How to Apply APA Title Case to a Heading

If your paper uses APA Style, a title case button can give you a quick first pass on its headings. Review the result for the start of a subtitle, hyphenated terms, and short words whose capitalization depends on what they do in the sentence.

Run a first pass on your headings

Open the Case Converter. Paste these two sample headings into Your text, one per line.

notes from the field: a drop-in session with families
what to record if a visit runs late

Select Title Case. The Result shows the two headings on separate lines.

Notes From the Field: a Drop-in Session With Families
What to Record If a Visit Runs Late

From and With are already capitalized, which fits APA’s rule for words of four letters or more. The first line still needs two changes and the second needs one.

Capitalize the opening word after the colon

In the first heading, the subtitle starts with A. APA capitalizes the opening word of a title, heading or subtitle even when it is an article. The same rule applies immediately after a colon, em dash or sentence-ending punctuation in a heading. The tool applies its small-word rule based on position within each line, so it leaves this a lowercase. See the APA Style title case rules.

Check both occurrences of a in the sample. The first opens the subtitle, so it becomes A. The second sits inside the phrase if a visit runs late and stays lowercase.

Review compounds and short words in context

Change Drop-in to Drop-In. APA capitalizes the second part of a hyphenated major word. The converter applies its own small-word list to these parts, and it leaves in lowercase in this example.

Change If to if on the second line. It is a short conjunction within the heading. A short verb can still take a capital. For example, in What Is in a Field Note, Is is a verb, in is a short preposition, and a is an article.

Make the three edits in your document. The revised capitalization reads as follows.

Notes From the Field: A Drop-In Session With Families
What to Record if a Visit Runs Late

Apply the heading level in your document

Decide where each heading sits in the paper’s outline before choosing its style. APA Level 1 headings are centered and bold, and Level 2 headings are left-aligned and bold. Both use title case. Apply the corresponding heading style in your editor so the document records the hierarchy. The APA Style guide to heading levels covers all five levels.

If you review a batch, keep the originals and use the draft comparison workflow to catch wording or punctuation that changed along with the capitals.