do you underline essay titles when citing

Tips for Online Students , Tips for Students

Knowing When To Underline Or Italicize: Your Go-To Guide

Updated: July 11, 2022

Published: May 27, 2021

Knowing when to underline or italicize can be confusing. But it doesn’t have to be! In this article, we’ll lay out all the basics, plus a few common difficulties that confuse many writers, so you’ll be an expert in no time.

At the end of the article, you’ll get the chance to practice your hand at some sample sentences, so you’ll be sure that you know the ins and outs of using italics and underlines.

Italics Vs Underline: Clarifying The Confusion

In the past (before computers and MLA handbooks), italics and underlines were used to emphasize certain words or titles within the text. It let the reader know what was important, or what was separate from the rest of the sentence. They were both used interchangeably, as long as they were consistent.

Now, with the ability to change formatting with the click of a button, italics are generally used to indicate titles, and only sometimes for emphasis. Meanwhile, underlining is mostly reserved to replace italics in handwritten papers. Manuals and guidebooks, such as the MLA handbook, are now widely used in large institutions or according to the country’s standards, so that specific writing conventions, grammar rules, and formatting styles have become uniform.

With that said, the general rule is that italics are used for titles of books, movies, TV and radio shows, magazines, works of art, and long poems. As mentioned before, underlining is a substitute for italics when writing titles by hand.

Proper formatting in an essay can be confusing for many students: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-blue-blazer-holding-white-paper-3727468/

Titles of long works.

Titles that should be italicized are longer works. These include titles of books, movies, TV and radio shows, journals and magazines, and long poems. In the next section, we’ll see how these works differ from titles of shorter works which are put in quotations instead.

• The novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, was published in 1847 under the pen name of Currer Bell.
• The movie Home Alone , released in 1990, made a worldwide total of $476,684,675 in box office revenue.

Titles Of Smaller Works

The titles of smaller works are put in “quotations” in order to differentiate them from longer works. These smaller works include titles of chapters, short stories, TV or radio show episodes, articles, and short poems.

In the examples below, note how you can recognize the difference between the shorter works and larger works just by seeing how they are emphasized in the sentence. This makes it impossible to confuse the title of a chapter with the book that it belongs to, or the episode from its TV show.

• The chapter entitled “The Castaway” in Moby Dick describes the near-death experience of a character named Pip.
• Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” was originally published in a Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine.
• The pilot episode of Friends , which was released on September 22, 1994, is called “The One Where Monica Gets A Roommate.”

Punctuation In Titles: Common Confusions

Question marks.

Confusion can come up when a title includes a question mark or an exclamation mark in the title itself. For example, the book Who Has Seen the Wind? includes a question mark in it.

The way to deal with these titles is to italicize the question mark as well, just as it is above. By doing so, you can differentiate this title from an actual question, such as writing: Have you read Gone With the Wind ?

The same idea applies to exclamation marks — for example, the movie Mamma Mia! , which includes an exclamation mark in the title. Note the italicization, and the difference between writing Mamma Mia! , the movie, and writing: I can’t believe that you never watched The Parent Trap !

Commas and periods

The confusion of commas and periods when it comes to quotations is a debate between different handbooks and countries. According to the MLA (Modern Language Association) handbook, commas and periods are placed inside of quotation marks.

• “The Seinfeld Chronicles , ” the first episode of Seinfeld , had 15.4 million viewers in America.
• Among the short stories of James Joyce included in the collection Dubliners are “Araby , ” “The Sisters , ” and “The Encounter.”

Solidify your new skills by completing practice sentences: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-wearing-black-and-white-stripe-shirt-looking-at-white-printer-papers-on-the-wall-212286/

Let’s practice.

Try your hand at your new skills! Below are five sentences without any italics or quotations. Italicize the longer works and put the shorter works in quotations. If you get stuck, check back in the article, and you’ll be an expert in no time. Be sure to pay attention to tricky commas, periods, and question marks.

• The Lazy Controller, chapter two of Thinking Fast and Slow, talks about multitasking and its effect on thinking.
• The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story by Catherine Perkins Gilman, was originally published in The New England Magazine in January 1892.
• John Lennon’s album Imagine included favorites such as Gimme Some Truth, How Do You Sleep?, and, of course, Imagine.
• The premiere episode of Family Matters is called The Mama Who Came To Dinner, and relays the drama of Carl’s mother coming to live with him.
• The short story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway was first published in a magazine called Transition, and was only later published in his book Men Without Women.

Why Is Proper Indentation Important?

College essays  .

No matter what you study in college, most students write a lot of essays during their school years. While some degrees may put more of an emphasis on writing proper essays , most teachers and professors will expect a certain level of basic grammar and formatting knowledge. Before you even step foot into college, you’ll most likely be expected to write an application essay . It’s important to put your best foot forward, and small formatting rules can go a long way in making a good first impression.

Landing your dream job  

In addition to college essays, prospective employers and job positions will require and look for basic (or advanced, depending on the position) writing skills. Whether you think your dream job requires writing skills or not, writing is a part of everyday life and work, from emails and text messages, to presentations and reports. Having good writing skills will help you make a good first impression, land your dream job, and do your best work.

Proper writing is an important skill for any job: https://www.pexels.com/photo/writing-notes-idea-class-7103/

Having a successful career.

Though different students earn a degree for different reasons, many are hoping to work toward a successful career. In order to do this, the right preparation is key. Preparation may be earning a degree, gaining specific skills, or having the right guidance along the way.

University of the People prepares our students for successful careers by providing program advising , mentorship , and an emphasis on career development . We know that these extra details, much like formatting in an essay, make a big difference for the future success of our students. University of the People is a tuition-free online university that offers degree programs in business administration, computer science, health science, and education.

Wrapping Up

Now you know when to underline or italicize, and much more. To wrap up, italics should be used for the titles of longer works such as movies, books, and TV shows, and underlining for handwritten papers.

In addition, we hope you’ve learned the more tricky rules such as question marks and commas, and that you’ve given some thought to the importance of writing for your future education and success.

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• APA Style - 7th edition
• Specific Rules for Authors & Titles

APA Style - 7th edition: Specific Rules for Authors & Titles

• Basic Information

Rules for Writing Author and Editor Information

Rules for writing titles.

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There are certain things to keep in mind when writing the author's name according to APA style. Authors may be individual people, multiple people, groups (institutions or organizations), or a combination of people and groups. 

• You must include all the authors up to 20 for individual items. For example, if you are using an article that has 19 authors you must list them all out on your reference page. 
• Use initials for the first and middle names of authors. Use one space between initials.
• All names are inverted (last name, first initial).
• Do not hyphenate a name unless it is hyphenated on the item.
• Separate the author's names with a comma and use the ampersand symbol "&"  before the last author listed.
• Spell out the name of any organization that is listed as an author.
• If there is no author listed, the item title moves in front of the publication date and is used.

An item that you use may have an editor instead of an author or in the case of audiovisual materials a writer or director.

• For editors follow the same rules above and put the abbreviation (Ed.) or (Eds.) behind the name(s). 
• For audiovisual materials follow the same rules as above and put the specialized role (Writer) (Director) behind the name. 

Zhang, Y. H.  (one author)

Arnec, A., & Lavbic, D. (two authors)​

Kent State University (organization as author)

Barr, M. J. (Ed.). (1 editor)

Powell, R. R., & Westbrook, L. (Eds.). (2 editors)

here are certain things to keep in mind when writing a title according to APA style.

• Book titles are italicized and written using sentence case (only the first word of a title, subtitle, or proper noun are capitalized).
• Book chapter titles are written using sentence case and are not italicized.
• Journal titles are italicized and written using title case (all the important words are capitalized).
• Article titles are written using sentence case and are not italicized.
• Webpages and websites are italicized and written using sentence case.

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (book title, American Psychological Association is a proper noun so it is capitalized)

Student perspective of plagiarism (book chapter title)

Internet plagiarism in higher education: Tendencies, trigging factors and reasons among teacher candidates (article title, Tendencies is the first word of a sub-title so it is capitalized)

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (journal title)

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MLA Style Guide, 7th Edition: Titles

• About In-text Citations
• In-text Examples
• How to Paraphrase and Quote
• What to Include
• Editors, Translators, etc.
• Publication Date
• Volume/Issue
• Place of Publication
• Date of Access (when needed)
• Book with Personal Author(s)
• Book with Editor(s)
• Book with Organization as Author
• Work with No Author
• Parts of Books or Anthologies
• Multi-Volume Works
• Journal Article
• Newspaper Article
• Magazine Article
• Government Publication
• Web Publications
• Other Common Sources
• Formatting Your Paper
• Formatting Your 'Works Cited' List
• Annotated Bibliography

General Rules for Titles in Works Cited List (in progress)

In general, the title of a work is taken from the title page of the publication. Refer to section 3.6.4 of the MLA Manual for more about titles and quotations within titles. Section 3.6.5 discusses exceptions to the rules.

• Rules for capitalizing are strict. Capitalize all principal words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.). Do not capitalize articles, prepostions, or conjunctions when they fall in the middle of a title.
• Separate a subtitle with a colon and a space.
• Italicize titles of larger works like books, periodicals, databases, and Web sites.
• Use quotation marks for titles published in larger works like articles, essays, chapters, poems, Web pages, songs, and speeches.

Book titles

Book titles are italicized.

• Writing Matters: A Handbook for Writing and Research (book)
• Their Eyes Were Watching God
• All the Pretty Horses

Chapter title in a book or anthology

The book title is  italicized ; the title of the article or essay is enclosed in quotations.

Henderson, Carol E. "Refiguring the Flesh: The Word, the Body, and the Rituals of Being Loved in Beloved and Go Tell It on the Mountain ." Critical Insights: Toni Morrison . Ed. Solomon O. Iyasere and Marla W. Iyasere. Pasadena: Salem P, 2010. Print.

Beloved and Go Tell It on the Mountain (book titles) remain italicized in the article title.

Journals and Magazines

The title of the periodical (journal, magazine, or newspaper) is italicized. The title of the article or work is enclosed in quotations.

Danport, Sandra. " A Study of Malawian Households." Journal of Developing Areas ...

Gardiner, Andy. "Stanford Could Lose QB, Coach." USA Today ...

The title of the periodical (journal, magazine, or newspaper) is italicized. The title of the article or work is enclosed in quotations. Omit any introductory article in the newspaper title for English-language newspapers ( Palm Beach Post, not The Palm Beach Post ). Retain the article in non-English language newspapers ( Le monde ).

The title of the work is italicized if the work is independent. The title of the work is enclosed in quotation marks if it is part of a larger work. The title of the overall Web site is italicized if distinct from the the title of the work.

Park, Madison. "How Does a Baby Get To Be Obese." CNN.com ....

Salda, Michael N., ed. The Cinderella Project ...

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Formatting Titles

by Purdue Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center · Published October 2, 2020 · Updated November 5, 2020

Let’s face it: For whatever reason, formatting titles can be confusing, especially if you think about all the titles that need proper formatting–the title placed on the title page of a paper, the title of a journal article mentioned in the body of a paper, the title of a newspaper or a website on the list of references. There are titles of books and titles of chapters in those books; titles of blogs and titles of blog entries. Some titles are italicized and some are put in quotation marks. Titles on the list of references require formatting–some titles use title case, some sentence case; some titles are italicized and some are not. And then there are those situations where titles are used in in-text citations–some titles are truncated and italicized; some are put in quotation marks–you get the idea. 

First off, I am not going to address how to format titles when citing in the paper or listing on the list of references—those are formatting guidelines for another time. I am going to focus on titles on the title page, the first page of the paper, and within a paper. Here is what you need to keep straight:

Titles require special capitalization called title case. Title case requires one to

• capitalize the first letter of the first and last words of a title;
• capitalize the first letter of all verbs;
• capitalize all words of four or more letters;
• capitalize the first letter of all other words except a, an, the, short conjunctions such as “for, and, but,” and prepositions of fewer than four letters (words like “up, in, off”);
• capitalize the first letter of a word following a colon or dash;
• capitalize the first letter of a subtitle. 

When a title appears on the title page of an APA Style 7th edition student paper, that title should be centered, bolded, and in title case—no need to use all caps, no need to italicize or underline, and no need to use quotation marks or place a period at the end. 

Simply type out the title using title case and bold it–that’s it.

On the first page of the essay, center and repeat the title, bold it, and use title case. Again, do not use any special formatting. Do not use a bigger font size or style. Do not underline or italicize and so forth. Just use title case, bold, and center the title on the first page of the essay.

Easy enough, right?

Titles that appear within an essay require special formatting in addition to title case. If the title is for an article—content that is part of a greater whole—then the title should have quotation marks around it. If the title is for a book, journal, newspaper, or some other whole work, then the title is italicized.

Let’s say you have an article titled “The New Coffee Culture” that appears in the journal Studies in Popular Culture . Let’s also say that for whatever reason, you name both titles in the body of your paper. The article “The New Coffee Culture” appears in the journal Studies in Popular Culture , so the article is content that appears in a greater whole, right? 

Both titles would be in title case. The article “The New Coffee Culture” would have quotation marks around it, and the title of the journal, Studies in Popular Culture , would be italicized. 

I hope this blogcast clarifies exactly what you need to do when formatting titles in typical usage situations in APA style. 

Until next week–

Kurtis Clements

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Citing a How Do I Format Titles of Sources in My Paper?

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With so many writing styles out there, it can be difficult to remember how to format titles of sources in your paper, reference list and in text citations . What makes this even more challenging is the fact that title treatment can depend on where you are including it in your paper, as well as what writing style you are using. Let’s go over the title formatting rules that apply to the most common styles.

How to format titles in APA style

• Within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source.
• Example: Revolution in the Revolution
• Example: The Glorious Cause: Patriotism in the American Revolution
• Examples: The Wizard of Oz ;  Seinfeld
• Example: “The Frogger”
• Capitalize all major words in journal titles
• For books, chapters, journal articles, or webpages, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, and the first word after any colons or dashes
• Always capitalize proper nouns
• Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals
• Do not italicize, underline, or put in quotation marks the titles of shorter works

How to format titles in MLA style

• Title format rules in MLA apply to both the citations and the inclusion of source titles within the text.
• A title is generally placed in quotation marks if it is a part of a larger work. Examples include TV show episodes, song titles, journal articles and webpages.
• Italics are used for larger sources, or containers, such as books, newspapers, journals and websites.
• Example: “How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language” (journal article)
• Example: Design in Business (book)

How to format titles in Harvard*

• For books, articles or webpages, capitalize only the first word of a title or subtitle, the first word after a colon or dash, and proper nouns.
• Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
• Example: Gender and Society (journal)
• Example: Anthology of contemporary short fiction (book)
• Example: ‘Successful teaching placements in secondary schools’ (journal article)

  *Note that these rules pertain to Harvard-Cite Them Right style specifically. Please confirm with your instructor that these rules apply to your paper.

Formatting in different citation styles can be confusing. Let us help! Try using Cite This For Me to create the citations and bibliography for your next paper.

APA 7th Edition Citation Examples

Capitalization, article title, journal title.

• Volume and Issue Numbers
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• AI: ChatGPT, etc.

Capitalization: For all sources other than periodical titles (that is, newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals), capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns only. Do not capitalize the rest (see examples below).

All major words in periodical titles should be capitalized (for example, Psychology Today , Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. )

Italics: Titles are italicized for the following items:

• Books and ebooks
• Periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers)
• Websites and web pages
• Dissertations/theses
• Reports/technical papers
• Works of art

Capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns only.

Toughing it out at Harvard: The making of a woman MBA

Use italics and capitalize all major words. 

American Journal of Distance Education

Use italics and capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns only.

Student cheating and plagiarism in the Internet era: A wake-up call

See  Publication Manual , pp. 291-293.

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This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

This handout provides examples and description about writing papers in literature. It discusses research topics, how to begin to research, how to use information, and formatting.

What about MLA format?

All research papers on literature use MLA format, as it is the universal citation method for the field of literary studies. Whenever you use a primary or secondary source, whether you are quoting or paraphrasing, you will make parenthetical citations in the MLA format [Ex. (Smith 67).] Your Works Cited list will be the last page of your essay. Consult the OWL handout on MLA for further instructions.

Note, however, the following minor things about MLA format:

• 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. (Ex. Hamlet , Great Expectations )
• Titles of poems, short stories, or works published in an anthology will have quotation marks around them. (Ex. "Ode to a Nightingale," "The Cask of Amontillado")

Tip If you're using Microsoft Word, you can easily include your name and page number on each page by following the these steps:

• Open "View" (on the top menu).
• Open "Header and Footer." (A box will appear at the top of the page you're on. And a "Header and Footer" menu box will also appear).
• Click on the "align right" button at the top of the screen. (If you're not sure which button it is, hold the mouse over the buttons and a small window should pop up telling you which button you're on.)
• Type in your last name and a space.
• Click on the "#" button which is located on the "Header and Footer" menu box. It will insert the appropriate page number.
• Click "Close" on the "Header and Footer" window.

That's all you need to do. Word will automatically insert your name and the page number on every page of your document.

What else should I remember?

• Don't leave a quote or paraphrase by itself-you must introduce it, explain it, and show how it relates to your thesis.
• Block format all quotations of more than four lines.
• When you quote brief passages of poetry, line and stanza divisions are shown as a slash (Ex. "Roses are red, / Violets are blue / You love me / And I like you").
• For more help, see the OWL handout on using quotes .

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources / How to Cite a Book Title in APA, MLA or Chicago

How to Cite a Book Title in APA, MLA or Chicago

When writing a book title in the text, not the references, most academic style manuals require title-style capitalization and italics. For example, they would all format the book title Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in the same way. However, each style manual follows slightly different rules for handling hyphenated terms and subtitles. For details, read the guide below.

Below are the guidelines on how to style a book title following MLA , APA , or Chicago.

• Use title-style capitalization when writing book titles in the text: capitalize the first and last words in the title and any other major words.
• Italicize book titles.
• For example, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary styles the word “rewrite” without a hyphen. So, in the book title  Live Free: Re-write Your Story , lowercase “write” after the prefix “re.”
• Though you don’t typically capitalize articles in titles, do capitalize an article that starts a subtitle. In the above example, capitalize “The” since it starts the subtitle.
• The first word of the title
• The first word of a subtitle
• The first word after a colon, em dash, or other end punctuation in a heading
• Major words
• Any words of four letters or more
• Capitalize the second word in a compound hyphenated term in a title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince .
• For subtitles, capitalize the first word of a subtitle, even if it is a short, minor word. For example, Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart .
• The first and last words in titles and subtitles
• Prepositions, even if they are four letters or more
• to (even as part of an infinitive verb)
• Coordinating conjunctions
• For example, in the book title Live Free: Re-write Your Story , lowercase “write” after the prefix “re.”
• If the title includes a hyphenated spelled-out number or fraction, capitalize the second element (e.g., Catch Twenty-Two ).

If a book title appears in an article title, you style it the same way as described above. So for example, if the article you are citing is called: “Why Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the best book in the Harry Potter series,” you would instead style this as: “Why Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets  is the best book in the Harry Potter series.”

For more info on formatting rules for citation styles, visit our guides listed below:

Chicago guide

Citation Guides

• Annotated Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• Citation Examples
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Page Numbers
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
• APA 7 Updates
• View APA Guide
• Bibliography
• Works Cited
• MLA 8 Updates
• View MLA Guide

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Answered By: Gabe Gossett Last Updated: Jun 22, 2023     Views: 615211

The basic format for an in-text citation is: Title of the Book (Author Last Name, year).

One author: Where the Wild Things Are (Sendak, 1963) is a depiction of a child coping with his anger towards his mom.

Two authors (cite both names every time): Brabant and Mooney (1986) have used the comic strip to examine evidence of sex role stereotyping. OR The comic strip has been used to examine evidence of sex role stereotyping (Brabant & Mooney, 1986).

Three or more authors (cite the first author plus et al.): Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy (Clare et al., 2016) depicts a young man's experience at the Shadowhunter Academy, a place where being a former vampire is looked down upon.OR Clare et al. (2016) have crafted a unique story about a young man's journey to find himself.

No author: Cite the first few words of the reference entry (usually the title) and the year. Use double quotation marks around the title of an article or chapter, and italicize the title of a periodical, book, brochure, or report. Examples: From the book Study Guide (2000) ... or ("Reading," 1999).

Note: Titles of periodicals, books, brochures, or reports should be in italics and use normal title capitalization rules.

If you are citing multiple sources by multiple authors in-text, you can list all of them by the author's last name and year of publication within the same set of parentheses, separated by semicolons.

Example: (Adams, 1999; Jones & James, 2000; Miller, 1999)

For more information on how to cite books in-text and as a reference entry, see the APA Publication Manual (7th edition) Section 10.2 on pages 321-325 .

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Comments (13)

• This was very useful for me! I was having a really hard time finding information on how to mention an article title AND the author in text in APA so this was very helpful!!! by Ryan Waddell on Jun 27, 2019
• If I just mention that I used a book to teach a topic do I have to include it in the reference list? by Franw on Oct 17, 2019
• @Franw, if it is a source that informs your paper in any way, or if your reader would have reason to look it up, then you should include a full reference list entry for the book. by Gabe [Research & Writing Studio] on Oct 18, 2019
• Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question, but I think the OP is asking how to refer to a book title, not how to cite one. I believe APA uses quotation marks around book titles and MLA uses italics. by AB on Dec 12, 2019
• @AB: The first sentence has been tweaked to clarify title of book usage, reflecting the examples given. For APA style you should use italics for book titles. It would be quotation marks. by Gabe [Research & Writing Studio] on Dec 12, 2019
• Hi, can any one help me with in-text-citation of this, how can i cite it in the text Panel, I. L. (2002). Digital transformation: A framework for ICT literacy. Educational Testing Service, 1-53. by Milad on Aug 20, 2021
• @Milad: In that case it would be (Panel, 2002). If you are quoting, or otherwise choosing to include page numbers, put a comma after the year, then p. and the page number(s). by Gabe Gossett on Aug 20, 2021
• Hey, I'm a little bit curious, what if I'm mentioning a book and paraphrasing it but still want to give credit. Would I put the information into parenthesis instead? Like: Paraphrased info. ("Title in Italics" Author, year) by Kai on Sep 14, 2023
• @Kai: Apologies for not seeing your question sooner! (Our academic year has not started yet). If I am understanding your question correctly, what I suggest is referring to the book title in the narrative of your writing, rather than in the in-text citation. I do not see an examples of using a book title in an in-text citation except for rare circumstances including citing a classic religious text or using the title when there is no author information because it is the start of your reference list entry. Basically, APA's in-text convention is supposed to make it easy for your reader to locate the source being cited in the reference list. So the first part of the in-text citation, usually authors, comes first to locate it alphabetically. Putting the book title first when you have an author name can throw that off. by Gabe Gossett on Sep 21, 2023
• Perhaps this is along the lines of the response to Kai - Can you reference a book title as a common point of social understanding to demonstrate a common concept? Is official citing required if you use widely known titles such as "Where's Waldo" and "Who Moved My Cheese?" to make a point of illustration? by Chez Renee on Sep 30, 2023
• @Chez: Aside from some classical religious texts, if it is a published book, I'd try to make sure that it is appropriately cited for APA style. That said, I think I understand where it gets tricky with things like Where's Waldo, since that is a series of books and stating "Where's Waldo" is a cultural reference many people would understand, though you can't reasonably cite the entire series. I don't believe that APA gives guidance for this particular issue. If it is being referred to in order to back up a claim, it would help to cite a particular book. If not, then it might work to use a statement such as, "Hanford's Where's Waldo series . . ." by Gabe Gossett on Oct 02, 2023
• How to cite a dissertation thesis in apa form? by Elizabeth on Feb 05, 2024
• @Elizabeth: For citing a dissertation or thesis you can check out our page answering that here https://askus.library.wwu.edu/faq/153308 by Gabe Gossett on Feb 05, 2024

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A Guide to Source Titles in Chicago Referencing

4-minute read

• 9th October 2020

If you’re using the Chicago Manual of Style , or even just the referencing styles it sets out, you’ll need to know how to write the titles of other works (e.g., books, articles, web pages). And to help you with this, we’re looking at how to write source titles in Chicago referencing .

How to Capitalize Source Titles in Chicago Style

In Chicago referencing, when you mention a source or publication in the main text of your work or in the references, it should use headline-style capitalization . Also known as title case, this involves capitalizing:

• The first word in the title and (if relevant) subtitle.
• Any nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, and adjectives.
• Any conjunctions other than “and,” “but,” “for,” “or” and “nor.”

You can see examples of titles capitalized like this below:

David Olusoga is known for books such as Black and British: A Forgotten History and The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism . But he has also produced several television programs, including The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files and A House Through Time .

The Chicago Manual of Style notes that some editors prefer to use sentence-style capitalization . As such, if you’re writing for a publisher or journal, you may want to check which style to use. Usually, though, “Chicago style” means using title case and capitalizing titles as shown above.

Italics or Quote Marks?

In the examples above, we’ve italicized all the source titles. You should do this in Chicago style for all full-length sources (i.e., sources published as standalone works), including:

• Books, periodicals (e.g., journals, newspapers), and blogs.
• Poems, plays, and pamphlets published as standalone works.
• Films, televisions shows, radio series, video games, and podcasts.
• Standalone musical works (e.g., operas, pop albums).
• Paintings, statues, and other works of art.

However, Chicago places titles of shorter works in quote marks, including:

• Articles from periodicals and chapters from books.
• Single poems or plays from a collection.
• Episodes from a television, radio, or podcast series.
• Songs and other short recordings.
• Blog posts or single pages from websites.

There are even a few cases where you should write titles with no italics or quote marks. The most notable of these exceptions are websites (e.g., Vox, Project Gutenberg), instrumental music (e.g., Bach’s Mass in B Minor) and classic works of art where the creator is unknown (e.g., the Venus de Milo).

Non-English Titles in Chicago Referencing

The rules above change slightly for works in languages other than English. The biggest difference here is that Chicago suggests writing non-English titles using sentence-style capitalization:

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Paul Ricoeur’s first published work was Gabriel Marcel et Karl Jaspers: Philosophie du mystère et philosophie du paradoxe (1947).

Here, we only capitalize the proper nouns ( Gabriel Marcel , Karl Jaspers ) and first word of the subtitle ( Philosophie ) since the title is in French.

And the rules get even more confusing when you include an English translation of a non-English title in your work! In these cases, you should:

• Use sentence case and Roman type (i.e., no italics or quote marks) for translated titles when the work has never been published in English.
• Use title case and italics (standalone works) or quote marks (shorter works) for titles if the work has been published in translation.

You can see the difference between these below:

Paul Ricoeur’s first published work was Gabriel Marcel et Karl Jaspers: Philosophie du mystère et philosophie du paradoxe (Gabriel Marcel and Karl Jaspers: Philosophy of mystery and philosophy of paradox). Arguably his last major work, meanwhile, was Vivant jusqu’à la mort (Living Up to Death , published in translation in 2009) .

Here, the first source mentioned has not been published as an English translation. As such, we show this by giving the English title in sentence case without italics. But the second work has been published in translation in English, so we give the translated title in title case and italics.

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Additional Citation Resources

For more information and examples of citations, please be sure to check out these additional resources: 

• Pace Libraries: Academic Integrity & Avoiding Plagiarism
• Pace Libraries: Citing Sources & Style Guides
• Pace Libraries: Mini Zine on Citations
• Excelsior Owl | Online Writing Lab

Why Do We Cite?

Citations are short, yet thorough, references to another's work within your own writing, particularly in scholarship and academic communities. 

So why are they important and necessary for us to understand AND be able to use? 

• Citing your sources shows that you've done thorough, well-crafted research;
• Citing makes you a responsible scholar by giving credit where credit is due;
• Helps others find your sources
• Contributes to the growth of research/a discipline

Finally, citing your sources accurately & fully is the best way to avoid plagiarism! 

There are many different kinds of citation styles out there, but the Big 3 are: 

• MLA (Modern Language Association
• APA (American Psychological Association)
• The Chicago Manual of Style

Each style is utilized in specific disciplines. For example, MLA and Chicago tend to be utilized in The Humanities disciplines, while APA is useful in the social and health sciences. 

MLA: The Basics

Why use mla citation style.

MLA is most commonly used to cite sources within in the liberal arts, specifically the humanities.

What does that really mean?:

When you cite in MLA, you use  parenthetical citations for your in-text citations  and a works-cited page at the end of your paper.

A typical MLA citation will include: 

• the author's full name, last and first
• the year of publication
• the publisher/journal title
• page numbers

What does an in-text citation typically look like?:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263) . Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263) .   Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263) .*

*example from the Purdue OWL

What does a work-cited citation typically look like?:

Your works-cited page and your in-text citations should line up with each other - meaning that if you include an in-text citation, you will be able to find more detailed information about that source in the complete works-cited list.

For example the in-text citation might read, "(Worsdworth, 263)" - indicating the author's last name, and the page used in the paper. 

The works-cited citation for that book would be:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . London: Oxford UP, 1967.

The general format for a citation in your works-cited list in MLA will more or less follow this guideline:

Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of the Book . Publisher Location: Name of Publisher, Year of Publication.

Citation Style Guides:

The Purdue OWL is an amazing resource that gives great examples of how to cite different materials in MLA. Your citations in MLA will change slightly depending on the format of the work that you are using. Citing a book is slightly different than citing an article.

The Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide is a wonderful resource that breaks down how to cite different formats in MLA.

For more information, check out our citing sources guide .

APA: The Basics

Why use apa citation style.

APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences, also including most hard sciences, psychology, sociology, and related disciplines.

APA employs in-text citations and a references list .

APA in-text citations also ask you to include :

• the author's first & middle initials & last name;
• the year of publication;
• the journal title, the volume number, and the issue number;
• source page numbers

If you are directly quoting from a work, include the author, year of publication, and the page number for the reference (preceded by "p.").

Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses.

According to Jones (1998) , "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199) . Jones (1998) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what implications does this have for teachers?

If the author is not named in a signal phrase, place the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation.

She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199) , but she did not offer an explanation as to why.*

*examples from the Purdue OWL

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page "References" centered at the top of the page (do NOT bold, underline, or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.*

*example from Purdue OWL

The general format for a citation in your works-cited list in APA will more or less follow this guideline:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication).  Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle . Location: Publisher.

APA style has a specific formatting and style that requires you to include different elements in your work that a paper formatted in MLA would.

The Purdue OWL guide for APA  includes more information on citing different in formats, as well as a  sample paper  formatted in APA style.

For more information, check out our  citing sources guide .

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Let’s Clear This Up: Should You Underline Or Italicize Book Titles? 

If your teachers taught you to underline book titles , it probably didn’t make sense to argue. 

Plus, underlining is just easier when you’re writing things out by hand. 

Not so with texting — or when you’re writing a book of your own.

When you reference your sources, do you underline or italicize book titles?

Are novels italicized or underlined?

And does it matter whether a novel or novelette is part of an anthology ? 

What are the rules worth remembering? 

The Basics: Do You Underline or Italicize Book Titles?

Some exceptions to the rule: should you underline or italicize book titles, punctuating book titles, book title italics or quotes .

• Do You Italicize Books Like The Lord of the Rings? 

Do You Italicize the Titles of Sacred Books?

What does the ap stylebook recommend.

If your main question is “Do I underline book titles or italicize them?” most style guides recommend the following guidelines: 

• If you have italics as an option, use it. 
• If not, underline. 
• If underlining isn’t an option, use asterisks or under-slashes to set off titles. 

That last one is the way to go when you include a book title in a text message or social media post or comment, where you can’t apply any kind of text formatting. 

Underlining can be problematic with digital text (websites, digital apps, and ebooks) since we now associate it with hyperlinks, even if the font color matches the text around it. 

Probably the most common scenario, when you can underline but not effectively italicize, is when you’re writing something by hand. While you could switch to cursive mid-sentence, underlining is less likely to be dismissed as a random quirk. 

Plus, underlining is easier than cursive. 

We’ve already mentioned one exception to the rule favoring italics. Handwriting makes underlining easier and more obvious. 

Another exception is when you’re submitting text through a web form, which doesn’t allow text formatting (much like texting and social media posts). 

A third exception involves chunks of italicized text that include a book title. In this case, you’ll want to keep the title unitalicized to make it stand out. 

Keep these exceptions in mind when someone asks you, “Do you italicize book titles?” Because they do matter. 

There’s one final exception, which we’ll revisit at the end of this post, and that has to do with the particular style guide you may be using. 

So, what do you do if you’re italicizing a book title and you have to add punctuation — like an apostrophe to show possession — that isn’t part of the title? Do you treat that differently from the punctuation that the author included? 

For the sake of clarity, we keep any added punctuation (apostrophes, dashes , ellipses, etc.) — anything not native to the original title — in regular, non-italicized text. 

Examples: 

• “Looking at the books stacked nearby, I saw that Blink ’s cover was slightly creased from its days in my purse.”  (The apostrophe-s ending is not italicized because it’s not part of the title.)
• “She just finished reading Salem’s Lot , and she’d rather not talk about it. Give her time.” (In this case, the apostrophe-s at the end of Salem is part of the title and is italicized.) 

So, are all book titles italicized? And what about titles for smaller works like short stories, magazine articles, and blog posts? 

To keep the rule as simple as possible, ask yourself whether the title in question is for a published container — like a blog, a website, a magazine or scholarly journal, or a complete book — or for something that would be contained. 

Would you find this title on the cover of a finished whole (an album, the cover image for a podcast, etc.) or in a table of contents or a list of songs, poems, or podcast episodes? 

Larger works get the italics treatment, as you’ll see in the following examples:

• Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• Back in Black (album) by AC/DC
• Live Bold and Bloom (blog)
• Authority Self Publishing: Marketing, Writing, and Kindle Publishing Tips (podcast)

Smaller works that a larger work could contain get quotation marks. It’s not about which one is more important; it’s about making it easier for readers to tell them apart. 

When you see a story title in quotation marks, you’re more likely to think, “Oh, that must be a short story?” Find a book of short stories and check out the table of contents, and you’ll find quotes around each story’s title. 

Each is a smaller part of the whole collection, which bears an italicized title of its own.  

Do You Italicize Titles of Novels and Books Included in Anthologies? 

So, what about Reader’s Digest Condensed Books (1950-1997) — or Reader’s Digest Select Editions (since 1997)? 

Each of the works included are abridged versions of completed books and novels. 

If you’re looking up some options on Amazon, you’ll see quotation marks around the titles of the books and novels included in each hardcover edition. 

It’s tempting to think the abridgment of the title is the reason for this. But collections like Reader’s Digest editions aren’t the only ones that do this—even when the titles in the collection are unabridged originals. 

Read on for another well-known example.

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Do You Italicize Books Like The Lord of the Rings ? 

Books like LOTR bring together separate books that are all part of a complete series. In LOTR’s case, the complete set is a trilogy with the following titles: 

• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Two Towers
• The Return of the King

If the book you’re referencing in your own writing is a separate title with its own cover, you’ll italicize the title in-text citations and in your bibliography. 

But if you’re using the complete LOTR trilogy under one cover, you’ll set off any of the enclosed titles with quotation marks — as if they were separate parts of a larger book. 

The same rule applies to other books that include all the titles in a specific series. 

While we do italicize specific editions of sacred books (e.g., The New King James Bible ), we do not generally italicize or underline the generic titles of sacred religious texts: 

• The Bible (and individual books in the Bible)
• The Koran / Qur’an and The Hadiths
• The Vedas and the Upanishads
• The Tanakh and the Talmud
• The Tipitaka (Buddhism)

As for the specific books inside the Christian Bible, if you’re referencing a specific verse, you’ll include the name of the book (or an abbreviation), along with the chapter and verse, and text formatted the same as the text around it (e.g., Matt 3:5 or 2 Corinthians 4:16). 

Not all style guides recommend italicizing book titles; the AP Stylebook uses quotation marks instead, maybe just to simplify things.  

That said, publications like Writers Digest use the AP Stylebook but choose to italicize their book titles in deference to their own house rules. 

Whether you go that route will likely depend on what you or your client wants. 

If you’re thoroughly confused right now, the main thing to remember is that in most cases, the rules described above will help you correctly format any book titles you reference in your own writing. 

• If it’s a container (book, album, podcast, TV series, etc.), use italics.
• If it’s contained by a container (poem, TV episode, song, etc.), use quotation marks.

When in doubt, check your style guide.  And if you’re writing for someone else, ask them what they prefer or consult their chosen style guide. 

Whatever rules you go with, be consistent. 

Now that you know how to answer the question, “Do you underline book titles or italicize them?” which points stood out for you as most helpful? And what have you learned that you want to remember? 

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Do You Italicize Book Titles? MLA, Chicago Manual, and APA Rules (Examples)

Whether you are writing a book, a business blog, a research paper, or a magazine article, staying true (and consistent) to grammar and style is extremely important. It makes the entire article/ manuscript consistent and reading easy !

But with so many styles and style guides around, losing track is very common. This is especially true when you are writing titles – of books, stories, poems, chapters, and more – in your articles. Don’t you wonder whether you should underline the book titles, put them in italics, write them in quotation marks , or follow the traditional capital letter style? Well, we all do, and we often find ourselves hovering over different options, completely unsure of which one to choose .

So, should you italicize book titles or underline them?

The general rule says, always italicize book titles, if they are long and complete work. This keeps them distinct and makes them easily recognizable, especially when you are mentioning a book within your content. Italicizing also helps the reader to understand that this particular book is separate from the rest of the work they are reading. However, short titles – of poems, stories, articles, and chapters are often written in quotation marks.

For example:

Long title: Have you read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust?

Short title: Grab your copy of “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.

Now, this sometimes, can get very confusing and can put your writing all over the place. So when you are stuck between a right and a wrong, always follow the rule of thumb – How you write book titles in your work is a matter of choice (style). It is not governed by any grammarian law. There is no single source that governs how you must handle titled works and mostly depends on the style guide your publication is following – APA, Chicago, MLA, or any other.

So ask your editor his/ her preference and stick to it across your content. After all, consistency is the key to turning your writing into the most professional-looking copy .

In this article, we’ll help you learn the styling parameters that different style guides follow while writing book titles:

MLA rules for italicizing book titles

MLA stands for Modern Language Association – a United States-based society that styles manuals for students and scholars across the world. The MLA Handbook follows a particular style for documenting book titles, in the text as well as at the end of the article. As per the MLA style guide:

• Titles that are independent and self-contained are italicized.
• If the book title has a subtitle, the subtitle is italicized and separated by a colon (:).
• Titles that are contained in larger works ( e.g. , short stories, chapters) are put in quotations.
• However, when it comes to series titles, the MLA rules are a little confusing. In MLA, if a series title forms a part of the book title, then it is italicized. Otherwise, it is left in plain text. For example, the ‘Twilight Saga’ is a series title that you won’t italicize because it is not the tile of the book. But Harry Potter (a series title) you will italicize because it also forms a part of the title.  
• Godfrey, Wyck., et al. The  Twilight Saga :  New Moon . Two-disc special ed. [Los Angeles, CA], Summit Entertainment, 2010.
• Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1998.

Chicago Manual of style rules

The Chicago Manual of Style is another widely accepted and used citation system. It is used across various disciplines like the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and more. It has its own style for citing books , titles, and full-length and freestanding works. If you want to follow the Chicago Manual of Style while formatting your book titles, here are some points to remember:

• Always italicize and capitalize the titles of your full-length, freestanding works. These include books, magazines, journals, blogs, research papers, and more.
• Online book citation also follows the same format.
• Chapter titles are always written in quotations and are not italicized.

APA style guide rules

The American Psychological Association (APA) is one of the most common and widely used reference styles. It is mostly used as a citation style for books and manuals written in the field of social sciences, psychology, sociology, and more.  It has its own set of rules for in-text and reference list citations. But when it comes to italicizing the books’ titles, the rules are pretty similar.

• Though in the APA, italicizing is kept to the bare minimum, long book titles, periodicals, webpages, reports, and standalone work are all italicized.
• Chapter titles in the APA are neither italicized nor written within quotes; the book titles however are. Also, the name of the chapter’s author is written in the first position.

7th Edition rules

The seventh edition of the APA is the latest edition and its purpose is to help students, scholars, and researchers write and communicate more effectively. Some of the biggest changes brought by the APA in its seventh edition include:

• The first letter (of the first word) of the title is capitalized.
• If there is a colon (:) in the title, the first letter after the colon is also capitalized.
• Proper names in titles are always capital
• Titles of books, magazines, journals, and newspapers are always italicized.
• Titles of articles or book chapters are not italicized.
• The title of the webpage is always italicized.
• The publisher’s location is no longer included in the reference.

When to Italicize Book Titles

As you could see , when it comes to writing book titles, a common rule applies across all styles ( barring a few exceptions ). So, if you are not following a particular citation style that asks you to do otherwise, this is a general rule that you can easily fall back on:

• Always italicize the titles of self-contained, independent work: books, albums
• Always italicize the titles of large books, like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
• Always italicize magazine names, like The New Yorker
• Always italicize newspapers, like The New York Times

Italicizing titles creates a visual hierarchy and helps a reference source stand out from the rest of the text.

When to Avoid Italicizing Book Titles?

While most book titles should be italicized, there are some exceptions to the rule:

• Short titles or titles of smaller works are not italicized. These include titles of short stories, poems, and chapters.
• The title of the series is not italicized. For example, while you would italicize Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , you would not highlight the Harry Potter Series.
• Holy Books like The Bible and Quran, along with their sections, are not italicized.
• Headlines and course titles are also not italicized.

Do You Underline Book Titles?

No, we do not underline book titles . Underlining is an old formatting style that was once extensively used to emphasize certain words, phrases, and titles. But today, due to the availability of extensive formatting options, underlining has lost its mark and is not used as a preferred formatting option.   

However, if you are writing with a medium that does not offer the option to italicize, you may underline the text to emphasize it.

Do You Quote Book Titles?

Books, magazines, newspapers, and series all comprise many smaller parts, like a short poem, a chapter, a short story, and an episode. When citing these small pieces of work, we prefer writing them in quotation marks.

The teacher read a story titled “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl.

I missed the last episode of “Shaun the Sheep”.

 Susan is reading “The Fellowship of the Ring” from the Lord of the Rings .

Do You Italicize Book Series Titles?

While italics are used to emphasize book titles, trilogies and book series titles are only capitalized, not italicized.

What About Children’s Book Titles, Do Those Get Italicized?

Children’s books in style guides get the same treatment as other authored books. That is, titles of full works are italicized but short titles of poems, short stories, articles, or chapters are put within quotation marks. Also, in addition to the author’s name, they also include the illustrator’s name.

• Italics and Underlining: Titles of Works
• Treatment of titles
• Do You Italicize Book Titles In APA? A Must Read
• Should You Underline Or Italicise Book Titles?
• Do You Italicize Book Titles? Essay Secrets Revealed
• Should You Italicize Book Titles? A Guide to Formatting Titles

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Dalia Y.: Dalia is an English Major and linguistics expert with an additional degree in Psychology. Dalia has featured articles on Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Grammarly, and many more. She covers English, ESL, and all things grammar on GrammarBrain.

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Do you Underline Research Paper or Essay Titles? APA or MLA

While content is regarded as the most significant aspect of your research paper, the paper’s presentation is also important. This is because the presentation will determine whether the content is understandable by the reader. Errors in presentation can deviate the attention of the reader from the content of the research paper.

Titles are part of a research paper, and their proper usage can make the paper more presentable. As such, titles can be underlined, italicized, typed in bold, or put into quotation marks to emphasize particular words. This article will discuss the issue of underlining the titles of a research paper.  

Do you Underline Research Paper Titles?

You can underline research papers or essay titles if that is what your instructor wants you to do or if there are guidelines to be followed. This is because formatting styles like APA and MLA do not allow underlining of titles. Therefore, you cannot underline the titles of your paper without considering the purpose of the titles, what they are used to refer to, and so on.

Titles that can be italicized can still be underlined. At least, that’s how most of the writing guidelines, such as APA and MLA formats, require students to observe.

For example, if the title is: The Effects of Social Media on Socialization, then it can also be written as The Effects of Social Media on Socialization or The Effects of Social Media on Socialization. 

There are times when students may be required to refer to titles of works as they are or directly within the body of their research papers.

If this is the case, then underlining should be used to emphasize the work’s title if it is allowed by the adopted style guide. 

However, for your research paper to be presentable, you should be consistent with whichever method of emphasis you employ.

For example, if you choose to underline to emphasize a working title, then you should maintain it throughout the paper. If you choose italics, then you should maintain it throughout the paper.

It should be noted that only the titles of works that are considered to be stand-alone can be underlined. Such works include magazine titles, book titles, names of conferences, and so on.

The aim of underlining a research paper title is to emphasize the work by separating it from the rest of the text. It ensures that readers clearly take note of the title without mixing it up with the rest of the text. 

As noted, you should follow the instructor’s guidelines concerning how to format the paper, including the titles, because the instructor will observe whether you have effectively followed them.

As such, your work will be gauged or graded depending on the content and the merit of the research paper. If you follow the proper guidelines, your paper will be presentable and hence will score better grades.

When it comes to the exact headings of the research paper, such papers may have level 1, level 2, level 3, level 4, and even level 5 headings or titles. As we noted earlier, underlining can be used interchangeably with italics since they are used to create emphasis.

Need Help with your Homework or Essays?

How to format titles in essays or research papers in:.

What should be noted here is that the term “titles” may refer to the headings of works that are used as sources. At the same time, the term may refer to the actual titles of the research paper. Therefore, we shall explore both so that every detail about formatting titles can be understood.

For titles of works that would be included within the research paper, there is a difference between how you would format a title for shorter works and longer works.

You may also decide to either italicize the titles, put them in quotes, or just underline them.

For example, you may state: The second poem in the book is referred to as Athena’s Birth .

You may also decide to write: The second poem in the book is referred to as Athena’s Birth. 

As we noted earlier, the essence of underlining or italicizing titles is to create emphasis. The same case applies to titles of longer works. However, for longer works, it is advisable to italicize it because underlining a title that is too long may look unpresentable.

Additionally, titles belonging to full works such as newspapers and books should be italicized as per APA guidelines instead of being underlined within a research paper.

However, titles belonging to shorter works like articles, poems, short stories, or chapters within a book should be put within quotation marks. For book titles that are part of larger bodies of work, they should be put within quotation marks if the book series’ name is italicized. 

When it comes to formatting titles within a research paper in APA style, the titles are normally organized from level 1 to level 4 and even level 5.

Level 1 title in APA is supposed to be written in boldface, with each word capitalized except in the cases of prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, and articles. It should be noted that the first letter of the title should also be capitalized. Level 1 headings should be centered on the page.

Level 2 headings in APA style should be written in the same way as a level 1 heading. The difference is that it will not be centered on the page. It will be left justified without any indentation.

For level 3 titles, it should be written in the same way as levels 1 and 2. However, the difference is that the level 3 heading will be italicized and left-justified without any indentation. 

For level 5 headings, the title should not be italicized. However, it should be indented from the left side of the page. The unique thing about this level of heading is that instead of the text or the paragraph that follows starting on a new line below the title, it will start within the same line as the level 5 title. 

The rules regarding titles in MLA format are not that different from APA format. All words within the first title level should be capitalized. However, do not capitalize prepositions (“above,” “on,” “to,” “below,” etc.), articles (“an,” “a,” and “the”), and coordinating conjunctions (“for,” “nor,” “and,” “but,” “so,” “or,” and “yet”). 

You should follow the same rules for formatting MLA Headings in the same way as APA format. However, MLA does not include too many levels of headings because the format is used for much simpler research papers and essays. 

At this juncture, I would recommend you read our guide on how to write term papers and gather more information about titles.

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What type of Titles Should be Underlined?

The titles that can be italicized can still be underlined. That is how most writing guidelines, such as APA and MLA formats, require students to observe.

Secondly, titles that should be underlined should be works or text that requires to be emphasized.

Thirdly, you can also underline level 3 headings in either MLA or APA formats because they are normally italicized. 

Apart from underlining, essay titles can be quoted , or one can use quotes in paper titles if it is necessary to do.

But this should be in line with the formatting style you are using.

Should Essay Titles be Italicized?

The answer to this question is yes.

Essay titles can be italicized as long as they need to be emphasized, represent titles of stand-alone works, or are level 3 titles.

If a title does not meet such requirements, then it should not be italicized. You should always keep in mind that any academic work should have consistency. If you decide to italicize the aforementioned, then you should maintain it. If you decide to underline whatever was supposed to be italicized, maintain that too. 

Do You Bold Research Paper Titles?

Yes. All titles within a research paper should be in boldface, no matter their level. This will ensure that the reader separates the title from the rest of the work. 

Check out the guides on how to format essays in APA or MLA for further tips on the same. You can also

Josh Jasen or JJ as we fondly call him, is a senior academic editor at Grade Bees in charge of the writing department. When not managing complex essays and academic writing tasks, Josh is busy advising students on how to pass assignments. In his spare time, he loves playing football or walking with his dog around the park.

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