Are Manual Titles Italicized?
Purdue OWL advises adapting APA’s report model for product instructional guides and separately states the APA 7 rule that longer standalone works are italicized. On that scoped basis, a standalone manual title is normally italicized in an APA-style reference.
In APA-style references, a standalone manual treated as a report-like or other longer textual work is normally italicized.
Key details
Important caveats
Scope Boundary
This is a citation-style rule, not a universal typography rule for every manual cover, internal heading, interface label, or organization. If a publisher, instructor, or house style supplies a specific manual format, follow that authority.
Further guidance
Recommendation
For an instruction or product manual cited as a standalone report-like work in APA style, use the longer-work pattern and italicize the manual title.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Reference List: Other Print Sources (opens in a new tab)Purdue Online Writing Lab, Purdue University · Purdue OWL APA 7 guidance for report-like textual works used as the closest citation model for uncommon standalone print sources
- Reference List: Basic Rules (opens in a new tab)Purdue Online Writing Lab, Purdue University · Purdue OWL APA 7 reference-list rule that titles of longer standalone works are italicized