do you italicize a book title in an essay

Simply put: no. How to handle titles in APA can be a bit complex. APA's Publication Manual (2010) indicates that, in the body of your paper, you should use italics for the titles of: books periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers) films videos TV shows Microfilm publications (p. 104). Beyond APA's specific examples, know that certain types of titles are almost always written in italics.  Use italics in a word-processed document for the types of titles you'd underline if you were writing by hand.  A general rule of thumb is that within the text of a paper, italicize the title of complete works but put quotation marks around titles of parts within a complete work.  The table below isn't comprehensive, but it's a good starting point Titles in Italics Titles Placed in Quotation Marks Title of a periodical (magazine, journal, newspaper)               Title of article in a periodical Title of a book    Title of a chapter in a book Title of a movie or play Name of an act or scene in a movie or a play Title of a television or radio series    Title of an episode within a tv or radio series Title of a musical album or CD Title of a song Title of a long poem Title of a short poem Names of operas or long musical composition Names of paintings and sculptures Title of a short story On an APA-style reference page, the rules for titles are a little different.  In short, a title you would italicize within the body of a paper will also be italicized on a reference page.  However, a title you'd place in quotation marks within the body of the paper (such as the title of an article within a journal) will be written in normal lettering and will not be in quotation marks. Here are some examples: Smith (2001) research is fully described in the Journal of Higher Education. Smith's (2001) article College Admissions See Increase was published in the Journal of Higher Education after his.
Punctuation, Continued Italics and Underlining Italics and underlining generally serve similar purposes. However, the context for their use is different. When handwriting a document--or in other situations where italics aren't an option--use underlining. When you are word processing a document on a computer, use italics. The important thing is to stay consistent in how you use italics and underlining.Italicize the titles of magazines, books, newspapers, academic journals, films, television shows, long poems, plays, operas, musical albums, works of art, websites. I read a really interesting article in Newsweek while I was waiting at the doctor’s office. My cousin is reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer for two different classes. I have every album from Dave Matthews Band, except for Crash. Quotation Marks and Italics/Underlining Exercise In the following sentences put in quotation marks wherever they are needed, and underline words where italics are needed.1. Mary is trying hard in school this semester, her father said.2. No, the taxi driver said curtly, I cannot get you to the airport in fifteen minutes.3. I believe, Jack remarked, that the best time of year to visit Europe is in the spring. At least that's what I read in a book entitled Guide to Europe.4. My French professor told me that my accent is abominable.5. She asked, Is Time a magazine you read regularly?6. Flannery O'Connor probably got the title of one of her stories from the words of the old popular song, A Good Man Is Hard to Find.7. When did Roosevelt say, We have nothing to fear but fear itself?8. It seems to me that hip and cool are words that are going out of style.9. Yesterday, John said, This afternoon I'll bring back your book Conflict in the Middle East; however, he did not return it.10. Can you believe, Dot asked me, that it has been almost five years since we've seen each other?11. A Perfect.
Book titles should always be italicized, unless you are handwriting the essay. In that case you would simply underline the title. One easy way to remember which title should be italicized or put into quotation marks is to think about whether the text is one piece of a larger project or if it IS the larger project. Let's look at some examples: Books, films, music albums, and newspapers are all considered the larger projects. Their titles are italicized. Short stories in a collection, songs on an album, an article in a newspaper, and a chapter in a book are all parts of larger projects and should have their titles put into quotation marks.  When in doubt, simply think about whether your text is part of a larger whole and if you are only citing that one part or if you are citing the whole.
Titles at the top of the page or on the front cover don’t require italics or underlining. Their separation from the rest of the text is already enough to get the reader’s attention. To Kill a Mockingbird Feminism in Shakespeare’s Tragedies What I Did on My Summer Holidays Poems from the Abyss When discussed or quoted within text, titles of long, full-length works should be italicized or – if that’s not possible – underlined. Full-length works are things like novels, plays, epic poems, and text books. Have you read To Kill a Mockingbird? Her dissertation is entitled Feminism in Shakespeare’s Tragedies. What I Did on My Summer Holidays is a banal title for a potentially intriguing story. Andrew’s next book will be called Poems from the Abyss. Shorter works (poems, articles, short stories, chapter titles) should also be italicized, but if that’s not possible, they should be put in quotation marks. The first poem in the book is called Athena’s Birth. Here’s an anthology: find the story called The Sky and the Sea. Did you read that newspaper article, “Shark Eats Man”? Beth March dies in Chapter 40, “The Valley of the Shadow”. If the punctuation is part of the title, include it in the italics or underlining or quotation marks. If it’s not part of the title, make sure it’s outside the italics or underlining or quotation marks. Cathy’s favorite book is Who Has Seen the Wind? Have you been to the theater to see Romeo and Juliet? Does this seem a little straight-forward for English? You’re right: there are exceptions! What happens if you have more than one title? If you have, say, a collection of novels in one book (let’s take, for example, all three Lord of the Rings books in one handy but hefty paperback), the title of the collection would be italicized or underlined, and the titles of the three books would then be put in quotation marks. Lord of the Rings is a very large.
Skip to main content. Search for. Synonym Antonyms Definitions The Classroom » School Subjects » What Kinds of Titles Are Italicized? by Timothy Sexton, Demand Media The titles of long musical compositions are italicized. Related Articles How to Reference a Poem Title in an Essay What Do You Italicize in a Bibliography? Good Titles for an Essay on Literacy Ten Kinds of Essay Writing Writing that involves mentioning titles can be confusing. You must learn when to enclose a title within quotation marks and when to italicize it. Word processors make it easy to italicize, but if you are clinging to the typewriter or writing in longhand, you can show italics by underlining the word. Adding to the confusion of knowing when you should italicize, underline or use quotation marks is that the rules come with some definite exceptions. Books The titles of books should be italicized in most cases. This rule applies to novels, nonfiction books and collections of short stories, essays, or screenplays. When referring to a specific chapter within a book, place the name of the chapter inside quotation marks. The exception to this rule applies to books that are sacred, such as the Bible or Koran, as well as to chapters within sacred books, such as Exodus. In these cases, the title is neither italicized nor placed within quotation marks, but it is capitalized. Poetry The rules regarding italicizing poetry titles can also cause confusion. In all cases, the title of a collection of poetry should be italicized, while the titles of individual poems should be placed within quotation marks. The main confusion arises in the form of individual poems found outside a collection. Titles of short poems are enclosed in quotation marks, but titles of long poems that stand alone as individual works of art should be italicized. Plays, Movies and TV Titles of plays, movies and television shows should.
An Introduction We use italics (characters set in type that slants to the right) and underlining to distinguish certain words from others within the text. These typographical devices mean the same thing; therefore, it would be unusual to use both within the same text and it would certainly be unwise to italicize an underlined word. As word-processors and printers become more sophisticated and their published products more professional looking, italics are accepted by more and more instructors. Still, some instructors insist on underlines (probably because they went to school when italics were either technically difficult or practically unreadable). It is still a good idea to ask your instructor before using italics. (The APA Publication Manual continues to insist on underlining.) In this section, we will use italics only, but they should be considered interchangeable with underlined text. These rules and suggestions do not apply to newspaper writing, which has its own set of regulations in this matter. Italics do not include punctuation marks (end marks or parentheses, for instance) next to the words being italicized unless those punctuation marks are meant to be considered as part of what is being italicized: Have you read Stephen King's Pet Semetary? (The question mark is not italicize here.) Also, do not italicize the apostrophe-s which creates the possessive of a title: What is the Courant 's position on this issue? You'll have to watch your word-processor on this, as most word-processors will try to italicize the entire word that you double-click on.Titles Generally, we italicize the titles of things that can stand by themselves. Thus we differentiate between the titles of novels and journals, say, and the titles of poems, short stories, articles, and episodes (for television shows). The titles of these shorter pieces would be surrounded with double quotation.