APA vs MLA Title Case: How the Rules Differ
APA style and MLA style both capitalize the first word of a title and of a subtitle, and both keep articles and the coordinating conjunctions and, but, for, nor, and or lowercase.
APA decides most words by length: every word of four or more letters is capitalized. MLA decides by part of speech: prepositions stay lowercase at any length. The two also treat the last word and subtitles differently. The examples below come from the APA and MLA converters.
Side by side
| Input | APA style | MLA style | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| life between the lines | Life Between the Lines | Life between the Lines | A preposition of seven letters. |
| the world according to garp | The World According to Garp | The World according to Garp | A two-word preposition. |
| what dreams may come if we wait | What Dreams May Come if We Wait | What Dreams May Come If We Wait | "if" is a subordinating conjunction. |
| what are you looking at | What Are You Looking at | What Are You Looking At | A short last word. |
| treaty with the dwamish, suquamish, etc. | Treaty With the Dwamish, Suquamish, etc. | Treaty with the Dwamish, Suquamish, Etc. | "with" and a final "etc." |
| memory—a review of the evidence | Memory—A Review of the Evidence | Memory—a Review of the Evidence | An em dash. |
| does it work? a test of the method | Does It Work? A Test of the Method | Does It Work? A Test of the Method | Both start a subtitle after a question mark. |
The rules compared
| Rule | APA style | MLA style |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Publication Manual of the APA, 7th edition, section 6.17 | MLA Handbook, 9th edition |
| Prepositions | Lowercase at three letters or fewer (as, at, by, for, in, of, off, on, per, to, up, via). Longer ones are capitalized: With, From, Between. | Lowercase at any length, from a list (about, between, according to), unless the preposition is the first or last word. |
| Conjunctions | Lowercase at three letters or fewer: and, as, but, for, if, nor, or, so, yet. Longer ones are capitalized. | The coordinating conjunctions and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet are lowercase. Subordinating conjunctions such as If are capitalized. |
| Last word | No exception: a short minor word at the end stays lowercase. | Always capitalized, even an abbreviation such as Etc. The time abbreviations a.m. and p.m. stay lowercase. |
| Subtitle breaks | The first word after a colon, an em dash, or end punctuation (a period, question mark, or exclamation point) is capitalized. | The first word after a colon, or after a question mark or exclamation point that ends the main title, is capitalized. An em dash is ordinary punctuation. |
When to use each
APA style
The title and headings of a paper in APA style, and titles of works mentioned in its text. Reference list titles use sentence case instead.
APA Style Title Case ConverterMLA style
Essay titles, titles of works in English and humanities papers, and titles in an MLA works-cited list.
MLA Style Title Case Converter