Video:MLA Style: How to Punctuate Titles

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Transcript:MLA Style: How to Punctuate Titles

Even the most experienced writers have a problem remembering the proper punctuation for certain types of titles. Books are italicized (or underlined) and articles are put in quotation marks. There are guidelines for punctuating titles according to Modern Language Association (MLA) standards.

Learn the Trick for Memorizing MLA Style Title Punctuation

There is a trick to remembering how to treat titles, and it works well enough that you can commit most types of titles to memory.It's the big and little trick. Big things and things that can stand on their own, like books, are italicized. Little things that are dependent or that come as part of a group, like chapters, are put into quotation marks. Underline any published collection, like a book of poetry. Put the individual entry, like a poem, in quotation marks.

Exceptions to the Title Punctuation Rule in MLA Style

However: a long, epic poem that is often published on its own would be treated like a book. The Odyssey is one example. Individual works of art like paintings and sculptures are underlined or italicized: Michelangelo's David, Mona Lisa, The Last Supper,  The Pieta.

Titles and Names That Should Be Italicized:

• TV Series
• Cartoon series
• Encyclopedia
• Magazine
• Newspaper
• Pamphlet

Titles to Put in Quotation Marks:

• Poem
• Short story
• Skit<
• Commercial
• Chapter
• Article<
• Newspaper story

Some titles are merely capitalized and not given additional punctuation. These include:
Religious works, like The Bible or The Koran Buildings Monuments

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