Candace Osmond studied Advanced Writing & Editing Essentials at MHC. She’s been an International and USA TODAY Bestselling Author for over a decade. And she’s worked as an Editor for several mid-sized publications. Candace has a keen eye for content editing and a high degree of expertise in Fiction.
You’ve probably asked yourself while writing an essay: Should I italicize a play title or enclose it in quotation marks? What about a song title?
Don’t feel guilty for not knowing the rules for quotation marks or italics in titles. Even the most experienced writers have the same problem.
I’ll show you the basic rules for choosing between quotation marks and italics in titles. This guide features the guidelines of Chicago, MLA, and APA.
Using italics vs. quotation marks in titles depends on your style guide. But the general rule is to italicize long titles, such as titles of books, movie titles, or album titles.
Meanwhile, you must write titles in quotation marks for shorter pieces like musical titles, magazines, TV series, and articles. Note that the AP style does not put magazines, newspaper style, or journals in quotation marks.
Use Italics for titles such as the following:
Here are some examples of italicized works:
The source’s title is usually italicized in a bibliography or reference list entries. But it can also depend on the source type. If you’re citing a journal article, every citation style italicizes the journal title instead of the article.
Use double quotes for the following types of work.
Remember that quotation marks come in pairs, so add both opening and closing quotation marks. Here are some examples where we use friendly quotation marks in titles:
“Big things” include a collection of novels or book series, movies, cartoon series, and other works that can stand independently. We can also consider them as complete bodies of work.
Meanwhile, the “little things” depend on other groups, so we put them in quotes.
Think of a “single” in an album title or a “book chapter” in a book title. Another good example includes “manuscripts” in collections.
Remember that this isn’t a perfect rule. But it helps writers determine whether they should quote or italicize the title of a work.
The grammar rules on italicizing or quoting titles are usually a matter of style. Take a look at the title formats’ differences among style guides.
In the Modern Language Association style guide, a quick rule is to italicize titles that are longer. Experienced writers state that these “longer works” include books, journals, court cases, etc. Ship names and other notable names are also in italics.
But for shorter works like articles and poems, MLA Style Guide recommends you format titles with double quotation marks.
The Chicago Manual of Style goes by the same basic rules as MLA. Titles of major works, such as books, and special names like a ship should be in italics. But place the item in quotation marks for subsections of larger bodies like journal articles, blogs, and book chapters.
According to the APA Style 7th edition, you should use italics for titles like journals, magazines, and newspapers. Books, artworks, webpages, and any other larger body of work also use italics.
However, writers who follow APA use the regular type of format for shorter works. These include essays or works in journal articles and lectures.
There’s a specific type of title that all major style guides have no recommendations for. The following do not use italics or quotation marks for titles:
If you are formatting titles on a website, there’s no need to follow the rules on italics vs. quotation marks. You can go with any more visually appealing style since online web pages are less formal than print materials.
Prioritize the font type, size, and headings when formatting websites and web pages. Make decisions based on what will attract visitors.
If you write using pen and paper, italicizing works can be challenging. Many style manuals recommend underlining the source instead. It’s easier, more practical, and keeps your handwriting legible.
An easy way to remember is that most types of titles are almost always in italics. APA, MLA, and Chicago manuals of style recommend italics for longer works.
I hope this guide on using quotation marks and italics in titles helps you become a better writer.
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