TITLES CAN BE MORE COMPLICATED THAN THEY SEEM.
A common complaint I hear from beginning writers: "I don't get why sometimes titles get underlined and sometimes they get quotation marks. They are both titles, but there're different rules all the time. Novels get underlined and plays get underlined, but poems and webpages get quoted. And then there's music: it's not just quotation marks for musical titles--albums are underlined, while songs are quoted. Why can't it be consistent?"
RULE 1: CAPITALIZE (ALMOST) EVERY WORD IN A TITLE
Most other languages and style guides (APA, Associated Press, Chicago, and so on) only capitalize the first word in the title as well as proper nouns and adjectives that would normally be capitalized in text. However, the Modern Language Association (MLA) requires that all nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and subordinating conjunctions in a title should be capitalized: Infinite Jest, Stop Making Sense, No One Will Be Safe.
Conversely, all articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), to in infinite phrases, and prepositions are only capitalized if they are the first word in the title or subtitle--otherwise, these words remain lowercase: To Have and Have Not, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Man with the Golden Gun, Moon over Buffalo, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.
Conversely, all articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), to in infinite phrases, and prepositions are only capitalized if they are the first word in the title or subtitle--otherwise, these words remain lowercase: To Have and Have Not, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Man with the Golden Gun, Moon over Buffalo, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.
EXCEPTION: MAKESHIFT TITLES
Some texts are not given a title by their author: letters of correspondence, social media posts, and even poems often fall into this category. There works are given makeshift titles consisting of the first sentence or few words of the text itself. In these cases, the title isn't a true title--therefore, the only words that are capitalizes are those normally capitalized in a sentence. For example, Emily Dickinson never titled her poems, so an essay referring the 258th poem in her published anthology would use the makeshift title "There's a certain Slant of light" with only There's and Slant getting capitalized since that is how they appear in Dickinson's poem.
RULE 2: TITLES MUST BE INDICATED BY ITALICS/UNDERLINE OR QUOTES
The following does not apply to your own titles on essays or stories that you write.
Works that are considered complete--typically those that are long--are underlined when handwritten (as it is hard to distinguish italicization in handwriting) and italicized when typed (as underlines indicate hyperlinks). These works include books, newspapers, magazines, comic book series, anthologies of short stories and poems, epic poems, Supreme Court decisions, music albums, operas and other long symphonic compositions, works of art, plays, films, streaming channel, television and podcast series, video games, website names, apps, and web forum. The names of ships, aircraft, and spacecraft are also considered titles even though they are not texts, so the USS Titanic and space shuttle Challenger get italicized.
Works that are considered parts of a greater whole--typically those that are short--are enclosed in quotation marks. These works include book chapters, articles, recipes, comic book issues, short stories, poems, songs, memes, speeches, monologues from plays, film clips, online videos, television episodes, podcast episodes, image or data files, webpages, and social media posts.
The names of products, buildings, or businesses are capitalized but are not considered titles--this means they are never quoted, underlined, or italicized. Foundational documents are also are never quoted, underlined, or italicized: this includes scripture (Bible, Genesis, Torah, Leviticus, Quran), supreme governing documents (Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta, Geneva Convention), and orchestral compositions identified by form, number, and key (Beethoven's Symphony no. 7 in A but not Rhapsody in Blue).
Works that are considered complete--typically those that are long--are underlined when handwritten (as it is hard to distinguish italicization in handwriting) and italicized when typed (as underlines indicate hyperlinks). These works include books, newspapers, magazines, comic book series, anthologies of short stories and poems, epic poems, Supreme Court decisions, music albums, operas and other long symphonic compositions, works of art, plays, films, streaming channel, television and podcast series, video games, website names, apps, and web forum. The names of ships, aircraft, and spacecraft are also considered titles even though they are not texts, so the USS Titanic and space shuttle Challenger get italicized.
Works that are considered parts of a greater whole--typically those that are short--are enclosed in quotation marks. These works include book chapters, articles, recipes, comic book issues, short stories, poems, songs, memes, speeches, monologues from plays, film clips, online videos, television episodes, podcast episodes, image or data files, webpages, and social media posts.
The names of products, buildings, or businesses are capitalized but are not considered titles--this means they are never quoted, underlined, or italicized. Foundational documents are also are never quoted, underlined, or italicized: this includes scripture (Bible, Genesis, Torah, Leviticus, Quran), supreme governing documents (Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta, Geneva Convention), and orchestral compositions identified by form, number, and key (Beethoven's Symphony no. 7 in A but not Rhapsody in Blue).
EXCEPTION: TITLES WITHIN TITLES
Occasionally, texts contain the titles of other texts like this text about the 1942 film Casablanca. The title Casablanca is normally italicized to stand out among regular text, but in this case, the word would stand out more in the italicized title by NOT being italicized. Thus, the title of this book would be properly written as We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Legend and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Film.
RULE 3: TITLES KEEP THE SOURCE PUNCTUATION
Text titles that contain punctuation like commas, hyphens, periods, and the like should have the same punctuation carried over to how the title is written in text. There are only three changes that are commonly made to titles:
- When a title is stylized in all caps, the title should be written in regular sentence case with only the beginnings of words capitalized. A good example is the technology news website Wired: while its page and logo use all caps, the title of the site is not in all caps when written in regular text.
- When the title of a shorter work that needs to be enclosed in quotation marks already has quotation marks in its title, the inner quotation marks become single lines instead of double lines. For example, this 2020 article about a celebrity music project involving the Foo Fighters' song "Times Like These" would be written as "This Foo Fighters 'Times Like These' Mix Is Everything We Need Right Now."
- When a work has a title and a subtitle, the subtitle is offset from the main title with a colon. For example, the title of this 2002 study in human behavior is written as The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. The only time a colon isn't used to set off a subtitle is when the title ends in a question mark or exclamation point--for instance, this novel about finding career happiness that has been a best-seller since 1970 would be written as What Color Is Your Parachute? Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success.
EXCEPTION: TITLES WITH ALTERNATE TITLES
Some texts don't have a subtitle but an additional alternate title. One classic example of this is Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's 1818 horror novel Frankenstein, which she also gave the alternate title The Modern Prometheus. Instead of using a colon like with a subtitle, the primary title is followed with a semicolon, the word or, and a comma--the entire title of Shelley's book is written as Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
Page last updated 16 March 2024.
FURTHER READING
"Titles of Works in Your Prose [2.89]." MLA Handbook. 9th ed., The Modern Language Association of America, 2021, pp. 53--77.