Guides
Title Case Rules: APA, MLA, and Chicago
CaseSwitch Team · 2025-12-15 · 7 min
APA, MLA, and Chicago disagree on which words stay lowercase in titles. Compare the rules and when an automated converter is enough.
Academic style guides all use title case for paper headings, but they do not agree on every word. Automated converters apply general rules; submissions still need a manual pass for proper nouns, hyphenation, and subtitles.
APA (7th edition) — short summary
Capitalize all words of four letters or more, plus major words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns). Keep short conjunctions and prepositions lowercase in the middle of the title unless they are the first or last word.
MLA — short summary
Capitalize the first and last words and all principal words. Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or), and prepositions unless they are stressed or open/close the title.
Chicago — short summary
Similar to MLA for headline-style titles. Hyphenated compounds and subtitles have their own rules — check the latest Chicago Manual for formal work.
What converters cannot decide
- Whether for should be capped at the end of a title that ends with a preposition.
- Brand names (iPhone, eBay) and place names.
- Hyphenated terms and subtitle punctuation.
Format a draft heading with the Title Case Converter, then compare against your style guide.
New to title case? Read what is title case first.