Apply the container principle when deciding whether to italicize titles or use quotation marks. Italicize complete works, such as books, films, and albums. Use quotation marks for shorter works within them, such as chapters, songs, and TV episodes.
The distinction is usually whole work versus part of a work, not length alone. This separates long works from short works. However, your required style guide can change the treatment, especially in reference lists. Start with the paired examples below, then apply the rules for your assignment or publication.
Key Takeaways
- Books, films, magazines, newspapers, albums, and TV series usually take italics.
- Articles, essays, short stories, short poems, chapters, songs, and individual episodes usually take quotation marks.
- MLA, APA, and Chicago differ in some details. Author-date reference lists, for example, omit quotation marks around article and chapter titles.
Capitalization is a separate decision. A title can use title case or sentence case while still requiring italics.
Italics or Quotation Marks? A Quick-Reference Table
These paired examples show the usual distinction in American academic writing.
| Complete work: use italics | Shorter work: use quotation marks |
|---|---|
| Book: The Hobbit | Chapter: "An Unexpected Party" |
| Short-story collection: Dubliners | Short story: "Araby" |
| Epic poem: The Odyssey | Short poem: "The Raven" |
| Album: Abbey Road | Song: "Here Comes the Sun" |
| TV series: Friends | Episode: "The One Where Everybody Finds Out" |
| Podcast series: Serial | Episode: "The Alibi" |
| Magazine: The Atlantic | Article: "The Case for Reparations" |
| Essay collection: Notes of a Native Son | Essay: "Notes of a Native Son" |
The collection and essay in the last row share a name, but their formatting identifies which work you mean.
For television shows, series names appear in italics while individual episode titles take quotation marks.
Newspaper and magazine titles also take italics: The New York Times and National Geographic. Their individual magazine articles take quotation marks.
As the title-of-source guidance explains, independent works and their containers take italics; works within larger publications take quotation marks.
An ebook doesn't become a short work because you read it on a website. Format the title according to the work's identity, not the screen displaying it.
Films, Art, Music, and Named Vessels
Italicize complete creative works
Full-length films, plays, operas, paintings, and sculptures generally take italics. Examples include Jaws, Hamlet, La Traviata, Mona Lisa, and The Thinker.
Book-length works and epic poems also generally take italics. By contrast, a short poem in a collection takes quotation marks.
Named ships and individual aircraft take italics too: the Titanic and the Spirit of St. Louis. Keep descriptive prefixes outside the italics, as in RMS Titanic.
Vehicle brands and models remain plain: Ford Explorer and Boeing 747.
Distinguish musical titles from descriptions
Song titles take quotation marks even when you hear them outside an album. Write "Here Comes the Sun," but italicize its album, Abbey Road.
Distinctive titles of substantial musical works generally take italics. However, a musical designation consisting of a type, number, and key stays in plain text: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor.
Length alone doesn't settle the question. A symphony's descriptive designation doesn't become italic simply because the performance lasts an hour.
How MLA, APA, and Chicago Handle Titles
MLA: retain the whole-work distinction
This format uses italics for independent works and quotation marks for works inside them, both in prose and Works Cited entries.
A book entry looks like this:
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. T. Egerton, 1813.
An article or chapter title instead appears in quotation marks before its italicized container title.
The style uses title case for English-language titles throughout Works Cited. Our MLA title case rules explain which words receive capitals, including short verbs and subordinating conjunctions.
APA: separate running text from references
The style does not put every title in quotation marks in running text. Its italics and quotation marks guidance distinguishes italicized book titles and periodicals from quoted article and chapter titles.
In its reference list, article and chapter titles, including journal articles, take neither quotation marks nor italics. Book titles remain italicized:
Austen, J. (1813). Pride and prejudice. T. Egerton.
The manual's reference-entry rules also distinguish a work's title from its source. Books and articles use sentence case there, while journal names retain title case.
Our APA book-title capitalization guide covers that capitalization split.
Chicago: follow the category-specific rules
Chicago broadly follows the same complete-work versus shorter-work distinction. It also puts fairy tales and nursery rhymes in quotation marks.
Freestanding pamphlets, maps, and comic strips generally take italics. Chicago's italics and quotation marks guidance addresses additional cases.
Once you choose a required guide, apply its rules throughout. Don't combine humanities article formatting with author-date reference capitalization.
How to Format Titles Within Titles
Inside a quoted title, preserve the inner work's treatment
A book or film title remains italicized when it appears inside a double-quoted article title. The outer quotation marks identify the article; the italics identify the complete work mentioned within it.
If the inner title also requires quotation marks, use single quotation marks inside the outer double marks.
For example, an article title mentioning the Game of Thrones episode "The Winds of Winter" would put single quotation marks around 'The Winds of Winter.' The series title would remain italicized.
Inside an italicized title, use quotes or reverse italics
A shorter work mentioned inside an italicized book title takes double quotation marks, as in "The Landlady" and Other Short Stories.
When an italicized title contains another title that would normally take italics, the inner title generally switches to roman, or nonitalic, type. This is called reverse italics.
American English normally starts with double quotation marks. Many British styles start with single marks and use doubles inside them. Our MHRA title formatting guide covers that British academic convention.
Punctuation Around Titles
Don't add commas just because a title is quoted
A quoted title isn't automatically a spoken quotation. Its place in the sentence determines whether commas belong around it.
Correct: We discussed "The Lottery" in class.
Incorrect: We discussed, "The Lottery," in class.
However, commas can belong around a title when the grammar requires them: Her favorite story, "The Lottery," prompted a lively discussion.
In American English, commas and periods normally go inside closing quotation marks. British styles often use a more logical placement based on whether the punctuation belongs to the quoted material.
Keep question marks and exclamation points attached correctly
When a question mark or exclamation point belongs to an italicized title, italicize that punctuation too: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
When the punctuation belongs to your sentence, keep it outside the title's italics:
Have you read Pride and Prejudice?
The same distinction governs quoted titles. Write: Did you enjoy "The Lottery"?
Here, the question mark belongs to your question, so it sits outside the quotation marks.
Titles That Usually Take Neither
Sacred texts, legal documents, and acronyms
Write the Bible, the Qur'an, and the Tanakh without italics or quotation marks when referring to those sacred texts generally. Their individual books, such as Genesis and Deuteronomy, also normally remain plain.
A particular published edition can have a title that follows ordinary book-title rules.
The U.S. Constitution likewise takes neither italics nor quotation marks. Legal statutes, acts, and legal cases follow specific capitalization conventions, but don't take italics or quotation marks.
Acronyms such as FBI and NAACP remain plain as well. They name organizations rather than creative works, so their capital letters don't call for additional title formatting.
Course names and your own paper title
Formal course names usually take capitals without italics or quotation marks: Introduction to Psychology and English Composition II. Generic references remain lowercase: a psychology course.
Your paper's title, displayed at the top of the paper or on its title page, doesn't ordinarily need quotation marks or italics. Student-paper titles in author-date formats are bold; standard humanities paper titles normally use plain type.
However, a work named within your title keeps its usual formatting. A paper title discussing Hamlet still italicizes the play's name.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I can't use italics?
In handwritten work, underline titles that would ordinarily take italics. Underlining was also the standard substitute on typewriters that couldn't produce italic type.
In plain-text systems, follow the assignment's or publication's fallback convention. Don't automatically replace every italicized title with quotation marks, because that erases the distinction between books and shorter works.
When italics are available in a word processor, use them rather than underlining.
Do websites, webpages, and playlists follow the same rule?
Under traditional humanities guidelines, a named website generally takes italics, while an individual page or article takes quotation marks. However, author-date reference formatting treats many standalone webpages differently from periodical articles.
A playlist isn't an album, so its formatting doesn't follow automatically from the album rule. Some editorial styles place playlist names in quotation marks. The songs within the playlist retain their own quoted titles.
What about titles in PowerPoint slides?
A slide heading doesn't need quotation marks or italics merely because it's a heading. Your presentation's title also follows the presentation's design and any required academic format.
However, titles of works mentioned on a slide retain their normal treatment. Italicize The Great Gatsby, but put "The Raven" in quotation marks.
Use the required citation style for your references slide rather than carrying over formatting chosen only for visual emphasis.
Choose the Work Type, Then Apply Your Style
The most reliable starting point is complete work versus shorter work: a book takes italics, while its chapter usually takes quotation marks.
Then account for your required style and the title's location. Running text, reference entries, and your own headings can follow different rules. Keeping those contexts separate makes title formatting much easier to apply consistently.