When writing your academic essay, it is necessary to cite the sources of certain information used in your work to avoid plagiarism. Especially, while adding references, it is essential to follow the citation style and format properly. Often, in an academic essay, the book title and author’s name will be mostly written in italics. An underline will be placed under the book title if it is part of a larger work such as journals, articles, and so on. It is tricky to write a book title in an essay because each referencing style such as MLA, APA, Harvard, Chicago, etc., has its own formatting rules. In case, you are confused about how to write a book title in an essay, check this blog post.
Here, you will get a complete idea of how to write a book title in an essay using different citation styles such as MLA, APA, and Harvard. In addition to the standard book title formatting guidelines, we have also shared the major reasons why it is necessary to format the title in an essay correctly.
Explore and update your knowledge!
Different Formats of Writing a Book Title in an Essay
Before jumping to the detailed explanation of how to write a book title in an essay using various writing styles, first, let us see the general rules and ways for writing book titles differently. Make sure to remember all the below-mentioned guidelines to perfectly write a full book title in an essay.
Capitalization
This rule is applicable for essays that are written as well as typed. Usually, based on a writing style like the Modern Language Association, the specific capitalization may change, except for one thing. That is, the first letter of each word in a book title should be capitalized. Ensure that the word length is four letters or more.
Do not use capitalization for minor words that fall under the category of articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions. However, there is an exception; these parts can be capitalized in sentences with quotation marks.
Underlining
This rule is more appropriate for handwritten essays. Especially, while you write a book title in an essay, completely underline all the words after a colon or dash. Remember to highlight all words at once without separation. Including quotation marks, underline all the punctuations.
Quotations
This rule is used when writing the headings of short poems, stories, and articles. In particular, the writing style such as the American Psychological Association suggests using quotation marks around the book title with certain exceptions.
When to Underline or Italicize Book Titles in an Essay?
In general, the answer to this question completely relies on the writing style you use. For instance, underlining is an outdated method that is highly used in handwritten essays. However, some people underline the whole title or only the principal words in a title.
Similarly, using italics also depends on the writing style or the citation format you use. In classic referencing formats like MLA or Chicago, italics will be used. However, it is important to be consistent and follow one particular style for the entire title.
Also read us: How to Write a Hypothesis for a Research Paper
Ways to Write a Book Title in an Essay Based on Citation Styles
You can italicize a book title along with films, plays, periodicals, databases, and other similar sources. For instance, when you write about four short stories, particularly, to mention those four titles, prefer using italics. In case, the title belongs to a series, consider using quotation marks. You will experience this, only when you analyze trilogies like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ or anthologies like ‘Game of Thrones’ in your essays.
Why Should You Use the Correct Format to Write a Book Title in an Essay?
Here, let us look at the major reasons why you should correctly format a book title in an essay using one specific style.
- To maintain consistency.
- For easy and comfortable search. If everything is in one format, the readers can quickly find the book they are searching for.
- To showcase writing skills and knowledge of citation styles.
Guidelines for Writing a Book Title in an Essay
First, let’s start by examining the areas where APA, MLA, and other styles concur on how to write titles in the body of your essay.
- Novels, short tales, collections of poetry, lengthy stand-alone poems, plays, and various other self-contained and independent books have their titles in italics. Examples are John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, etc.
- Enclose the titles of acts or scenes in a play, titles of chapters in novels, titles of short poems, and titles of songs from a collection in “quotes” when it is part of a whole work. For example, consider “The Tyger” from Songs of Experience and “The Knight Bus” from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
- Write the titles of certain parts in an entire work and standalone books in title case: The poem “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” by Emily Dickinson.
- A book’s title may occasionally appear inside of another title (for instance, a monograph about poetry or a novel). If the title stated inside the title is typically italicized in this situation, you should also use italics. “Unbearable Weight of Authenticity: Theory of “Touristic Reading” and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” If the title stated inside the title is typically included in quotation marks, use single quotes rather than double quotations. For instance, it would be “Individualism in O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’.”
Till now, we have seen the general formatting rules of a book title. Next, let us see the specific rules for writing a book title in an essay using referencing styles such as MLA, APA, and Chicago.
How to Write a Book Title in an Essay Using MLA Style
MLA stands for the Modern Language Association. It is one of the common writing styles widely used by academic paper helpers that are written on subjects such as English studies, literature, linguistics, and cultural and media studies.
Especially, when you write a book title in an Essay using MLA style, you should remember to follow these rules.
- In the title, always capitalize the first letter of the first and last word, proper names, subordinating conjunctions (because, although, if, unless), and principal words like nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.
- Italicize the full title.
- Avoid using quotation marks except for text from the Bible.
- Do not capitalize articles, prepositions, to in infinitives, and coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
- Use quotation marks instead of italics only if you write the title alongside the series it belongs to.
Examples
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
How to Write a Book Title in an Essay Using APA Style
APA stands for the American Psychological Association. Like MLA, APA is also one of the popular citation styles that are used predominantly in academia, particularly in social sciences.
When it comes to writing a book title in an essay using APA, there is no big difference from the MLA style. However, here, let us see the book title writing rules of APA style.
- Write the book title in italics.
- For the heading of a chapter or an article, use quotation marks.
- Capitalize the first word of the title as well as other words after a colon or hyphen.
- Do not capitalize articles in the middle of the title, prepositions of three letters or fewer, and conjunctions of three letters or fewer.
- Capitalize proper names, major words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns), and all words of four letters and more (besides, between, except, among, from).
Examples
- “The Confidence-Man” by Herman Melville
- “A Hat Full of Sky” by Terry Pratchett
How to Write a Book Title in an Essay Using Chicago Style
Chicago which is also called CMOS or CMS is yet another influential citation style that is used mostly in academics such as Business Essay Topics, History, and the Fine Arts.
While you write a book title in an essay using the Chicago style, remember to follow these rules.
- Capitalize all the words in a book title, except all prepositions, conjunctions, and articles.
- Write the book title in italics including the text and punctuation.
- Use quotation marks only when mentioning the book alongside the series or referring to a particular character.
Examples
- The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
- “The Audience” is chapter 3 of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
Conclusion
Hopefully, by now, you will have learned how to write a book title in an essay while citing the sources. In case, you struggle to mention the sources in the correct format, reach out to us immediately.
