For poems without an author, use the title of the poem in the citation and as the start of the entry on the works cited. Prior to computers, people were taught to underline titles of books and plays. Longer works are italicized while shorter works like song titles or an article from a magazine are put in quotes. Titles of full works like books or newspapers should be italicized. Whereas, in the past, some style guides recommended underlining titles, today most prefer italics or quotation marks. When youre writing something by hand, underline the titles that would normally be italicized. Titles to be underlined include the names of books, plays, long poems published as books. Furthermore, italicize or underline any published collection, like a book of poetry.
Title of source mla style guide, 8th edition libguides at indian. Titles of short works like poems, articles, short stories, or chapters should be put in quotation marks. How to include the name of a poem in mla pen and the pad. Poem titles are italicized because they represent a fulllength work. When to use italics, underlining, and quotation marks. How to cite a poem title in mla format pen and the pad. Students commonly use the seventh edition of the modern language association mla guide to cite sources in the humanities, particularly for literature. Format the poems title on the works cited just as you would within the body of the paper, using italics for longer works and quotation marks for shorter. The important thing is to stay consistent in how you use italics and underlining. The general rule is to use italics on book titles, album titles and publication names for a web document or when you are using a word processing tool. Format the poem s title on the works cited just as you would within the body of the paper, using italics for longer works and quotation marks for shorter.
Do i have to underline or book titles in mla essay. Poems, essays, short stories, and articles should be in quotations. Put titles of smaller works poems, articles in quotation marks. Long poems that are often published as standalone books such as epics should be italicized. Basics of mla formatting titles of large works in general. In general, italicize the titles of works published independently. Examples of these titles are poems, short stories, book chapters, and journal. According to the chicago manual of style and the modern language association, titles of books and other complete works, such as newspapers and magazines, should be italicized. Titles of books that form a larger body of work may be put in quotation marks if the name of the book series is italicized. Italicize the titles of magazines, books, newspapers, academic journals, films, television shows, long poems, plays, operas, musical albums, works of. For others, like youtube videos, theyre a little fuzzier.
When citing poetry, remember that, because epic poems tend to be book length, their titles are italicized like book titles. So if abiding by either of those guides, youd italicize stephen kings the shining, just as you would vanity fair and the miami herald and appetite for destruction. U of massachusetts p center for the book, library of congress, 2007. For intext citations, use the authors last name if you have one. Put the individual entry, like a poem, in quotation marks. Whatever kind of media youre working with, examine it through this principle.
Titles of full works like books or newspapers should be italicized, or underlined if italics are not an option. Do you underline or italicize the titles of poems answers. When you are word processing a document on a computer, use italics. These rules apply to titles in the text, in parenthetical citations, and in works cited page entries.
Mla, apa, and chicago guides agree that the use of italics is appropriate for standard book titles. A title is italicized or underlined if italics are unavailable if the. Only the associated press prefers quotation marks for the title of a book, and thats because they do not ever advocate the use of italics. For example, in mla format, the title of a website is italicized when you are citing it. Heres the real scoop on how to handle styling book titles in your writing. Italicize titles if the source is selfcontained and independent. Formatting titles of texts in mla style curo symposium. A collection of essays, stories, or poems by various authors is also a whole unto itself. Therefore, use italics for play titles and quotation marks for titles of poems. However, if someone is writing the title of a book of poetry followed by a list of poems from that book, the title of the book would be considered the fulllength work, and it should be italicized. If it is something handwritten you should underline it instead of using italics. All research papers on literature use mla format, as it is the universal citation method for. For some kinds of media, like book titles, the rules are clear.