools, housing developments, service centers, recreation centers, stadiums, and so forth — no emphasis is as important as capitalizing titles associated with names.

Imagine visiting your bank and seeing the capitalized “President Chesney” on the office door. You know you’ll be speaking with the decision-maker to negotiate the rate of your student loan.

Many style books recommend capitalizing high government positions that lack names (Senator, Secretary of State) and their prefixes (Vice President, Lieutenant Governor). Similarly, references to a deity and religious denominations are capitalized: God, Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah, Methodists, Christian Scientists, and Mormons.

APA recommends capitalizing job titles or positions when the title precedes the person’s name:

· After World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower became the 34th President of the United States.

· I spoke with Professor Rowan after her film class.

Don’t capitalize job titles that follow the name:

· President Ulysses S. Grant, a Civil War general, was inaugurated on March 4, 1869.

· Lee Iacocca, president and chairman of the board of Chrysler Cooperation, was known for the development of the Ford Mustang.

· While walking on Route 2, I saw Don Stollman, professor of journalism.

Avoid capitalizing a description of the person’s position that doesn’t name the title:

Steve Jobs, developer of the iPhone and iPad, died at age 56.

Capitalize titles of organizations.

World Health Organization, American Kennel Club, National College Athletic Association, and National Education Association

APA utilizes two capitalization styles for titles of works and headings within works:

· Title case requires capitalization of major words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and all words four letters or longer). Minor words that aren’t capitalized include conjunctions of three or fewer letters, prepositions, and articles. In title case, capitalize the first word of the title, heading, and subtitle (The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History). Title case is used for titles of books, periodicals, and reports used in text.

· Sentence case requires lower case for most words. Capitalize only the first word of the title (or heading) and subtitle, and the first word after a colon, dash (em dash), or end mark of punctuation (The great influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history). Note: Sentence case is used in the reference list.