Proofed | Editors | Emeritus | APA Style Specifications

SPELLING

Spelling in APA Style should match the Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Some common terms:

Title Case Capitalization

• In title case, major words are capitalized, and most minor words are lowercase.
• Major words: Nouns, verbs (including linking verbs), adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and all words of four letters or more are considered major words.
• Minor words: Short (i.e., three letters or fewer) conjunctions and prepositions and all articles are considered minor words.
• Capitalize the first word of a subtitle.
• Capitalize the first word after a colon, em dash, or end punctuation in a heading.
• Capitalize the second part of hyphenated major words (e.g., “Self-Report,” not “Self-report”).
• Capitalize words of four letters or more (e.g., “With,” “Between,” “From”).

sentence case capitalization

• In sentence case, lowercase most words in a title or heading. Capitalize only the following words:
• the first word of the title or heading
• the first word of a subtitle
• the first word after a colon, em dash, or end punctuation in a heading
• nouns followed by numerals or letters
• proper nouns

general capitalization

• APA Style is a “down” style, meaning that words are lowercase unless there is specific guidance to capitalize them.
• Capitalize a job title or position when the title precedes a name but not when the title is used alone or after a name.
• Some examples of when and when not to capitalize are listed below:

PUNCTUATION

• Use a serial comma between elements in a series of three or more items. However, if any item in a list of three or more items already contains commas, use semicolons instead of commas between the items. For example:
• We divided participants by age into categories of young adults, which included people between the ages of 18 and 40 years; middle-aged adults, which included people between the ages of 40 and 60 years; and older adults, which included people ages 60 years and older.
• APA does have some specific rules about when to use periods in abbreviations. You should use periods for:
• Initials in names (e.g., J. R. R. Tolkien or E. B. White)
• The abbreviations U.K. and U.S. when used as adjectives (e.g., The U.K. population…)
• Latin abbreviations, such as e.g., i.e., a.m., p.m., vs., and cf.
• Era designations (i.e., B.C., A.D., B.C.E., C.E.)
• For reference abbreviations (e.g., ed., p., pp., paras.)
• You should omit full stops for the following abbreviations:
• US or UK used as nouns
• State, province, and territory names (e.g., NY, Washington DC, NSW)
• Capitalized abbreviations (e.g., APA, MLA, BBC, NYU)
• Academic degrees (e.g., MA, PhD, MD)
• Measurements (e.g., cm, hr, min, kg)
• The first word after the colon is capitalized only if it begins a complete sentence. Consider the examples below:
• [Incorrect] It’s been snowing for three days straight: the roads around here aren’t very safe for driving.
• [Correct] It’s been snowing for three days straight: The roads around here aren’t very safe for driving.

BULLETED/NUMBERED LISTS

• If bulleted items are complete sentences, begin each item with a capital letter and finish it with a period or other appropriate punctuation. For example:

• If bulleted items are fragments, begin each item with a lowercase letter (except words such as proper nouns).
• There are two options for the punctuation of bulleted lists when the items are fragments. The first option is to use no punctuation after the bulleted items (including the final one), which may be better when the items are shorter and simpler, and the second option is to insert punctuation after the bulleted items as though the bullets were not there, which may be better when the items are longer or more complex. See both examples below:

HYPHENS

• If a compound adjective appears before a noun, use a hyphen (e.g., decision-making behavior, high-anxiety group). However, if the compound adjective appears after the noun, a hyphen is usually unnecessary (e.g., behavior related to decision making, group with high anxiety).
• Words with prefixes and suffixes are usually written without a hyphen in APA Style. Some common examples are:

dashes

• Use an en dash for number ranges (e.g., 3–7) and to connect two terms in an equal relationship (e.g., test–retest).
• Use unspaced em dashes to set off a phrase in a sentence—such as this one—but use them only sparingly.

NUMBERS

• Use words to express numbers zero through nine and use numerals to express numbers 10 and above.
• Always use words to express numbers in the following cases, even numbers 10 and above:
• Numbers that begin a sentence, title, or heading (when possible, reword the sentence to avoid beginning with a number)
• Common fractions (one fifth of the class/a two-thirds majority)
• Cases in which to always use numerals for numbers:
• Numbers that immediately precede a unit of measurement (5-mg dose / 3 cm)
• Statistical or mathematical functions (multiplied by 2)
• Fractions or decimals (except common fractions) (1.5 / 2.27)
• Percentages and ratios (50% / 75%–80% / 4:1 ratio)
• Times and dates (including approximations of time) (10 min / 3 hr / 4 months, etc.)
• Ages (5 years old)
• Scores and points on a scale (scored 6 on a 7-point scale)
• Exact sums of money ($10)
• Use the percent symbol (%) after any number expressed as a numeral. Use the word “percent” after any number expressed as a word.

GENERAL STYLE ISSUES

• In general, avoid using italics for emphasis.
• Use commas after i.e., and e.g.,
• Passive voice is allowed, but don't overuse.
• Use of the singular “they”/”them” is endorsed as part of APA style.

QUOTATION marks

• Use double quote marks rather than inverted commas and place full stops and commas inside closing quote marks. Place other punctuation marks inside quotation marks only when they are part of quoted material.
• For quotations of fewer than 40 words, add quotation marks around the words and incorporate the quote into your own text. For example:
• Effective teams can be difficult to describe because “high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another” (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470).
• For a direct quotation, always include a full citation (parenthetical or narrative) in the same sentence as the quotation, including the page number (or other location information, e.g., paragraph number)
• Format quotations of 40 words or more as block quotations and do not use quotation marks to enclose a block quotation. Examples:

ABBREVIATIONS/ACRONYMS

• When you first use a term that you want to abbreviate in the text, present both the full version of the term and the abbreviation.
• When the full version of a term appears for the first time in a heading, do not define the abbreviation in the heading; instead, define the abbreviation when the full version next appears. Use abbreviations in headings only if the abbreviations have been previously defined in the text or if they are listed as terms in the dictionary.
• After you define an abbreviation, use only the abbreviation. Do not alternate between spelling out the term and abbreviating it.

REFERENCING

• A reference to a generative AI tool being used in the creation of content should appear in the following format:
• AI Company. (Year). Name of AI Model (Version) [Description of AI tool]. URL
• e.g., OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/
• e.g., OpenAI. (2024). DALL-E (Oct 8 version) [Image creator]. https://openai.com/dall-e-2