Only use the title of a literary work found in its title page for citations
- use colons to separate the main title from the subtitle unless the main title ends with a question mark, exclamation point, or dash
- include punctuation as it appears on the title page
Capitalize the word in the title if:
- noun
- pronoun
- verb
- adjective
- adverb
- subordinating conjunction
Do not capitalize the word if:
- article adjective
- preposition
- coordinating conjunctions
- to in infinitives
Underline (or italicize) titles if:
- book
- play
- long poem published as a book
- pamphlet
- newspaper/magazine
- film/television program
- compact disc/audiocassette/record album
- ballet
- opera
- long musical composition with its own identifiable name
- painting/sculpture
- ship/aircraft/spacecraft
Use quotation marks for works published within larger works such as:
- newspaper/magazine article
- encyclopedia article
- essay in a book
- short story
- poem
- chapter in a book
- episode of a television program
- song
- lecture
Titles with other titles together
- underline the appropriate titles normally when they appear within quotations
- add single quotation marks around the appropriate titles within quotations
- put quotations marks around appropriate titles that are part of an underlined title
- for a normally underlined title that appears within another underlined title, don't underline the titles that appear within the larger title
Exceptions to all these rules for titles
- sacred writings
- laws and political documents
- musical compositions named by form, number, and key
- series of literary works
- societies
- buildings/monuments
- conferences/seminars/class courses
- words that indicate the divisions of a certain literary work
Subject:
Subject X2:
