Words beginning a sentence:

• An elephant was in my garage.

Major words in titles that are included in the body of the paper:

• In the book Modern Warfare, Clinger (1998) envisioned a world where ground troops are unnecessary.
• Smith (1998) compared the action films Killbot and Killbot 2: The Robot of Destruction.

This includes all words with four or more letters, all linking verbs, and the first word in a subtitle after a colon.

Major words in Level 1 and Level 2 headings:

• See our webpage on headings for more information.

Proper nouns:

• Few psychologists were more influential than Freud.

Do not, however, capitalize proper adjectives that have a common meaning as defined by Webster's Collegiate.

• Because her baby was already 14 lb, her doctor insisted that she have a cesarean section.

Trade names:

• My dog loves Purina Puppy Chow.
• I could go for a Snickers bar.

Names of specific university departments or courses:

• I enrolled in Scholarly Writing 101.
• Glassner was the associate dean of the Department of Psychology, Iowa State University.

Do not, however, capitalize generic references to courses or departments.

• I failed my psychology course.

Nouns followed by numerals (see exception for common parts of books or tables, explained below):

• On Day 2, the rats became more aggressive.
• I visited my grandmother on Floor 3.

Exact titles of tests:

• The students needed to take the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test.

This does not apply to generic titles.

• The students needed to take the vocabulary test.

Proper adjectives that have a common meaning as defined by Webster's Collegiate:

• Because her baby was already 14 lb, her doctor insisted that she have a cesarean section.

Generic references to courses or departments:

• I failed my psychology course.

Names of laws, theories, models, hypotheses, effects, or variables:

• The student was unfamiliar with Gardner's multiple intelligence model.
• Floyd and Rivers (2003) were influenced by the hierarchy of needs.

The nouns "page" and "paragraph" that precede numerals:

• My teacher told me to reread page 5 in the fourth chapter.

Generic titles of tests:

• The students needed to take the vocabulary test.