Modern language association which creates guideline for student research papers and projects. Before computers, we used typewriters to underline book titles, and we placed quotation marks around article titles. I dont know if this will help, but for chapter style, ap says. Prior to computers, people were taught to underline titles of books and plays and to. Generally in mla, titles of books books being longer than novellas are underlined, whereas short stories and plays are italicized. The 6th latest edition states that either italics or underlined text is permissible to denote a title. When writing, should i use italics or quotes around titles. Rule number 1 of quotation marks is that periods and commas always go inside. The next time the term or phrase is used it should be in plain text. For example, if you want to use mla style to document title 17, section 304, of the united states codecommonly abbreviated 17 u. Include just one single space after a period before the. The titles of unpublished manuscripts, such as some doctoral dissertations, should not be italicized, even though they are complete entities.
When citing book titles using the mla 8 format, always enter the full title, in italics, followed by a period. Italicize the titles of magazines, books, newspapers, academic journals, films, television shows, long poems, plays, operas, musical albums, works of. Example of a journal article title which includes the title of a book. The epic of gilgamesh is written in a poetry format and dates back more than 2,000 years.
The most common citation styles are the modern language association mla and american psychological association apa. Quotation marks go around the titles of shorter works like songs or poems. It depends on if its a book or article, if its neither then you dont do anything to it. Stories or chapters from within a book are considered parts of the book.
A title is italicized or underlined if italics are unavailable if the source is selfcontained independent. In mla style, you should italicize rather than underline the titles of books, plays, or other standalone works. The formatting of your title depends on which format you are using, but you should not use underline or italics it if you are using mla. Do not capitalize articles, prepositions, or conjunctions when they fall in the middle of a title. Get an answer for do you quote, italicize, or bold the title of a photograph in an mla formatted essay. Place titles in quotation marks if the source is part of a larger work. Mla titles how to format and capitalize source titles scribbr. Titles of books that form a larger body of work may be put in quotation marks if the name of the book series is italicized. Do i have to underline or book titles in mla essay. For example, the title of an essay about gone with the wind is styled in ebscohost as follows.
Zeus knows, no doubt, and every immortal too, which fighter is doomed to end all this in death 3. Add italics to a word or phrase only the first time it is used, thereafter use plain text. In a title or a subtitle, capitalize the first word, the last word and all. It depends on the style being used for the writing. Titles of full works like books or newspapers should be italicized. Emphasize a keyword or phrase in your text by placing it in italics or underline. Italicize titles if the source is selfcontained and independent.
Many teachers require students to use modern language association style for research papers and essays covering. Inside the paper, when quoting directly from the bible, offer parenthetical citations. Enclose a title in double quotation marks but without underlining, boldface. If it is something handwritten you should underline it instead of using italics.
Italics and titles the general rule is to use italics on book titles, album titles and publication names for a web document or when you are using a word processing tool. The bible and documentation washington state university. Montgomery county community college central campus 340 dekalb pike, blue bell, pa 19422 2156416300. The epic of gilgamesh is a classic babylonian story that is read in most high schools in the country. Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date. Italicized words are still iffy for wire transmission ap stories, so book titles are enclosed in quote marks. Mla style guide, 7th edition titles enter search words search. No more underlining italicizing titles of independently published works books, periodicals, films, etc. It does not matter if a book designer has decided to put everything in capital letters. A title within a title should be styled according to the guidelines in section 1. The ap stylebooks rule regarding book titles, computer game titles, movie titles, opera titles, play titles, poem titles, album and song titles, radio and television program titles, and the titles of lectures, speeches, and works of art states, put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the bible and books that are.
Do not bold, italicize, or underline this title if a citation is more than one line, the second line is indented by 0. Title of source mla style guide, 8th edition libguides at indian. If youre writing for a class, definitely remember to underline. If youre talking about putting actual words he said into the paper then you put them in quotes. You should also italicize rather than underline words or phrases you want to lend particular emphasisthough you should do this rarely. The 7th edition of the mla handbook eliminates underlining underlining is still acceptable when handwriting papers. In mla style, source titlesappear either in italics or in quotation marks. All pages in your essay should have your last name the page number in the. If either of those calls for italics, make sure the book title is not in italics.
In the upper lefthand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructors name, the course, and the date. Personally, i dont usually post my papers online, so i use underlined titles. Knowing when to use quotes, italics, or underlining can be tricky. Titles of poems, short stories, essays, and other short pieces are set off in double quotes. If im stating the title of a chapter within a book, would i need to italicize, underline. Capitalize chapter when used with a numeral in reference to a section of a book or legal code. Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested. Underline the title if writing by hand and use italics if typing. When a single poem is published as a book, as is often done with the long poem twas the night before christmas, for instance, any citation of the title of the book version should be italicized. If you are typing a report, it really depends on your format, i. Titles of standalone works books, plays and movies are italicized or underlined. Formatting titles of texts in mla style curo symposium. Titles of short works like poems, articles, short stories, or chapters should be put in quotation marks. Read here to learn how to add a title to an mla 8th edition citation.
When it comes to titles, you can either italicize them or put them in quotation marks. If a book title within an essay title is not italicized in the source, should i italicize it in my workscitedlist entry. If the authors name is unknown, use the article title instead. Mla style documentation of your primary source sometimes features author and page parenthetically, but may feature chapter and verse as with the bible or book and line numbers as with the iliad. Skip to the end of this post to see a note about underlining titles.
In mla style, source titles appear either in italics or in quotation marks. Titles of books, plays, films, periodicals, databases, and websites are italicized. Titles of books, plays, or works published singularly not anthologized should be italicised unless it is a handwritten document, in which case underlining is acceptable. Writing tips mla format lesley university library at lesley. So, use the rules below for italics as examples of what might be. If you are using a typewriter and cant write in italics, then it is customary to underline the title. When you are word processing a document on a computer, use italics. Would i italicize the name of a bookshort story in an. In a title or a subtitle, capitalize the first word, the last word and all principal words, including those that follow. Any version numbers available, including editions ed. In this video, i go over the rules of italicizing or quoting titles of books, poems, paintings, essays, tv shows, movies, etc. Underline or italicize the titles of books and the names of periodicals in.
Book titles are italicized or underlined when handwritten. Mla titles how to format and capitalize source titles. How to reference books and articles in text grammar and. Since you are hand writing this, you need to underline. Montgomery county community college west campus 101 college drive, pottstown, pa 19464 6107181800. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks. In past editions of mla, underlining a title and italicizing it were considered synonymous.
In mla titles of books are italicized not underlined. Do you quote or underline the titles for platos dialogues. Mla format has generally moved toward using italics instead of underlining, but if you still use an archaic manual typewriter, the only way to indicate italics may be by underlining. Naguib mahfouzs the cairo trilogy, containing the novels palace walk, palace of desire, and sugar street, is an example. Every time you mention the title of a work, even in the title of your own abstract, you must apply the proper formatting. The bible, books within it, versions of it, and other sacred writings are the exceptions to the rule. The capitalization rules are the same for titles that are italicized as for those in. Titles of books need to be underlined or italicized when you refer to them in writing. However, many current style manuals recommend italicizing book titles and magazine names impossible to do on a typewriter and using quotation marks around articles. Books are italicized or underlined and articles are put in quotation marks. The reason for this new acceptance of italicized titles is the increased use of the internet, because underlined words look like links online. It is based on the modern language association of america s mla handbook for writers of research papers, seventh edition.
Use quotation marks around the title if it is part of a larger work e. When to use italics, underlining, and quotation marks. When should i italicize a title, and when should i use quotation marks. Do you italicize the name of books in mla format answers. Documenting legal works in mla style the mla style center. Mla titles are capitalized, and appear either in italics e. If you submit articles for publication, some proofreaders and copy editors prefer underlining to italics. The important thing is to stay consistent in how you use italics and underlining. Reports can follow different formats, such as mla or chicago style. Holes is a novel where holes is a book titile do i have to underline or. Le guins the earthsea trilogy and pat barkers the regeneration trilogy. That is no longer the case, and the current edition of mla favors italics. Also, titles of magazines and other periodicals and newspapers should be treated in the same way as titles of.