APA Annotated Bibliography

Library databases provide a citation for each source that you can copy and paste into your reference list. If you find a source on the internet, you will have to create a citation by looking for the needed information.

Use Caution

Never assume you will get a perfect citation from citation generators or library databases. They will usually include most of the information needed, but spacing, punctuation, and capitalization tend to need corrections. 

Find the Citation

Click through the slides below to see examples of where you can find citations in various library databases.

Sentence Case vs. Title Case

APA style uses two kinds of capitalization to format source titles:

• sentence case
  • used for titles when they appear as part of a citation in a reference list 
  • capitalization style in which most words are lowercased
  • capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms
  • Examples:
    • Gone with the wind.
    • Functional cerebral SPECT and PET imaging.
    • In the garden of beasts: Love, terror, and an American family in Hitler's Berlin.

• title case
  • used for titles when they appear within the text of a paper or annotation
  • used for periodical titles (magazines, newspapers, journals) in citations and within the text
  • capitalization style in which most words are capitalized
  • make sure to capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms
  • Examples:
    • Gone With the Wind.
    • Functional Cerebral SPECT and PET Imaging.
    • In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin.

Learn more!

Knowing how to capitalize titles can be very tricky. Ask your instructor or a librarian for help! You can also visit the APA Style website for more information about capitalization.

Check your understanding by answering these review questions. If you get one wrong, read back through the material and try again!