Formatting Titles
Essential Question
How do we point out a title in writing?
Grammar in the World
What Do I Know?
What do you already know about how to indicate a title in writing? Use this interactive exercise to find out.
Building Blocks
Grammar is a complex system and structure of language. Mizzou Academy Grammar Lab spotlights one skill (or block) at a time, but it’s often helpful to see how a skill works together with other, related blocks to build the language structure as a whole. You may find the following resource topics helpful as context for this lesson:
Learn About Formatting Titles
Italics or Quotation Marks?
Formatting titles in writing is an important way to show when you are referring to recognized titles of works. Without the proper format, your readers may not be able to tell the difference between a book and an everyday reference.
In general, we use italics to indicate the titles of longer works. We use "quotation marks" to show the titles of shorter works.
| Use Italics | Use “Quotations Marks” | Examples |
|
Books |
Book Chapters |
Last night, I read the chapter titled, “An Unexpected Party” in my favorite book, The Hobbit. |
|
Magazines |
Magazine Articles |
We learned some great tips from National Geographic Traveler for our upcoming trip in “48 Hours Hanoi--the Best of a City in Two Days.” |
|
Websites |
Website Pages |
Visit “Find a Course” on Mizzou Academy to learn more about courses you might be interested in taking. |
|
News Publications |
News Publications Articles |
USAToday just published “The Top Movies Releasing This Holiday Season” if you’re looking for something fun to do. |
|
Albums |
Songs |
They love to dance to "Irreplaceable" from Beyoncé's album B'Day. |
|
Plays |
Acts in Plays |
A strange mix of romance and violence fills “Act III” of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. |
|
TV Shows |
TV Episodes |
You have got to watch the I Love Lucy classic and hilarious episode, “Job Switching.” |
|
Anthologies |
Short Stories |
If you want something spooky to read, try “The Tell-Tale Heart” in Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Anthology of Short Stories & Poems. |
|
Anthologies |
Poems |
I read Mary Oliver’s poem “Song for Autumn” every October. |
|
Films |
-- |
One of my favorite book-to-screen adaptations is The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. |
|
Paintings |
-- |
Some day, I would love to see Henry Ossawa Tanner's famous painting, The Banjo Lesson. |
|
-- |
YouTube Videos |
My niece watches “Baby Shark Dance” on YouTube at least three times a day. |
Note: In the past, we underlined the titles of longer works instead of using italics. While it is still technically correct to underline, underlining is considered outdated. It’s best to use italics.
Title Case
Now that you know when to use italics and when to use quotation marks, let’s turn our attention to capitalization.
You are probably familiar with sentence case, which refers to using upper case letters at the beginning of sentences; in every sentence, the first letter of the sentence will be capitalized. Then, there are rules that tell us what else to capitalize, such as proper nouns.
Title case refers to the words in titles that we capitalize. There are some simple rules to follow when writing a title:
Capitalize
- the first word
- the last word
- nouns, pronouns, subordinating conjunctions, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs
- both parts of a hyphenated noun
Do Not Capitalize
- Do not capitalize the second word in hyphenated adjectives or adverbs.
- Do not capitalize articles (a, an, the), prepositions, or coordinating conjunctions.
- Do not capitalize words that have three letters or fewer.
- Do not capitalize the word "to" when used as an infinitive or preposition.
Exceptions
Depending on whether you are using MLA, APA, Chicago, or another citation style, the rules differ regarding "short" vs. "long words."
- Some styles require you to capitalize any word that is four letters or more (even if the word is a preposition or conjunction).
- APA: A Little Book About Little Birds
- MLA: A Little Book about Little Birds
The following examples use APA style guidelines. Always check assignment directions to see which style guidelines you should follow.
|
Yes, Capitalize |
Example |
|
First Word |
The Hate You Give |
|
Last Word |
The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up |
|
Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Adverbs, and Verbs |
Dear Martin |
|
Hyphenated Words |
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |
|
4(+)-Letter words |
Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound |
|
No, Do Not Capitalize |
Example |
|
Hyphenated Adjectives and Adverbs |
The World According to Bob: The Further Adventures of One Man and His Street-wise Cat |
|
Articles (a, an, the) |
This Is the Way It Always Is |
|
Conjunctions (FANBOYS) |
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone |
|
Short Prepositions (by, of, in, etc.) |
The Fault in Our Stars |
|
“To” as an Infinitive or Preposition |
How to Survive Anything |
RESOURCE
The basic rules of formatting titles are fairly easy to remember—capitalize the first and last word of the title, as well as all words except conjunctions, articles, and the word “to.” However, as is usually the case with grammar, the exceptions can be tricky, especially the rules around what to do with shorter vs. longer words.
To help format titles, always check the style guidelines you should follow. Then, use this resource for suggestions: https://capitalizemytitle.com/. Links to an external site. On this site, you can type in the words of your title, choose the style guild you want to use, and view the suggestion of which words to capitalize.
Do I Get It?
Check your understanding of how to punctuate titles in this interactive exercise.
Read each question and choose the best response.