ThePortableEditor
Volume 8, No. 5
Learning APA style can be compared with learning how to make it to Carnegie Hall. Both require
“practice, practice, practice.” In this month’s Portable Editor, we offer a refresher on a few APA rules
that—with practice—can be more easily put to memory.
Use of Quote Marks vs. Italics vs. Slang vs. Linguistic Terms vs. Scale Anchors
Use quote marks to distinguish or introduce an unusual or unexpected use of a word (on first use). Drop quote
marks for subsequent use of the word.
Example: The students reported they felt “slammed” by the e-mail. One girl described slammed as “equal parts of
shock and humiliation.”
Use italics to introduce a word or phrase that will be used as a key term in the paper. Drop italics on subsequent
use.
Example: The term conversational snow refers to snow accumulations of 1 inch or less. Conversational snow lacks
novelty after the first major snowfall.
Use italics for scale anchors; maintain italics on subsequent use.
Example: All responses were recorded on a 5-point scale ranging from never (=1) to 3 to 4 times a week (=3) to
always (= 5). Students who responded always to Items 2,4, and 7 had the highest odds of graduating in the top
percentile.
Capitalizing Titles
When referring to an article or book within the body of a paper, capitalize all words of four letters or more, as well
as verbs. But, for reference entries, use sentence style capitalization for titles of articles or books (i.e., capitalize
only first word of title, first word following internal punctuation, and any proper nouns) and use headline style
capitalization for journal names.
In-text examples:
• The article entitled “An Assessment of the Reading Skills of Inner-City Students” settled the question
about appropriate techniques.
• The book, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is a modern classic.
Reference examples:
• Smith, D. (1999). An assessment of reading skills of inner-city students. Journal of Studies in Innovations
for the Classroom, 14, 45–46.
• Gibbon, E. (1963). The decline and fall of the Roman Empire. New York, NY: Dell.
Capitalizing Proper Names of School/ University Departments and Courses
Proper Names (capitalize):
• Department of Education, Office of Admissions and Recruitment, the School of Social Work’s Board of
Trustees.
• Doctoral Studies Orientation 8000
• Educational Assessment 101
•
The name of a test is a proper noun, so be sure to capitalize when used in a reference entry:
o Purring, A. (2012). Charisma and Tenacity Survey [Measurement instrument].
Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/tests/measures/instruments/surveys
/charisma.html
Informal Names (lowercase):
• an education department
• a doctoral orientation
• an educational assessment course
• a board of trustees
What Not to Capitalize
All nouns are not proper nouns. Writers tend to overuse capitalization, especially with the following types of terms. Note that
proper nouns (e.g., a person’s name) within these terms are capitalized.
Model
five-factor personality model, associative learning model
Theory
Bandura’s social learning theory, psychoanalytic theory
Therapy or technique
client-centered therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy
Concept
object permanence, confirmation bias, correlation
Disease/disorder
major depressive disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, obsessive-compulsive
disorder, Crohn’s disease, depression
Hypothesis
null hypothesis, the second hypothesis (but Hypothesis 2…)
Condition in an experiment
control group, experimental group, treatment group, no-information group
Statistical procedure or test
analysis of variance, t test, chi-square test
Academic subject/discipline social work, psychology, a master’s in public health
Adapted from the APA Style Blog: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/02/do-i-capitalize-thisword.html
Citing a Sakai Course
The format really depends on the intended audience. When writing a paper for a class whose members have access
to the Sakai site, use the following format:
Reference example: Brief History of Oppression and Resistance (n.d.). Marginalization. Retrieved from
https://sakai.unc.edu/portal/site/6fcf56f7-818b-42bc-8a65-5235f84b83cb
In-text citation example: (“Brief History,” n.d.). The title of the course is used because the website doesn’t indicate
authorship. The in-text citation also shortens the title to as few words as necessary for the reader to locate the entry
in the reference list.
For a paper intended for a non-School of Social Work audience (i.e., no access to the Sakai site), use the following,
which bends the APA rules a bit to include the School’s info, making it a retrievable source:
Reference example: Brief History of Oppression and Resistance (n.d.). Marginalization [Online class module].
School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In-text citation example: (“Brief History,” n.d.)
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