Do You Italicize Book Titles? MLA, Chicago Manual, and APA Rules (Examples)

Whether you are writing a book, a business blog, a research paper, or a magazine article, staying true (and consistent) to grammar and style is extremely important. It makes the entire article/ manuscript consistent and reading easy!

But with so many styles and style guides around, losing track is very common. This is especially true when you are writing titles – of books, stories, poems, chapters, and more – in your articles. Don’t you wonder whether you should underline the book titles, put them in italics, write them in quotation marks, or follow the traditional capital letter style? Well, we all do, and we often find ourselves hovering over different options, completely unsure of which one to choose.

So, should you italicize book titles or underline them?

The general rule says, always italicize book titles, if they are long and complete work. This keeps them distinct and makes them easily recognizable, especially when you are mentioning a book within your content. Italicizing also helps the reader to understand that this particular book is separate from the rest of the work they are reading. However, short titles – of poems, stories, articles, and chapters are often written in quotation marks.

For example:

Long title: Have you read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust?

Short title: Grab your copy of “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.

Now, this sometimes, can get very confusing and can put your writing all over the place. So when you are stuck between a right and a wrong, always follow the rule of thumb – How you write book titles in your work is a matter of choice (style). It is not governed by any grammarian law. There is no single source that governs how you must handle titled works and mostly depends on the style guide your publication is following – APA, Chicago, MLA, or any other.

So ask your editor his/ her preference and stick to it across your content. After all, consistency is the key to turning your writing into the most professional-looking copy.

In this article, we’ll help you learn the styling parameters that different style guides follow while writing book titles:

MLA rules for italicizing book titles

MLA stands for Modern Language Association – a United States-based society that styles manuals for students and scholars across the world. The MLA Handbook follows a particular style for documenting book titles, in the text as well as at the end of the article. As per the MLA style guide:

Titles that are independent and self-contained are italicized.

Structure	Author’s last name, First name. Title of the Book. Publisher, Year of publication.
Examples	Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Random House, 1952Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballards. London: Oxford U.P., 1967. Print.

If the book title has a subtitle, the subtitle is italicized and separated by a colon (:).

Structure	Author’s last name, First name. Title of the Book: Subtitle. Publisher, Year of publication.
Example	Stanley, Jean B. The Message: Living Happy-Joyous-and Free: Legacy of the Twelve Steps. Heartfelt Books, 1995.

Titles that are contained in larger works (e.g., short stories, chapters) are put in quotations.

Structure	Last Name, First Name. “Title of Essay.” Title of Textbook, edited by Editor Name, Edition, Publisher, Year, page range.
Example	Roberts, Edgar V. “Beginning Writing.” Writing About Literature, edited by John Connolly, 13th ed., Longman Publishing, 2012, pp. 120-35.

However, when it comes to series titles, the MLA rules are a little confusing. In MLA, if a series title forms a part of the book title, then it is italicized. Otherwise, it is left in plain text. For example, the ‘Twilight Saga’ is a series title that you won’t italicize because it is not the tile of the book. But Harry Potter (a series title) you will italicize because it also forms a part of the title.

For example:

Godfrey, Wyck., et al. The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Two-disc special ed. [Los Angeles, CA], Summit Entertainment, 2010.
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1998.

Chicago Manual of style rules

The Chicago Manual of Style is another widely accepted and used citation system. It is used across various disciplines like the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and more. It has its own style for citing books, titles, and full-length and freestanding works. If you want to follow the Chicago Manual of Style while formatting your book titles, here are some points to remember:

Always italicize and capitalize the titles of your full-length, freestanding works. These include books, magazines, journals, blogs, research papers, and more.

Structure	Author’s Last Name, First Name. Year of Publication. Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher’s Name.
Example	Stephen, Andres P. 2010. The Environmental Sustainability Revolution: The Paradigm Shift. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Bown, Deni. 1988. Aroids: Plants of the Arum Family. Portland: Timber Press.

Online book citation also follows the same format.

Structure	Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. Year of Publication. Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher’s Name. URL or DOI or Database or eBook Format.
Example	Roberts, Wendell. 2002. From Farm to the Table: Farming, Food, and Fun. New York: Clear Light Publishers. Kindle.

Chapter titles are always written in quotations and are not italicized.

Structure	Author’s Last Name, First Name. Year of Publication. “Chapter Title.” In Title of Book: Subtitle of Book, edited by Editor First Name Last Name, page numbers. Place of Publication: Publisher’s Name.
Example	Roberts, Jacobs E. 2014. “Bringing Ideas to Life.” In Literature: Hope Versus Reality, 114-127. 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton.

APA style guide rules

The American Psychological Association (APA) is one of the most common and widely used reference styles. It is mostly used as a citation style for books and manuals written in the field of social sciences, psychology, sociology, and more. It has its own set of rules for in-text and reference list citations. But when it comes to italicizing the books’ titles, the rules are pretty similar.

Though in the APA, italicizing is kept to the bare minimum, long book titles, periodicals, webpages, reports, and standalone work are all italicized.

Structure	Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of book. Publisher.
Example	Gaiman, N. (1996). Neverwhere. HarperCollins.

Chapter titles in the APA are neither italicized nor written within quotes; the book titles however are. Also, the name of the chapter’s author is written in the first position.

Structure	Chapter Author’s Last Name, F. M. (Year published). Chapter title. In F. M. Editor’s Last Name (Ed.), Title of book (Xrd ed., pp. x-x). Publisher location: Publisher.
Example	VandenBos, G. R. (1992). The APA Knowledge Dissemination Program: An overview of 100 years. In Rand B. Evans (Eds.). The American Psychological Association: A Historical Perspective (5th ed., pp. 263-281). New York, NY: Wills.

7th Edition rules

The seventh edition of the APA is the latest edition and its purpose is to help students, scholars, and researchers write and communicate more effectively. Some of the biggest changes brought by the APA in its seventh edition include:

The first letter (of the first word) of the title is capitalized.
If there is a colon (:) in the title, the first letter after the colon is also capitalized.
Proper names in titles are always capital
Titles of books, magazines, journals, and newspapers are always italicized.
Titles of articles or book chapters are not italicized.
The title of the webpage is always italicized.
The publisher’s location is no longer included in the reference.

When to Italicize Book Titles

As you could see, when it comes to writing book titles, a common rule applies across all styles (barring a few exceptions). So, if you are not following a particular citation style that asks you to do otherwise, this is a general rule that you can easily fall back on:

Always italicize the titles of self-contained, independent work: books, albums
Always italicize the titles of large books, like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Always italicize magazine names, like The New Yorker
Always italicize newspapers, like The New York Times

Italicizing titles creates a visual hierarchy and helps a reference source stand out from the rest of the text.

When to Avoid Italicizing Book Titles?

While most book titles should be italicized, there are some exceptions to the rule:

Short titles or titles of smaller works are not italicized. These include titles of short stories, poems, and chapters.
The title of the series is not italicized. For example, while you would italicize Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, you would not highlight the Harry Potter Series.
Holy Books like The Bible and Quran, along with their sections, are not italicized.
Headlines and course titles are also not italicized.

Do You Underline Book Titles?

No, we do not underline book titles. Underlining is an old formatting style that was once extensively used to emphasize certain words, phrases, and titles. But today, due to the availability of extensive formatting options, underlining has lost its mark and is not used as a preferred formatting option.

However, if you are writing with a medium that does not offer the option to italicize, you may underline the text to emphasize it.

Do You Quote Book Titles?

Books, magazines, newspapers, and series all comprise many smaller parts, like a short poem, a chapter, a short story, and an episode. When citing these small pieces of work, we prefer writing them in quotation marks.

For example:

The teacher read a story titled “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl.

I missed the last episode of “Shaun the Sheep”.

Susan is reading “The Fellowship of the Ring” from the Lord of the Rings.

Do You Italicize Book Series Titles?

While italics are used to emphasize book titles, trilogies and book series titles are only capitalized, not italicized.

What About Children’s Book Titles, Do Those Get Italicized?

Children’s books in style guides get the same treatment as other authored books. That is, titles of full works are italicized but short titles of poems, short stories, articles, or chapters are put within quotation marks. Also, in addition to the author’s name, they also include the illustrator’s name.

Sources

Inside this article

Tags:

italicizing

Fact checked:
Content is rigorously reviewed by a team of qualified and experienced fact checkers. Fact checkers review articles for factual accuracy, relevance, and timeliness. Learn more.

About the author

Dalia Y.: Dalia is an English Major and linguistics expert with an additional degree in Psychology. Dalia has featured articles on Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Grammarly, and many more. She covers English, ESL, and all things grammar on GrammarBrain.