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How to Reference a Poem Title in an Essay

Whether you are writing an essay about a poet or simply quoting a poem or referring to its themes, you may find yourself needing to reference the poem's title. However, it can be hard to remember whether the title is italicized, underlined or put into quotation marks. Although the treatment varies depending on the length of the poem and the format you are using, you can follow some general rules for citing poem titles in your paper.

Write the title of the poem in title case. All of the words should be capitalized except articles ("a," "an" or "the"), short prepositions ("in," "on," "with," "at") or coordinating conjunctions ("but," "and," "nor," "or," "so").

Put quotation marks around the poem's title unless it is a novel-length epic poem, such as "Paradise Lost" or "The Divine Comedy." In that case, italicize or underline the title.

Cite the poem with a parenthetical citation if you are using MLA or APA format. For MLA format, write the poet's last name and the page number from which you drew the specific portion of the poem you are citing. If you are citing specific lines, include those after the page number: (Frost 16, lines 23-26). For APA format, write the author's name, the year of publication and the page number from which you drew the information preceded by "p.": (Frost, 1997, p. 16). Do not include a page number if you are citing a website unless you are citing a PDF or another website that includes page numbers.

Create a footnote if you are using Chicago format. Write the poet's last name, the title of the poem, the name of the poem's anthology or the website from which you drew the poem, and the anthology or website's editor. Include the publisher, year and location of publication if you are citing a print poem and the URL and date of retrieval if you are citing a website. Place the page number and any specific lines from which you drew the information at the end of this footnote.

If you are citing an epic or classic poem, cite the canto, act and scene or book instead of the page number:

Yeats, William Butler, "When You Are Old," in Selected Poems: Fourth Edition, ed. M. L. Rosenthal (New York: Scribner Paperback Poetry, 1996),14, line 5.

Dante, "The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio," trans. John D. Sinclair (London, Oxford University Press, 1961), Canto XXVII, lines 34-36.

Dickinson, Emily, "I Heard A Fly Buzz," Women's Studies Database Reading Room at the University of Maryland, n.d., http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Dickinson/i-heard-a-fly-buzz (accessed April 21, 2011).

Bibliography

Cite the poem in your bibliography according to the format you are using in the rest of the essay. For MLA format, include the author's last and first name, the title of the poem in quotation marks, the italicized title of the poem's anthology, the page number of the poem and the anthology's editor, date and place of publication and publisher. If the poem is a novel-length poem contained within a single volume, cite it as you would a novel.

If you found the poem online, cite it as you would any other website, including your date of access. Write "n.d." if no publication date is available.

Cite a short poem like this:

Yeats, William Butler. "When You Are Old." Selected Poems: Fourth Edition. Ed. M. L. Rosenthal. New York: Scribner Paperback Poetry, 1996.14.

Cite a long poem like this:

Virgil. The Aeneid. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Classics. 1990.

Cite an online poem like this:

Dickinson, Emily. "I Heard a Fly Buzz." Women's Studies Database Reading Room at the University of Maryland. n.d. Web. 21 April 2011.

Cite the poet, date of publication, poem title, editor, anthology name, page number and date and location of publication for APA format. Cite a long poem as you would a novel. Cite a poem you found online with the poet's name, the website's editor, the name of the website, the retrieval date and the URL.

Yeats, William Butler (1996) When you are old. In M.L. Rosenthal (Ed.), Selected poems: fourth edition (p. 14). New York: Scribner Paperback Poetry.

Virgil (1990). The Aeneid. R. Fitzgerald (trans.). New York: Vintage Classics.

Dickinson, Emily (n.d.). I heard a fly buzz. In Women's Studies Database Reading Room at the University of Maryland (ed.), Selected poems by Emily Dickinson. Retrieved April 21, 2011 from http://www.mith2.umd.edu/.

Cite a bibliographic entry for Chicago Manual of Style as you would a footnote, replacing the commas with periods and omitting line numbers.

Virgil. The Aeneid. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Classics, 1990.

Dickinson, Emily. "I Heard a Fly Buzz." Women's Studies Database Reading Room at the University of Maryland, n.d. http://www.mith2.umd.edu/(accessed April 21, 2011).

• Daily Writing Tips: Rules for Capitalization in Titles
• Purdue Online Writing Lab: MLA Works Cited Page: Books
• Purdue Online Writing Lab: MLA Works Cited Page: Electronic Sources

A resident of the Baltimore area, Rachel Kolar has been writing since 2001. Her educational research was featured at the Maryland State Department of Education Professional Schools Development Conference in 2008. Kolar holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Kenyon College and a Master of Arts in teaching from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.

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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 .

Tips for Online Students , Tips for Students

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

Updated: June 19, 2024

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.

At UoPeople, our blog writers are thinkers, researchers, and experts dedicated to curating articles relevant to our mission: making higher education accessible to everyone.

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When to Punctuate Titles in Italics or Quotes

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You may have wondered in the middle of typing up a research project : Do I italicize  a song title? What about a painting?​ Even the most experienced writers have a problem remembering the proper punctuation for certain types of titles. Books are italicized (or underlined) and articles are put in quotation marks. That's about as far as many people can remember.​

Many teachers require students to use Modern Language Association style for research papers and essays covering language arts, cultural studies, and the humanities . There is a trick to remembering how to treat titles in MLA style, and it works well enough that you can commit most types of titles to memory. It's the big and little trick.

Big Things vs. Little Things

Big things and things that can stand on their own, like books, are italicized. Little things that are dependent or that come as part of a group, like chapters, are put into quotation marks. Think of a CD or an album as a major (big) work that can be divided into smaller parts, or songs. The individual song names (small part) are punctuated with quotation marks .

For example:

• The Sweet Escape , by Gwen Stefani, includes the song "Wind It Up."

While this is not a perfect rule, it can be helpful for determining whether to italicize or surround an item in quotation marks when you have no resources at hand.

Furthermore, italicize or underline any published collection, like a book of poetry. Put the individual entry, like a poem, in quotation marks. However: a long, epic poem that is often published on its own would be treated like a book. The Odyssey is one example.

Punctuating Titles of Works of Art

Creating a work of art is an enormous task. For that reason, you can think of art as a big accomplishment. That might sound a bit corny, but it will help you remember. Individual works of art, like paintings and sculptures, are underlined or italicized:

• Michelangelo 's David
• The Last Supper

Note that a photograph—although not any less significant or important—is often much smaller than a work of created art, and is placed in quotation marks. Following are guidelines for punctuating titles according to MLA standards.

Titles and Names to Italicize

Works to put in italics include:

• A sculpture or statue
• A TV Series
• A cartoon series
• An encyclopedia
• A newspaper

Titles to Put Into Quotation Marks

When deciding how to handle smaller works, put quotation marks around:

• A short story
• A commercial
• An individual episode in a TV series (like "The Soup Nazi" on Seinfeld)
• A cartoon episode, like "Trouble With Dogs"
• A newspaper story

More Tips on Punctuating Titles

Some titles are merely capitalized and not given additional punctuation. These include:

• Religious works, like the Bible or the Koran
• Common Keyboard Symbols: Names, Uses, and Styles
• Question Mark Definition and Examples
• How to Use Italics
• The Case of the Missing Italics
• Guidelines for Using Quotation Marks Correctly
• German Punctuation Zeichensetzung Punctuation Marks Part 1
• MLA Bibliography or Works Cited
• What Is a Citation?
• Turabian Style Guide With Examples
• An Introduction to Punctuation
• How to Write a Bibliography For a Science Fair Project
• Difference Between "Quote" and "Quotation": What Is the Right Word?
• Definition and Examples of Colons
• Learn the Correct Way to Use Quotation Marks in a Headline
• MLA Sample Pages
• 140 Key Copyediting Terms and What They Mean

When you mention a poem in your paper, do you italicize or underline the name of the poem?

To mention a poem in the body of the paper:

• Italicize the title of the poem
• Capitalize the first letter of words four letters or longer in the poem's title.  

Visit the APA Help guide for other citation questions.

Thank you for using ASK US. For further assistance, please contact your Baker librarians .

• Last Updated Mar 03, 2021
• Answered By Patrick Mullane

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• MLA titles: Formatting and capitalization rules

MLA Titles | How to Format & Capitalize Source Titles

Published on April 2, 2019 by Courtney Gahan . Revised on March 5, 2024.

In MLA style , source titles appear either in italics or in quotation marks:

• Italicize the title of a self-contained whole (e.g. a book, film, journal, or website).
• Use  quotation marks around the title if it is part of a larger work (e.g. a chapter of a book, an article in a journal, or a page on a website).

All major words in a title are capitalized . The same format is used in the Works Cited list and in the text itself.

When you use the Scribbr MLA Citation Generator , the correct formatting and capitalization are automatically applied to titles.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

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Table of contents

Capitalization in mla titles, punctuation in mla titles, titles within titles, exceptions to mla title formatting, sources with no title, abbreviating titles, titles in foreign languages, frequently asked questions about mla titles.

In all titles and subtitles, capitalize the first and last words, as well as any other principal words.

What to capitalize

What not to capitalize

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

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See an example

Use the same punctuation as appears in the source title. However, if there is a subtitle, separate it from the main title with a colon and a space, even if different (or no) punctuation is used in the source.

Example of a work with a subtitle

The exception is when the title ends in a question mark, exclamation point or dash, in which case you keep the original punctuation:

Sometimes a title contains another title—for example, the title of an article about a novel might contain that novel’s title.

For titles within titles, in general, maintain the same formatting as you would if the title stood on its own.

Titles and names that fall into the following categories are not italicized or enclosed in quotation marks:

• Scripture (e.g. the Bible, the Koran, the Gospel)
• Laws, acts and related documents (e.g. the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution , the Paris Agreement)
• Musical compositions identified by form, number and key (e.g. Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67)
• Conferences, seminars, workshops and courses (e.g. MLA Annual Convention)

Sections of a work

Words that indicate a particular section of a work are not italicized or placed within quotation marks. They are also not capitalized when mentioned in the text.

Examples of such sections include:

• introduction
• list of works cited
• bibliography

Introductions, prefaces, forewords and afterwords

Descriptive terms such as “introduction”, “preface”, “foreword” and “afterword” are capitalized if mentioned in an MLA in-text citation or in the Works Cited list, but not when mentioned in the text itself.

Example of descriptive term capitalization

In-text citation: (Brontë, Preface )

In text: In her preface to the work, added in a later edition, Brontë debates the morality of creating characters such as those featured in Wuthering Heights .

If there is a unique title for the introduction, preface, foreword or afterword, include that title in quotation marks instead of the generic section name when referencing the source in the Works Cited list or an in-text citation.

For sources with no title, a brief description of the source acts as the title.

Example of a source reference with no title

Follow these rules for capitalization:

• Capitalize the first word
• Capitalize proper nouns
• Ignore other MLA rules for capitalization

There are some exceptions to this general format: descriptions including titles of other works, such as comments on articles or reviews of movies; untitled short messages, like tweets; email messages; and untitled poems.

Exceptions to general format for sources with no title

If you need to mention the name of a work in the text itself, state the full title, but omit the subtitle.

If you need to refer to the work multiple times, you may shorten the title to something familiar or obvious to the reader. For example, Huckleberry Finn for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . If in doubt, prefer the noun phrase.

If the standalone abbreviation may not be clear, you can introduce it in parentheses, following the standard guidelines for abbreviations. For example, The Merchant of Venice ( MV ) . For Shakespeare and the Bible , there are well-established abbreviations you can use.

When you abbreviate a title, make sure you keep the formatting consistent. Even if the abbreviation consists only of letters, as in the MV example, it must be italicized or placed within quotation marks in the same way as it would be when written in full.

Abbreviating very long titles in the Works Cited list

Titles should normally be given in full in the Works Cited list, but if any of your sources has a particularly long title (often the case with older works), you can use an ellipsis to shorten it here. This is only necessary with extremely long titles such as the example below.

In the Works Cited list, if you are listing a work with a title in a language other than English, you can add the translated title in square brackets.

Example of a reference with a translated title

If you are using the foreign-language title in the text itself, you can also include the translation in parenthesis. For example, O Alquimista ( The Alchemist ) .

You don’t need to include a translation in your reference list or in the text if you expect your readers to be familiar with the original language. For example, you wouldn’t translate the title of a  French novel you were writing about in the context of a French degree.

Non-Latin script languages

For works in a language that does not use the Latin alphabet, such as Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, or Russian, be consistent with how you mention the source titles and also quotations from within them.

For example, if you choose to write a Russian title in the Cyrillic form, do that throughout the document. If you choose to use the Romanized form, stick with that. Do not alternate between the two.

Yes. MLA style uses title case, which means that all principal words (nouns, pronouns , verbs, adjectives , adverbs , and some conjunctions ) are capitalized.

This applies to titles of sources as well as the title of, and subheadings in, your paper. Use MLA capitalization style even when the original source title uses different capitalization .

In MLA style , book titles appear in italics, with all major words capitalized. If there is a subtitle, separate it from the main title with a colon and a space (even if no colon appears in the source). For example:

The format is the same in the Works Cited list and in the text itself. However, when you mention the book title in the text, you don’t have to include the subtitle.

The title of a part of a book—such as a chapter, or a short story or poem in a collection—is not italicized, but instead placed in quotation marks.

When a book’s chapters are written by different authors, you should cite the specific chapter you are referring to.

When all the chapters are written by the same author (or group of authors), you should usually cite the entire book, but some styles include exceptions to this.

• In APA Style , single-author books should always be cited as a whole, even if you only quote or paraphrase from one chapter.
• In MLA Style , if a single-author book is a collection of stand-alone works (e.g. short stories ), you should cite the individual work.
• In Chicago Style , you may choose to cite a single chapter of a single-author book if you feel it is more appropriate than citing the whole book.

The title of an article is not italicized in MLA style , but placed in quotation marks. This applies to articles from journals , newspapers , websites , or any other publication. Use italics for the title of the source where the article was published. For example:

Use the same formatting in the Works Cited entry and when referring to the article in the text itself.

The MLA Handbook is currently in its 9th edition , published in 2021.

This quick guide to MLA style  explains the latest guidelines for citing sources and formatting papers according to MLA.

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Marking Titles

A reader asks:

When writing about a short story, do you underline the title of the story or do you use quotation marks around the title of the story?

Quotation Marks:

The most common way to mark a short story title is to enclose it in quotation marks. Titles of newspaper and magazine articles are also enclosed in quotation marks. Here are a few examples:

• “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville
• “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
• “ Mommy Madness ” by Judith Warner in Newsweek

Italics or Underlining:

Longer works—novels, magazines, newspapers, movies—are typically underlined or set in italic type. Although either is acceptable, I prefer italics, especially on the web, since an underlined word can be mistaken for a hyperlink.

• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Simpsons
• The New York Times

Extra Credit:

I’m not sure why, but The New Yorker puts quotation marks around everything, whether it’s a short story or a novel or a television show. I suppose the most important thing is internal consistency. If you use italics for one novel’s title, use italics for every novel’s title; don’t switch to quotation marks or underlining halfway through an article, or even in a different article of the same publication.

Any questions? Post them in the comment form, and I’ll answer them as promptly as I can.

45 Responses to Marking Titles

When writing about a television show, should you underline the title?

Jill, As I dig deeper into this issue, I’m finding that the conventions vary depending on where your work is being published. For many American students and writers of scholarly works in the humanities, the MLA Handbook and MLA Style Manual are the authoritative guides. Their advice is to underline (or italicize) the title of a television show, but to put a show’s episode title in quotation marks. For newspaper and magazine publishing, the Associated Press Stylebook has gained widespread acceptance, though individual publishers often have their own complementary guides. Here’s what the AP Stylebook says:

Apply the guidelines listed here to book titles, computer game titles (but not software titles), movie titles, opera titles, play titles, poem titles, song titles, television program titles , and the titles of lectures, speeches, and works of art. —Put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material.

do you underline a song or put it in quotations?

Do I underline the title of a play in my essay? or italics, or quotation?

Ali, put song titles inside quotation marks. Sarah, the rule that I learned long ago (and which you probably should double-check) is that one-act and other short plays take quotation marks, but longer plays take italics or underlining. This “rule” is consistent with the distinction between short stories (quotation marks) and novels (italics or underlining).

Do you underline a movie title or use quotation mark aroun them? I read that we use quotation mark around short poems. What do you mean by “short”? How long do you consider “short” ?

Do you underline the title of movies or put them in quotation marks?

What is the difference between computer games and software? Aren’t computer games considered software and if so, do they have to be underlined?

Van Anh and mrc, I’m not able to give you a definitive answer to your questions. As you should have read in the entry and in my comment (#2) , style guides vary in their rules for formatting titles. Your best bet is to consult the generally accepted style manual for the discipline or field in which you are writing.

What about essays? Do they fall into the same category as short stories and articles?

Hey, what should I use when sourcing a poem? Quotation marks?

Sure, quotation marks will work, unless you’re citing an epic poem, in which case italics or underlining would be preferable.

What about the title of an art show?

do you underline the names of editors or publishing companies?

I understand quotes are used for a short story, but what about a collection of short stories?

You can treat a collection of short stories the same way you would treat a novel: Italicize or underline the title.

Do you use italics, quotes or underlining when refering to board games in a newsletter? Specifically: Chess, Snakes and Ladders, Pick Up Sticks, Go Fish. Thank you.

Hi Karen, The answer is none of the above. All you need to do is capitalize the words.

Do you underline the specific name of a store? ex. Johnson’s Grocery or Roses and Ribbons?

No. Just capitalize it.

How about TV shows? Underline or quotation marks? ex. The Tonight Show

okay so im writing an essay over poems by walt whitman. would i use quotations or underline the name of one of his short poems in his book leaves of grass?

Hello, I ran into your site doing a research on conclusions. I found some of your comments and questions useful. What role do conclusions play in writing? Is there a general rule? Is it an over summary of the story? And is there a wrong way to write them? Anything will be a helpful start.Hope to hear back soon. Thank you.

Should you underline the title of a Newsletter when citing it on a webpage or place it in italics?

Does the newsletter contain more than one article? If so, treat it the same way you would treat a newspaper: underline or italicize it.

Reading the questions and answers has been relly helpful. Thanks!

How do you decide whether to capitalize small words like “it “and “is” or “the” in the title of a book etc?

In my essay I am unsure if i should use quotation marks or underline the name of a short story

Kattie: you should use quotation marks.

What about a band name? Do you use quotations? I’m writing a story for my class and the sentence is: As I adjusted my Spice Girls backpack and picked up my Rugrats lunchbox I tried to hold back the tears. Thanks!

Do you underline awards, like Newberry ones, or quote them?

Hi. If writing out the title of a chapter in a book do you put it in quotation marks, italicize, or just capitalize?

What do I do for the title of an artwork within a quote or block quote? Do I use single quote marks as if it were a quoatation? Or stick with the double?

In a novel is it correct to use italics for foreign language words? Please reply as soon as possible. Thanks, Miriam Sobel

do you underline, italicize, or put the name of an essay in quotes??? i want to put this essay in my very important language arts report, which is like 90% of my grade for this semester….

please answer me….thx!

Hi Emma, Put the title of an essay in quotation marks.

This site was very helpful to me..my question was should I underline a story title in an essay?

Nichole, The very first sentence in the entry above states, “The most common way to mark a short story title is to enclose it in quotation marks.” Don’t underline a story; wrap it in quotation marks.

This page has been extremely helpful. Thank you so much!

Do you put a band name in quotes or italics or do you just leave it alone?

Hi Shelby, I would just leave it alone.

Do I underline, italicize, or put quotes around the title of a legislative bill? Thanks!

As Diana asked years before me, what sort of marking style would you use for the titles of software or video games? Thanks in advance. PS: Also, why do you not answer all questions? I realize that you get many of these questions, but I have seen some questions go unanswered (at least, as far as visibility to the public goes) whereas other questions are publicly answered numerous times! This is redundant and, I feel, terribly ineffective. I appreciate the website very much, as well as the effort you put into replying to its visitors. I just wish I didn’t have to re-ask a question that’s already been asked just because it was ignored.

JaredMT, Style guides offer contradictory information about such matters, so it’s impossible for me to tell you what is correct in every context. You’ll have to refer to an appropriate style guide for the type of writing you’re doing. I don’t answer all questions because I don’t have the time to do so. I have responsibilities as an employee, freelance consultant, father, and husband that more important than (to me) than answering questions here. Also, I changed careers about five years ago from English instruction to web development. I try to answer questions about grammar punctuation, and style as I find time, but sometimes it’s hard to put myself back in that “world.” I’m sorry that questions go unanswered. Maybe I should turn off the comment-writing feature. Thanks for provoking me to think about this.

Do you underline the title of an essay?

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When do you underline a title?

What types of titles do you underline and what types of titles do you put quotations marks on?

• 2 I think it's a matter of house-style. –  Kris Commented Jul 11, 2014 at 5:11

2 Answers 2

Underlining is a relic of when people had typewriters or wrote things out in longhand. You only underline things that you would normally be set in italic, but for whatever reason, that option is unavailable to you. For example, when turning in copy written on a typewriter or in manuscript, one would underline things that should be set in italic.

Italicization can vary according to house styles, but normally, the titles of books of any sort, plays, operas and the like, art exhibitions, newspapers, magazines, academic journals, brochures and pamphlets, newsletters, films, and TV or radio series should all be set in italic. So are the names of vessels like ships and other watercraft, aircraft, spacecraft, and trains. The names of long (well, very long) poems get set in italic, but not shorter ones. Taxonomic names of genus, species, and if available, subspecies are all set in italic, but not the names of family or higher, which are only capitalized. Species and subspecies are not even capitalized, but anything higher is.

Novellas (short novels) are sometimes set in italic, particularly if published standalone, but sometimes are only quoted. Novelettes and below, including short stories, individual episodes, songs and all individual musical compositions, poems, and essays and articles of any length are set off by quotation marks, not italics.

Other things will vary according to the discipline and publication, like animal gene names and symbols, but not protein names and symbols.

Depending on the style and the relevant manual(s), you might find a good online resource with noodlebib.

The Noodlbib prompts can filter what kind of source you wish to cite be it MLA, APA, or Chicago, and the result is formatted bibliography/sources cited entry.

It is free to the public, and you can also save your citations if you create an account. So far, my cross-references have not contradicted this resource, but you must be specific about the details regarding source material if you want the correct citation format.

Generally in MLA, titles of books (books being longer than novellas) are underlined, whereas short stories and plays are italicized. Formatting tautologically depends on style.

• This may be a general knowledge question as many resources are openly available to help. –  livresque Commented Jul 11, 2014 at 6:33

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Do You Underline Titles When Writing? The Essential Guide

My name is Debbie, and I am passionate about developing a love for the written word and planting a seed that will grow into a powerful voice that can inspire many.

1. Understanding Title Formatting: A Necessity for Every Writer

2. common conventions: when to underline titles and when to use italics, 3. evolving guidelines: the impact of modern formatting standards.

• 4. Exceptions and Rule Breakers: An Exploration of Title Formatting Variations
• 5. Essential Tips for Navigating the Underlining vs. Italics Dilemma
• 6. A Modern Writer’s Toolkit: Utilizing Quotation Marks in Titles
• 7. Clearing the Confusion: Expert Recommendations on Title Formatting
• 8. Beyond Underlining: Exploring Alternative Techniques for Emphasizing Titles
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Concluding Remarks

One of the key skills every writer should possess is the ability to understand title formatting. A well-formatted title can captivate readers, pique their interest, and compel them to click on your content. So, whether you are writing a blog post, an article, or a social media caption , mastering title formatting is crucial for engaging your audience effectively. Here are some essential tips and tricks to help you enhance your title formatting skills:

1. Keep it concise: A well-crafted title should be concise and to the point. It should provide a glimpse into the content of your piece without revealing too much. Aim for titles that are no longer than 60 characters, as shorter titles tend to perform better in search results.

2. Use power words: Incorporating powerful and impactful words in your titles can instantly grab your readers’ attention. Words like “ultimate,” “essential,” “proven,” and “unveiling” can make your titles more enticing and compelling.

3. Employ the rule of three: The rule of three is a tried and tested technique in writing that suggests things presented in groups of three tend to be more memorable and engaging. Utilize this concept in your titles by organizing your ideas or arguments into three key points or steps.

4. Utilize bold and italics: When appropriate, add emphasis to certain words or phrases in your title by using HTML formatting such as bold and italic . However, use them sparingly and strategically, ensuring that they enhance the meaning and impact of your title rather than overshadowing it.

Remember, a well-formatted title is your first opportunity to captivate readers and make a lasting impression. Implement these tips and watch as your titles become more irresistible, enticing readers to dive into your content with enthusiasm. Mastering title formatting is an invaluable skill that will elevate your writing and help you connect with your audience on a deeper level.

In the world of writing, we often find ourselves pondering over whether to underline titles or use italics to emphasize them. To clear up this common convention, let’s delve into the guidelines that will help you make the right decision every time you encounter a title.

1. **Underline Titles**: – Books: Underline the titles of complete books, such as *To Kill a Mockingbird*. – Magazines: Underline the titles of entire magazines, for example, *National Geographic*. – Newspapers: If you’re referring to the name of a newspaper, underline it. For instance, *The New York Times* can be underlined to highlight its significance. – Long Plays: Whether it’s a Shakespearean work or a contemporary masterpiece, underline titles of long plays, like *Hamlet* or *Death of a Salesman*.

2. **Use Italics For**: – Poem Titles: When emphasizing the titles of poems, such as *The Raven*, consider using italics rather than underlining. – Short Stories: Italics should be employed when highlighting the titles of short stories, like *The Lottery* or *The Necklace*. – TV Shows and Series: When referring to the title of a TV show or series, italicize it. For example, *Friends* or *Game of Thrones* would be appropriately presented in italics. – Works of Art: When discussing an artwork, be it a painting like *Starry Night* or a sculpture such as *David*, giving it emphasis through italics is fitting.

Remember, consistency is key when it comes to underlining titles or using italics. Whether you choose to underline or italicize, maintain the same formatting throughout your entire piece to ensure clear communication with your readers. Bear these guidelines in mind to master the art of emphasizing titles effortlessly.

In the digital age, the formatting standards for various elements of content have greatly evolved. Modern formatting guidelines are continuously being updated to accommodate the ever-changing needs of users and to enhance the overall user experience. As content creators, it is crucial to stay updated with these evolving guidelines to ensure our work is visually appealing, accessible, and effectively communicates our message.

One of the key areas where modern formatting standards have had a significant impact is in website design. Gone are the days of cluttered and unorganized web pages. Today, websites are expected to have clean layouts, user-friendly navigation menus, and visually appealing content. HTML, the foundation of web design, plays a vital role in implementing these formatting standards. With HTML, we can structure our content using semantic elements such as

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

This section will cover the following topics:

• using quotation marks
• using italics
• not using underlining

What do quotation marks, italics, and underlining look like?

• Quotation marks look like little pairs of commas up in the air (“ ”).  They always come in a set: one before and one after whatever is being enclosed.  For example: “The Lottery” is a very scary story.
• Italics is a typeface, not a symbol.  It is a design that tilts the tops of letters to the right and makes them look fancy, like this: italics.  (The name comes from the fact that the first typefaces designed to look like handwriting came from Italy.)
• Underlining is obvious: underlining .

How do you use these marks?  First, stop using underlining.  The only thing underlined in a document these days is a link to something online.  (One exception: If you are writing by hand, you can use underlining on something you would normally italicize.)

So all you really need to know is how to use quotation marks and italics.

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks (“ ”) enclose words to set them off from the rest of the text.  Quotation marks are used three ways:

• to identify certain types of titles
• to indicate another person’s words, whether written or spoken
• to refer to a word being used as a word  (For example: The word “cat” has three letters.  Putting “cat” in quotes clarifies that we are referring to the word, not the animal.  If we were just talking about the animal, we would not use quotes.  For example:  I had a cat named Maggie.  This use of quotation marks is rare.  Focus on the first two uses, which are much more common.)

Titles in Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are used to identify the titles of short works such as poems, essays, articles, chapters, songs, stories, web pages, TV and radio episodes– anything short enough that is part of something larger like a book, CD, program, or website.  For example:

“Looking for America” by Lana Del Rey (song)

“Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell (essay)

“A Real Durwan” by Jhumpa Lahiri (short story)

“Watering the Stones” by Mary Oliver (poem)

“The Rains of Castamere” (episode in a TV series )

“Blood Gold: The Fight for the Future of Brazil’s Rain Forest” (magazine article)

“Take Action” (page on Cascade AIDS Project’s website)

For the titles of longer works, see “Italics” below.

Quoting Speech

In college, you will write lots of research papers, using the ideas and the words of other people.  The first step is understanding the difference between direct and indirect quotations.

A direct quotation is when you write exactly what someone else said or wrote.  Their words are enclosed in quotation marks.   For example:

The wolf said, “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.”

According to Gandhi, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

An indirect quotation is a restatement of what someone said or wrote but using your own words.   Do not use quotation marks for indirect quotations.  For example:

The wolf threatened to destroy the little pig’s house.

Gandhi often said we have to take action if we want the world to be better.

Capitalizing Quotes

Quotes are capitalized just like regular sentences .  The first word in a sentence is capitalized and the first word in a quote is capitalized.

Martie wrote an email saying, “Thank you for the card.  The design was lovely.”  (The words “Thank” and “The” are capitalized because they begin sentences.)

When identifying the speaker in the middle of a quote, the beginning of the second part of the quote does not need to be capitalized unless it is the beginning of a new sentence.  For example:

“Thank you for the card,” Martie wrote in her email. “The design was lovely.” (“The” is capitalized because it is the beginning of the new sentence.)

“Thank you for the card,” Martie wrote, adding, “with the lovely design.”  (The word “with” is not capitalized because the phrase “with the lovely design” is a continuation of the sentence that begins “Thank you for the card.”)

Placement of Quotation Marks

Quotation marks go at the beginning and the end of the quote.   This is true even if a quote goes on for two or more sentences.  Generally, no additional quotation marks are needed in between.  For example:

My sister said, “Your dog ran away again.  I found him, but he was wet and muddy.  The next time he runs away, get him yourself.”

However, if the quote is interrupted with explanatory words, the quotation marks go around the quoted words to separate them from the explanation.  For example:

My sister said, “Your dog ran away again.”  I could tell she was really angry.  “I found him, but he was wet and muddy,” she continued.  “The next time he runs away, get him yourself.”  Then she slammed the door.

A speaker can be identified at the beginning, middle, or end of a quote.  For example:

Madison said, “Let’s stop at the market to buy fresh vegetables for dinner.”

“Let’s stop at the market,” Madison said.  “We can buy fresh vegetables for dinner.”

“Let’s stop at the market to buy some fresh vegetables for dinner,” Madison said.

When quotation marks are used next to other punctuation , there is a correct order.

• Quotation marks are always placed after commas and periods.   For example:

I love the Billie Eilish song “My Future,” which she sang at the Democratic convention.

• If both the sentence and the quote are statements, put the period inside the end quotes .  For example:

In high school I read “The Lottery .”

• If the sentence is a question or exclamation and the quote is a statement, put the question mark or exclamation point after the end quotes.   For example:

I finally memorized the poem “The Raven “!

• But if the sentence is a statement and the quoted material is a question or exclamation, put the question mark or exclamation point inside the end quotes.   For example:

I asked the teacher, “Can you help me ?”

Single quotation marks (‘ ’) are only used to indicate a quotation within another quotation.   For example:

Theresa said, “I wanted to take my dog to the music festival, but the man at the gate said, ‘ No dogs allowed, ’ so I took Pepper home.”

Using quotation marks correctly requires practice.  Keep these rules nearby and check them when you want to use quotation marks.

Use quotation marks for the titles of small things that are part of something larger.

Use italics for the titles of large things.

Never use both quotation marks and italics.  It’s always one or the other.

Use italics to identify titles of long works (books, plays, newspapers, magazines, albums and CDs, websites, movies and DVDs, TV and radio series), as well as the names of ships and aircraft, and foreign words.   For example:

Books and plays: To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet, The Hobbit

Magazines and newspapers:  The New York Times, Rolling Stone

Movies and DVDs:  Casablanca, Moonlight, Vivo

Websites:  Craig’s List, Common Sense Media, Khan Academy, TED

TV & radio series:  Stranger Things, SNL, Morning Edition

Albums and CDs:  Abbey Road by The Beatles, American Idiot by Green Day

Video games:  Super Mario 3D World, Minecraft

Ships and aircraft:  Enterprise, Spruce Goose

Foreign words:  The Italian word ciao is used when greeting people or saying goodbye.

• Use quotation marks to enclose direct quotes and the titles of short works.
• Use italics for the titles of long works and foreign words.
• Don’t use underlining for anything other than live links.
• Never use both italics and quotes; it’s always one or the other.

Quotation Marks, Italics, and Underlining Copyright © by Yvonne Kane; Krista O'Brien; and Angela Wood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• Writing Poetry

How to Write Poem Titles

Last Updated: January 12, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Alicia Cook . Alicia Cook is a Professional Writer based in Newark, New Jersey. With over 12 years of experience, Alicia specializes in poetry and uses her platform to advocate for families affected by addiction and to fight for breaking the stigma against addiction and mental illness. She holds a BA in English and Journalism from Georgian Court University and an MBA from Saint Peter’s University. Alicia is a bestselling poet with Andrews McMeel Publishing and her work has been featured in numerous media outlets including the NY Post, CNN, USA Today, the HuffPost, the LA Times, American Songwriter Magazine, and Bustle. She was named by Teen Vogue as one of the 10 social media poets to know and her poetry mixtape, “Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately” was a finalist in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 93,985 times.

You've written a poem , congratulations! Now, you just need to think of a good title that will pique the reader’s interest and set them up for what to expect. Using keywords and details from your poem can help you craft a strong title. You can also refer to the poem’s tone and context to come up with the title that will engage readers. Once you create a title, format it properly to polish off your poem.

Using Keywords and Details in the Poem

• For example, you may choose keywords like “good” and “sister,” creating a title like “The Good Sister” or “Be good, Sister.”

• For example, you may use a synonym for “good” to create a title like, “The Excellent Sister” or “My Precious Sister.”

• For example, if your poem focuses on a girl named Eva and her pet swan, you may use a title like “Eva and the Swan.” If your poem is about a Denny’s in your hometown of Sturgis, you may use a title like “Denny’s in Sturgis” or “Denny’s, Sturgis.”

• For example, you may choose a verb like “beating” and create a title like, “Beating” or “I Beat.” Or you may pick adjectives like “blue,” “dying,” and “stunning” to create a title like, “Dying Blue” or “Stunning Blue.”

• For example, you may take a repeating line like “she jumped high in track and field” to create a title like “High in Track and Field” or “She Jumped.”

• Avoid picking an image that might give away the crux or turn in the poem. The image should provide some context for the reader but not give any revelations in the poem away.
• For example, you may use an image of a woman leaping over hurdle on the field, red dirt flying in her wake in the poem, and create a title like, “Red Dirt Flys” or “Woman Leaps.”

• For example, if you have a last line like, “She ran off the field, in victory,” you may create a title like, “In Victory.”

Referring to the Poem’s Tone and Context

• For example, if the poem is a playful tale about a little girl named Eva and her pet swan, you may use a title like, “Eva’s Pet Swan” or “Eva’s Friend, a Swan.”
• If the poem is a dark tale about Eva’s difficult relationship with her pet swan, you may use a title like, “The Problem of the Swan” or simply, “Eva and the Swan.”

• For example, you may use a title like, “Monday at the Corner Cafe” or “4:44.”

• For example, if you used a newspaper photo, you may refer to the subject in the photo in the title of the poem. Or if you referred to a recent family dinner you went to to create the poem, you may use a title like, “Sunday Dinner” or “At the Dinner Table.”

• For example, if you wrote a sonnet about your dog, you may use a title like “Sonnet About My Dog.” Or if you wrote a sestina about your best friend, you may use a title like, “Best Friend: Sestina.”

Formatting the Title

• For example, rather than use a title like, “The Time I Had a Good Dinner on Sundays,” you may cut it down to, “Good Sunday Dinner,” or “The Good Dinner on Sundays.”
• In some cases, a longer title may be appropriate if you feel it strongly encapsulates the poem or has a good ring to it.

• For example, you would format a title as: “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” or “At the Dinner Table.”

• You may also want to change the title if someone else has already used it so your poem can stand out on its own and not be considered for someone else’s work.

Expert Q&A

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• ↑ Alicia Cook. Professional Writer. Expert Interview. 11 December 2020.
• ↑ https://annieneugebauer.com/2014/04/21/titling-poems/
• ↑ https://writersrelief.com/blog/2013/08/great-title-for-your-book-or-story-or-poem/
• ↑ https://www.wccnet.edu/learn/departments/engd/writing-center/_documents/punctuation/titles-of-works.pdf

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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 Poem Titles? Tips For Authors

There are rules in writing, in general, which every author must familiarise themselves with.

You may have to italicize movie titles or use other means to emphasize a title. Anyone who comes across the italicized words would know it’s a title. That’s also the essence of italicizing.

Now, here’s the question that has been generating some heated debates among writers

Do you italicize poem titles? 

Yes, you can write the poem’s title in italics. You may also need to underline your title instead of italics. 

Italics are used for long poems. And it’s easier to italicize words when writing on a computer. If you’re writing on paper or marker board, don’t italicize. Underline the title instead.

Is underlining a poem title similar to italicizing it? Yes, it is. The aim of using both is to make them different from the other words. 

 An example of a single but long poem whose title needs to be italicized is  The Odyssey . Other examples include  The Iliad  or  The   Aeneid .

The rule to determine if you should italicize the poem title is the poem’s length is subjective. If the poem is book-length, you can italicize it. Use quotation marks on the poem’s title if it’s up to book-length.   

So, that’s the answer. However, we have more in store for you on this topic. Continue reading to find out.

Table of Contents

When Not To Use Italics For Poem Titles

We have shed light on this topic before, but there’s nothing wrong with revisiting it.

If the poem is a short one, you do not italicize the title. Use quotation marks instead. As a general rule, quotation marks are ideals for shorter write-ups. It’s used for book chapters , short poems, short stories, articles, and essays.

Another reason you can’t use quotation marks is when the poems are not stand-alone. Short poems usually come in a body of work or collection. They come as an anthology or collection of poems.

The same applies to articles that get published in journals. You won’t find chapters of a published work as a stand-alone. Instead, you publish several chapters of a book as a single document.

Why Do You Need To Italicize Poem Titles?

Long before now, there was little, or no buzz about formatting typed documents. Nowadays, we use italics, quotation marks, bold text, and underlining to emphasize text.

The essence of italicizing poem titles is to make them stand out from other texts. With italics, the text becomes different from other surrounding words. Hence, it draws the reader’s attention to the text italicized.

However, italics do not have a very glaring effect. It is subtle compared to using bold text or an underline to emphasize certain words. And because of these specific rules regarding their use, italics still come in handy for writers.

The Use Of Underline In Place Of Italics For Writing Poem Titles

Although underlining in place of italics is acceptable for poem titles , it is somewhat outdated. The practice was common when typewriters and handwritten documents were trending. Then, typewriters didn’t have the option to italicize.

Also, it would not be easy to point out an italicized text in a handwritten document. It is challenging to do so, as some persons’ handwriting appears slanted. With which handwriting, how then can one differentiate the actual italicized text from the unitalicized text?

With the use of computers and word processors, it is now easier to italicize. All you have to do is highlight the text you want to italicize and click on the Italic icon in Microsoft Word. Alternately, you hold down the Ctrl key and press the letter “I” on the keyboard, and the highlighted text will italicize.

Do You Italicize Poem Titles In APA?

APA is a documentation style introduced by the American Psychological Association. The referencing style is common to sociology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, education, etc.

With the APA referencing style, there is the in-text citation and the one you find on your document’s reference page. Different rules apply to each of them. Another difference is that in-text citation focuses on one work at a time as you write along. It is the reference page that lists out all works you consulted in your work.

If you are using APA style , in-text citation requires that you italicize a stand-alone work title. So, you have to italicize the title of a stand-alone poem or collection of poems.

When citing a poem in-text, the APA format is to write in a round bracket the author’s name, year of publication, followed by the page . An example would be (John, 1995, p.43)

The rule for an in-text citation is slightly different for the reference page. If you are referencing a poem’s title on the reference page, you would also italicize a long or stand-alone poem. The difference lies with shorter poems that are a part of a complete work.

In this case, you would have to write the title of the poem as it is. That it is, it should be in its original form without quotation marks and italics.

Do You Italicize Poem Titles In MLA?

MLA is another citation style introduced by the Modern Language Association. It is a referencing style that is common to disciplines like literature and the humanities.

The style, like the APA , also has an in-text citation. At the end of the document, there’s a comprehensive list of all the work cited.

For in-text citation using this style, you italicize the poem’s title where it is a long poem or collection of poems. When the poem is a short poem and part of a complete work, you use quotation marks.

When citing a long piece of writing, write the author’s name, starting with the last name and the first name. After which, you write the poem title in italics, the city in which it was published, the publisher’s name, and the year published.

When citing a short poem that is a part of a collection or anthology, you also begin with the author’s last and first name. The next thing would be to write the short poem’s title in quotation marks, followed by the collection or anthology title in italics. After which, you add the editor, the city in which it was published, the publisher’s name, and the year published.

Do You Italicize A Poem Title In Chicago Style?

The Chicago style is a referencing style attributed to the University of Chicago Press. It counts as one of the common referencing styles in the United States. This style is also peculiar to disciplines such as social sciences, business, fine arts, history.

The Chicago style does not make any difference when you cite it in the write-up’s body. Whether it is a book, article, collection of poems, or short poem, the citation follows the same process.

An easy way to cite in the body of the writing piece via this style is to provide the author’s name and publication year in round paragraphs.

The distinction in citing different works is only applicable in the Reference List, which comes at the end of the document. In the Reference List, you have to provide the full details of the works cited. So, this is where you would have to provide the poem title.

In the Reference List, the title of books and long works are in italics. So, if the poem is a collection of poems or a single poem long enough to be a stand-alone poem, it must be in italics. If it is a short poem and part of a collection, the title must be in quotation marks.

Poem Titles: What You Need To Know

The title of a poem is usually the first thing that the reader sees. Authors put the title on their book’s front cover, whether it is a long or stand-alone poem. For shorter poems, you will find them at the top.

Since it is the first thing a reader will see, the writer also spends considerable time coming up with an excellent title for the poem. The regular practice is to write the first letters of the words in the title in capital letters. It is only articles within the title that would not appear in capital letters.

In an actual sense, writing the poem’s title is usually more challenging than writing the poem itself. The writer would want to come up with a title that captures the reader’s interest. From the title, a reader should want to read the poem. A poor title could damage the acceptability of the poem, even when the content is excellent.

Irrespective of the style you are using in your writing, italics have rules which you must strictly follow. Firstly, italicize long pieces of writing and put short poems in quotation marks. Apart from these differences, the rule is the same across all styles.

About the Author

CJ grew up admiring books. His family owned a small bookstore throughout his early childhood, and he would spend weekends flipping through book after book, always sure to read the ones that looked the most interesting. Not much has changed since then, except now some of those interesting books he picks off the shelf were designed by his company!

Do you underline or italicize the titles of poems?

Generally (though standards ay differ) longer works are italicized and shorter works are in quotes. That's to say that books, be they poems or otherwise, are italicized ( The Iliad , for example, is a poem, but it's italicized). Short stories and shorter poems are in quotes.

For titles of most poems use use quotation marks . Long poems that are often published as stand-alone books (such as epics) should be italicized.

"Ode to a Nightingale"

"The Jabberwocky"

(Underlining is a convention from typewritten or handwritten text, and not generally used in modern machine printed text).

Normally, no. When you refer to a poem by title, you put the title in quotes; for example, "The Raven," by Edgar Allen Poe. An exception would be a very long poem that is a major work in itself, such as The Iliad .

Add your answer:

Do you underline or italicize the title in a personal narrative piece?

Qutation marks for essays, short stories, poems, movies underline for book titles

Do you underline video titles?

You need to underline or italicize video game titles. Short stories and song titles need to be put in quotation marks.

Do you underline a title of a booklet?

Titles of anothologies should be treated in the same way as the titles of other books, so underline or italicize, depending on what is expected at your school or college.

Do you italicize or underline atricles?

Do you italicize the name of a play.

Guidelines for titles dictate that a work that is large and stand alone be either underlined or italicized. Since a play is a work which can stand on its own, it should be underlined or italicized.

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Book Titles in Essays: Formatting Rules and Examples

How do you write the title of a book in an essay?

A short answer: You look at the assignment’s requirements, see the citation style you should use, and go to a corresponding manual to see what rules it prescribes for writing book titles.

That’s when you might hit a snag:

Most rules for the main styles — APA, MLA, and Chicago — seem identical at first glance. It’s easy to miss a preposition or punctuation rule, capitalize a wrong word, or forget about italics. The devil is in the details, and the final grade for your paper depends on them.

Why not gather the formatting rules for all the citation styles in one place so that it’s more comfortable to compare them and spot specifics?

We’ve got you covered:

In this article, our essay writers share the guidelines for citing book titles in five styles. You’ll see how to write a book title in an essay and how to introduce authors. For the sake of clarity, examples are also here.

What is the title of a book in an essay?

You have several options for formatting a book title in your essay.

First, you can mention it in the essay’s body if you are quoting or paraphrasing information from the book. Also, when compiling a bibliography of the resources you used for research, you’ll need book titles for the reference list.

A book’s title and the details of its author are also essential components in the structure of book review . You’ll mention it in the introduction before summarizing a book’s plot, characters, and themes.

How to put book title in essay:

• Use italics
• Don’t underline or use quotation marks, please
• Don’t capitalize minor words like prepositions and conjunctions of three or fewer letters ( a, of, to, the, etc.) unless they are the first or last word in a book’s title

How to write a book title and author in an essay?

Details to consider:

• Is it an in-text mention or part of a reference list?
• Are you writing about an entire book or one of its chapters?
• Does the book have one or several authors?
• Does the book have a subtitle?
• Is it an independent publication or a collection of essays, series, or short stories? Are you introducing a poem in your essay?

The answers to these questions will give you a clear understanding of how to write a book title and author in an essay. The formatting rules will depend on the above factors and the citation style you should follow. (We’ve covered the two main styles —  APA and MLA — in our essay writing book , available on Amazon.)

There are also some general rules to remember, regardless of the style. Let’s move to them and explore the principles of citing book titles inside and out.

How to Introduce a Book in an Essay: General Rules

Here’s what all the styles agree on in terms of how to introduce a book in an essay:

1 — Italicize the titles of self-contained books. If you mention a novel, a movie, a stand-alone poem, a play, a database, or a website, there’s no need to use quotation marks. For example: 

• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
• If by Rudyard Kipling

2 — The titles of parts within a book should go in quotation marks: chapter titles, titles of poems inside a collection, acts or scenes in a play, and so on. For example:

• The Great Gatsby’s “Chapter 5: The Meeting” 
• “The Mirror of Erised” from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

3 — Capitalize both stand-alone book titles and the parts within a complete work. For example:

• The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
• “Sometimes They Come Back” from Stephen King’s Night Shift

4 — When the title of a book goes within another title (like in cases with monographs about novels or poems), you should also use italics for independent works and single quotation marks for short stories and parts of books.

For example, this is how to write the title of a journal article containing the book’s title:

• “The Unbearable Weight of Authenticity: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and a Theory of Touristic Reading.”

And this is how you’d write a journal article title containing the title of a short story:

• “Individualism in O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.'”

When to use a capital letter is the trickiest part of writing book titles in essays. The rules vary between style guides and their editions, which can appear confusing and make it more challenging for students to align with the requirements and ensure consistency.

Below, we’ll explore how to put book title in essay according to five different citation styles: APA, MLA, Chicago, CSE, and AMA.

How to Write the Title of a Book in an Essay: Citation Styles

While most students use APA and MLA citation styles in their academic papers, some institutions also assign alternatives like AMA or CSE. We’ve chosen the five most widespread styles for this guide so that you can have all the rules in one place and see the tiny differences between them for more precise writing.

Here, you’ll find the book title writing guidelines for these styles:

• APA (the American Psychological Association)
• MLA (the Modern Language Association)
• Chicago, aka CMOS (the Chicago Manual of Style)
• CSE (the Council of Science Editors)
• AMA (the American Medical Association)

We also recommend using an AI essay checker to revise your papers and reference lists once your drafts are ready. Whatever style you use to cite sources, this will help ensure that your text doesn’t look AI-generated. (Believe us, your teachers won’t appreciate it.)

APA is the documentation style that the American Psychological Association uses for citing sources. Originated in 1929, this form of writing is standard for social sciences like psychology, communications, sociology, and anthropology. Sometimes, it also relates to engineering, nursing, education, and other corresponding fields.

APA addresses manuscripts for journals and the academic papers students write in college. It’s the most popular and common citation style for the essays your teachers will assign during a course.

The latest version is APA Style’s 7th edition, released in 2020.

When it comes to formatting the title of a book in an essay, APA style’s requirements are easy to remember. Take a look:

MLA is a citation style created by the Modern Language Association and is mainly used in humanities like linguistics, literature, philosophy, and cultural and media studies. It’s the second most used style (after APA), with the most recent manual released in 2021 (the 9th edition).

The manual focuses on the formatting rules for in-text citations, which most users find challenging. It also has expanded guidelines on research papers, grammar mechanics, and inclusive language.

Here’s how to write a book title in an essay, according to MLA:

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is more common for published works than college papers. Many see it as the top one for writers, editors, and publishers to follow when formatting content. Unlike APA or MLA, Chicago style provides two methods for documenting sources:

• Author-date , recommended for works in the physical, natural, and social sciences. It requires using parenthetical citations in the text, with a corresponding entry on the reference page.
• Notes-bibliography , recommended for works in humanities and some social sciences. It requires using numbered footnotes in the text, with a corresponding shortened citation at the bottom of the page and a fuller citation on the reference page.

The author-date system is similar to APA style and, thus, more common for college essays. When in-text, you mention the author, the date, and the page number (if applicable) in parentheses after the quotation. Like this:

• Enlightenment thinkers, such as Kant, believed in the “universal, eternal, and … immutable qualities of all of humanity” (Harvey 1990, 12).

We can almost hear you asking:

“Can you write my essay in this format?”

Yes, we can. Whenever necessary, ask our academic expert for help with your written assignments. When asking your question, provide detailed requirements, including the citation style you need, so that they know what formatting rules to follow.

Below, let’s explore how to put a book title in an essay in CMOS:

Previously known as CBE (the Council of Biology Editors), this style provided formatting guidelines for the editors of biology journals. Today, we know it as CSE (the Council of Science Editors), and it includes many scientific fields in the life sciences, the physical sciences, and mathematics.

As with CMOS, CSE style recommends two systems for documenting sources:

• Citation-sequence , listing sources on a reference page according to the order of their appearance in the document.
• Name-year , which is similar to the author-date system used in Chicago and APA.

The complete guide is available in Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (8th ed.) by the Council of Science Editors. Below, we’ll explore how to write a book title in an essay according to this citation style.

AMA stands for the American Medical Association, so it’s a standard citation style in medicine. While it’s less popular than APA or MLA, we’ve decided to include it in this guide anyway, given that medical students might find it helpful.

Is AMA citation the same as APA?

Not quite. While sharing some nuances, the core difference between these two citation styles is that AMA doesn’t use an author-date system in the text. Instead, we use a superscript numbering system here. Like this:

• “Smith² argues that….”

Also, unlike APA, AMA style doesn’t organize the reference list alphabetically, but numerically, based upon the order of the sources’ appearances in the text.

How to write the title of a book in an essay when you use AMA style:

How to Format a Book Title in an Essay

Long story short, most citation styles agree on using the same format for book titles in essays: capitalized, italicized, and with no underlining or quotation mark (unless you write about a book’s chapter or a shorter work like an article, an essay, or a poem within a more extensive work).

Speaking of underlined titles:

When googling information on how to write a book title in an essay, you can find questions from people wondering if they need to underline titles in papers. It’s an old-time practice from when essays were written by hand: You can’t italicize when handwriting, so you underline a title to distinguish it.

Check any book review sample online, and you’ll see that underlining isn’t a common practice anymore.

How to format a book title in an essay in your reference list:

So, How Do You Write the Title of a Book in an Essay?

Now that you’ve read our detailed guide on how to write a book title in an essay, let’s recap:

• Read the guidelines from your teacher before writing: What citation style do you need to follow?
• Check the manual for your assigned style (APA, MLA, or any other) to ensure that you format the book titles and author names correctly.
• Most citation styles (except for CSE) tell you to italicize and capitalize book titles in essays. Nevertheless, proofread carefully to avoid mistakes with the formatting of prepositions, punctuation, and subtitles.

Are you looking for a title for your next paper? Get help from our essay title generator : Give it several keywords on your topic, and get relevant and creative titles that hook your readers.

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