College Composition / Unit 26 CMP 0634 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
A Book Reference
The idea
A basic APA book reference gives the author's last name and initials, the year, the title in italics, and the publisher.
In practice
Build it in order. First, the author: last name, a comma, and the initials of the first and middle names, ending with a period; professional titles such as Doctor are left out. Second, the year of publication in parentheses, followed by a period. Third, the book's full title in italics, with a colon before any subtitle; capitalize only the first word of the title, the first word of the subtitle, and proper nouns. Fourth, the publisher's name as it appears on the work, without words such as Inc., followed by a period. If the book has a DOI, add it at the end.
Where people slip
APA's title capitalization, called sentence case, differs from MLA's, which capitalizes all major words. Using MLA capitalization in an APA list is a common mix-up.
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