Do not capitalize prepositions (e.g., “before” or “between”), coordinating conjunctions, or “to” when it’s part of an infinitive unless any of these are the first or last word of the title or the first word after a colon.
Also place article titles in quotation marks. For the title of the journal that contains the article, use the same capitalization rules and italics rather than quotation marks.
Chakravarty, Devpirya. “Popular Musics of India: An Ethnomusicological Review.” Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, vol. 6, no. 3, Dec. 2019, pp. 111-22. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48710235.
You can also use QuillBot’s free Citation Generator to create Works Cited entries and in-text citations for journal articles.
The difference between a footnote and an endnote is the location in a document.
Footnotes go in the footer of the same page of the main text that includes the corresponding superscript numbers. Endnotes go together on a separate page after the main text (e.g., right before or after the bibliography depending on the style requirements).
Footnotes and endnotes have different uses in Chicago, MLA, and APA style writing. They can provide supplemental information in any of these three styles, but they’re also citations in Chicago style writing (e.g., Chicago book citations).
When you’re writing footnotes or endnotes, QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can help you avoid errors. QuillBot’s free Chicago Citation Generator can also help you instantly cite sources.
MLA uses footnotes or endnotes as optional ways to share additional information with readers without interrupting the flow of ideas. MLA footnotes and endnotes are not for documenting sources like MLA in-text citations.
Footnotes go at the bottom of each page, and endnotes go on a separate page entitled “Notes” before the Works Cited page. Books and academic journals in MLA style use endnotes.
For both systems, a superscript number in the text directs readers to a corresponding note with the same number.
MLA footnotes or endnotes examplesSuperscript number in the text:
In the long term, regenerative practices can improve profits for small family farms by minimizing equipment and supply costs.⁵
Endnote/footnote:
⁵ See also Jones 144-45 and Xiao 23-27 for additional perspectives on regenerative agriculture.
MLA accepts either system as long as the document stays consistent with just one of them. (You can use footnotes or endnotes, but not both in the same document.)
When you’re writing footnotes or endnotes, QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can help you avoid errors.
A DOI in an APA reference list entry is a string of numbers and letters that has been assigned to an article or book. It’s also a hyperlink that readers can follow to see more publication details.
“DOI” is an initialism that stands for “Digital Object Identifier.” Almost every scholarly source has a DOI, even books and journal articles that were written before the DOI system started.
The DOI goes at the end of the reference list entry, like this example for a book in APA.
APA book reference entry example
Lengua, L. J., & Gartstein, M. A. (2024). Parenting with temperament in mind: Navigating your child’s strengths. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/1.1037/0000407-000
QuillBot’s free APA Citation Generator can help you create reference list entries with DOIs. QuillBot’s writing pad online can help you keep track of all relevant source information to ensure your citations are accurate.
APA title capitalization can be sentence case or title case depending on the type of source and where you’re using the title in the document.
Title case means that you capitalize the first word, major words (e.g., “job” or “parents”), and all minor words that are four letters or longer (e.g., “with”), but not minor words like “at” or “the.”
Sentence case means that you only capitalize the words that you’d capitalize in a sentence—the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon.
When you mention a title within the prose of your document, always use title case (e.g., “The Paradox of Stay-at-Home Parents” in The Atlantic).
In reference list entries, use sentence case for any work that’s contained within a larger source (such as a journal article) as well as self-contained works (e.g., books or websites). The following is an example of a reference entry for a book in APA style.
APA book reference entry example
Bradshaw, J., & Ellis, S. (2016). The trainable cat: A practical guide to making life happier for you and your cat. Basic Books.
Use title case for the titles of periodicals (e.g., journals) in reference list entries, such as this example for a journal article in APA.
APA journal article reference entry example
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346
QuillBot’s free APA Citation Generator can help you follow APA guidelines for title capitalization in your own writing.
The APA page number format for in-text citations is (author, date, p. xx) or (p. xx) depending on whether you’re using a parenthetical or a narrative in-text citation.
APA only requires page numbers for direct quotations. Page numbers are optional for paraphrasing and summarizing.
When you quote and cite a book in APA style (or any other paginated source), the page number or page range (if the quotation spans two pages) should look like these examples.
APA book citationBradshaw and Ellis (2016) explained, “First impressions are crucial—if either the dog or cat is spooked during their first actual physical encounter, later meetings are less likely to go well” (p. 150).
Bradshaw and Ellis (2016) explained, “Cats instinctively like to go into small spaces because they feel secure there, and their exceptional agility means that they know that if they have to, they can quickly make their escape” (pp. 179–180).
QuillBot’s free APA Citation Generator can help you quote and cite page numbers correctly in APA format.
APA capitalization rules depend on what part of a paper you are writing. In the body of the text, standard capitalization rules should be followed (e.g., capitalize proper nouns and lowercase common nouns).
For titles of works and headings, APA Style uses two types of capitalization:
In title case, all words are capitalized except for articles and prepositions and conjunctions of three letters or fewers.
In sentencecase, only the first word and any proper nouns are capitalized.
Title case vs sentence case in APA Style
Use
Examples
Title case
Titles of articles, books, and other works in the body of the text
Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams was a seminal influence …
The title of the paper itself
Depression and Anxiety in Students Experiencing Homelessness
Headings and figure and table titles
Theoretical Background
Titles of journals and other periodicals on the reference page
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Sentence case
Titles of articles, books, reports, and webpages on the reference page
Stellar, J. E., & Willer, R. (2018). Unethical and inept? The influence of moral information on perceptions of competence. […]
Table column headings and entries, table and figure notes
Chicago style has two citation formats: notes and bibliography and author-date.
Notes and bibliography is the more common format. In it, footnotes are used in the body of the text, and a bibliography is included at the end. A full note is used the first time a source is cited and a shortened note (with only author, title, and page number) thereafter.
Chicago style citation examples
Full footnote
1. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (Penguin UK, 2021), 22–25.
Shortened footnote
2. Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 22–25.
Bibliographic entry
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Penguin UK, 2021.
In author-date format, parenthetical citations are used instead of footnotes. The in-text citation includes the author’s last name and date (e.g., Kimmerer 2021). A full bibliography is included at the end.
QuillBot’s Online Notepad can help you keep track of all relevant source information.
The main difference between paraphrasingand summarizing is that paraphrasing involves rewording part of an outside source, but summarizing involves describing what an entire source is mainly about.
A paraphrase rephrases a specific fact, statistic, or idea from an outside source that you’re using as evidence in academic writing.
A summary is a synopsis that describes the main topic and key points of a complete text (e.g., an article) in order to give your readers context about why the source is significant. Summaries are common in literature reviews and annotated bibliographies.
If you need help with paraphrasing and summarizing, QuillBot’s free Paraphrasing Tool can reword ideas from another source. QuillBot’s free Citation Generator can also help you create in-text citations.
An in-text citation helps your readers differentiate between your original ideas and other writers’ ideas.
The format for in-text citations varies by each citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, or Chicago). In MLA writing, in-text citations should include the author’s last name and the page number where the information is located in the original source.
Citing a paraphrase MLA exampleIn the summer of 1970, Janis Joplin participated in a train tour across Canada that was called the Transcontinental Pop Festival and included over a dozen musical acts (George-Warren 298).
QuillBot’s free Citation Generator can help you cite a paraphrase in your writing.
