when mentioning a book title in an essay apa

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Q. How do I refer to a book by title in-text in APA format?

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Answered By: Gabe Gossett Last Updated: Jun 22, 2023     Views: 658490

The basic format for an in-text citation is: Title of the Book (Author Last Name, year).

One author: Where the Wild Things Are (Sendak, 1963) is a depiction of a child coping with his anger towards his mom.

Two authors (cite both names every time): Brabant and Mooney (1986) have used the comic strip to examine evidence of sex role stereotyping. OR The comic strip has been used to examine evidence of sex role stereotyping (Brabant & Mooney, 1986).

Three or more authors (cite the first author plus et al.): Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy (Clare et al., 2016) depicts a young man's experience at the Shadowhunter Academy, a place where being a former vampire is looked down upon.OR Clare et al. (2016) have crafted a unique story about a young man's journey to find himself.

No author: Cite the first few words of the reference entry (usually the title) and the year. Use double quotation marks around the title of an article or chapter, and italicize the title of a periodical, book, brochure, or report. Examples: From the book Study Guide (2000) ... or ("Reading," 1999).

Note: Titles of periodicals, books, brochures, or reports should be in italics and use normal title capitalization rules.

If you are citing multiple sources by multiple authors in-text, you can list all of them by the author's last name and year of publication within the same set of parentheses, separated by semicolons.

Example: (Adams, 1999; Jones & James, 2000; Miller, 1999)

For more information on how to cite books in-text and as a reference entry, see the APA Publication Manual (7th edition) Section 10.2 on pages 321-325 .

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Comments (13)

• This was very useful for me! I was having a really hard time finding information on how to mention an article title AND the author in text in APA so this was very helpful!!! by Ryan Waddell on Jun 27, 2019
• If I just mention that I used a book to teach a topic do I have to include it in the reference list? by Franw on Oct 17, 2019
• @Franw, if it is a source that informs your paper in any way, or if your reader would have reason to look it up, then you should include a full reference list entry for the book. by Gabe [Research & Writing Studio] on Oct 18, 2019
• Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question, but I think the OP is asking how to refer to a book title, not how to cite one. I believe APA uses quotation marks around book titles and MLA uses italics. by AB on Dec 12, 2019
• @AB: The first sentence has been tweaked to clarify title of book usage, reflecting the examples given. For APA style you should use italics for book titles. It would be quotation marks. by Gabe [Research & Writing Studio] on Dec 12, 2019
• Hi, can any one help me with in-text-citation of this, how can i cite it in the text Panel, I. L. (2002). Digital transformation: A framework for ICT literacy. Educational Testing Service, 1-53. by Milad on Aug 20, 2021
• @Milad: In that case it would be (Panel, 2002). If you are quoting, or otherwise choosing to include page numbers, put a comma after the year, then p. and the page number(s). by Gabe Gossett on Aug 20, 2021
• Hey, I'm a little bit curious, what if I'm mentioning a book and paraphrasing it but still want to give credit. Would I put the information into parenthesis instead? Like: Paraphrased info. ("Title in Italics" Author, year) by Kai on Sep 14, 2023
• @Kai: Apologies for not seeing your question sooner! (Our academic year has not started yet). If I am understanding your question correctly, what I suggest is referring to the book title in the narrative of your writing, rather than in the in-text citation. I do not see an examples of using a book title in an in-text citation except for rare circumstances including citing a classic religious text or using the title when there is no author information because it is the start of your reference list entry. Basically, APA's in-text convention is supposed to make it easy for your reader to locate the source being cited in the reference list. So the first part of the in-text citation, usually authors, comes first to locate it alphabetically. Putting the book title first when you have an author name can throw that off. by Gabe Gossett on Sep 21, 2023
• Perhaps this is along the lines of the response to Kai - Can you reference a book title as a common point of social understanding to demonstrate a common concept? Is official citing required if you use widely known titles such as "Where's Waldo" and "Who Moved My Cheese?" to make a point of illustration? by Chez Renee on Sep 30, 2023
• @Chez: Aside from some classical religious texts, if it is a published book, I'd try to make sure that it is appropriately cited for APA style. That said, I think I understand where it gets tricky with things like Where's Waldo, since that is a series of books and stating "Where's Waldo" is a cultural reference many people would understand, though you can't reasonably cite the entire series. I don't believe that APA gives guidance for this particular issue. If it is being referred to in order to back up a claim, it would help to cite a particular book. If not, then it might work to use a statement such as, "Hanford's Where's Waldo series . . ." by Gabe Gossett on Oct 02, 2023
• How to cite a dissertation thesis in apa form? by Elizabeth on Feb 05, 2024
• @Elizabeth: For citing a dissertation or thesis you can check out our page answering that here https://askus.library.wwu.edu/faq/153308 by Gabe Gossett on Feb 05, 2024

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• APA citations and formatting

Writing A Book Title In Your Essay – The Right Way

Table of contents

• 1 APA Style: How to Write Book Titles in Essays
• 2 APA Style Essay: Writing The Name of The Author
• 3 MLA Style Essay: Citing a Book Title
• 4 Chicago Style Essay: Writing the Book Title
• 5 Writing Various Types of Titles
• 6 Should We Underline or Italicize Book Titles?

When you are writing an academic essay , the book title and author’s name should be written in italics. However, if the book title is part of a larger work (such as a journal article), it should be underlined instead. So, you’re wondering how to write a book title in an essay?

Writing an essay with a book title can be tricky, particularly because each style guide has its own formatting rules for including titles in the main text. Whether you are using MLA, APA, Chicago, or Harvard referencing styles, you will need to consider how to properly format the book title. For more complicated literature-based assignments, seeking assistance from an admission essay writing service may be wise, as they specialize in writing essays that incorporate academic sources.

In this article, we will explore how to write both titles in an essay properly so that you avoid any mistakes!

APA Style: How to Write Book Titles in Essays

When writing an essay, you must follow the style guide provided by your professor. Some teachers may require you to use APA style and others MLA style. There are some rules on how to quote a book title in an essay. You should use italics and quotation marks when writing book titles in essays. For example: “ The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. “

When writing a book title in APA Style , you should be aware of these rules:

Write the book title in italics and place it after the author’s name, which is presented in reverse order (last name first).

Use quotation marks around the headline of a chapter or article.

Capitalize proper names that are not common nouns (names of people, places, organizations), but do not capitalize words such as “and,” “or,” “to,” or “and/or.”

Do not capitalize prepositions that appear at the beginning of titles if they are followed by an article (e.g., “A,” “An”), but do capitalize prepositions at the beginning of titles if they are not followed by articles (“Of”).

The first word of the headline should be capitalized, as well as any other words after a colon or hyphen. For example, “The Elements of Style: Grammar for Everyone”  or “Theories of Personality: Critical Perspectives.”

Capitalize proper names and words derived from them (e.g., the names of people, places, organizations), except proper nouns used generically (e.g., ‘a bed’).

APA Style Essay: Writing The Name of The Author

You should always use the full name and surname of the author in your APA essay because this will give proper credit to the writer. If you do not mention the author’s full name, people may not know who wrote what and will think you copied it from somewhere else. This will cause lots of problems for you and your reputation as well.

Make sure that all authors’ names appear in the same format in each entry. For example, if one person’s surname is Smith and another’s is Jones, both have first names starting with “J.” It may seem like they are being cited as different people when they’re actually written differently from each other on separate pages in your paper.

To write an APA essay without any issues, there are certain rules that you need to follow while writing an author’s name in APA essay:

• Use only one author’s name in your paper unless there are multiple authors
• If there are multiple authors, then use both their last names followed by the initials of their first names
• Only use initials of first names when there are three or more authors; otherwise, use full names with their last names

Example: Johnson, M.C., Carlson, M., Smith, J. N., & Hanover, L. E.

MLA Style Essay: Citing a Book Title

Now let’s discuss how to mention a book in an essay. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition, published by the Modern Language Association (2014), contains detailed rules about how to cite a book title in an essay.

The following guidelines will instruct you on how to refer to a book in an essay in MLA style :

• List your sources at the end of your paper, before the works cited page or bibliography.
• Use italics for titles of books, magazines, and newspapers, but not for articles within those publications, which should be placed in quotation marks.
• Include all relevant book information under two categories: “title” and “author.” In the former category, include the work’s title and its subtitle if there is one; do this even if neither appears on your title page (see below). In the latter category, include only primary authors who have written or edited an entire book; if there are multiple contributors, you should cite them separately under each.

The general format for citing the title of the book in an essay is as follows:

Author’s last name, first initial (Date). Title of Book with Subtitle if there is one. Publisher Name/Location of Publisher; Year Published

Chicago Style Essay: Writing the Book Title

One of the most important things to remember when writing in Chicago style is how to write the title of a book in an essay. To write a good book title in an essay, you should follow these steps:

• Write it at the beginning of your sentence.
• Capitalize it just like any other noun or proper noun.
• Put a comma after the title unless it’s an introductory clause or phrase. For example: “The Firm,” by John Grisham (not “by”) and “The Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D Salinger (not “and”).
• In addition to the book’s name, punctuation marks should also be italicized.

For example: Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince: Children’s Edition

Writing Various Types of Titles

Now that we covered how to write a book title and author in an essay, it’s time to look at some different types of titles. When you write a book title in an essay, several things must be considered. Whether it’s a book, series, chapter title, editor’s name, or author’s name, how you write it depends on where it appears in your paper.

Here are some key rules for writing headings for novels:

•  Use capital letters to write the title of the novel. For example,  The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett .
• Use italics and capital letters to write the name of the author and his/her other works mentioned in a book title—for example,  Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) .

You should use quotation marks when writing headings of short title poems, articles, and stories.

However, before deciding which format to use, it is important to understand the main idea you want to express in your essay. Additionally, you could use essay papers for sale to help you accomplish your goal of writing an essay effectively.

Should We Underline or Italicize Book Titles?

It depends on which style guide you use. The Modern Language Association and Chicago Manual of Style both suggest using italics, while the American Psychological Association suggests using quotation marks with a few exceptions.

The way you write the title of a book in an essay is different depending on the instructions you were given. For example, if you’re writing an essay in APA style, use quotation marks around the book’s name. If you’re writing for MLA or Chicago style , however, italicize the book’s name instead. If you’re writing a handwritten essay instead of using a computer, capitalize and underline the book’s name.

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• APA Style - 7th edition
• Specific Rules for Authors & Titles

APA Style - 7th edition: Specific Rules for Authors & Titles

• Basic Information

Rules for Writing Author and Editor Information

Rules for writing titles.

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There are certain things to keep in mind when writing the author's name according to APA style. Authors may be individual people, multiple people, groups (institutions or organizations), or a combination of people and groups. 

• You must include all the authors up to 20 for individual items. For example, if you are using an article that has 19 authors you must list them all out on your reference page. 
• Use initials for the first and middle names of authors. Use one space between initials.
• All names are inverted (last name, first initial).
• Do not hyphenate a name unless it is hyphenated on the item.
• Separate the author's names with a comma and use the ampersand symbol "&"  before the last author listed.
• Spell out the name of any organization that is listed as an author.
• If there is no author listed, the item title moves in front of the publication date and is used.

An item that you use may have an editor instead of an author or in the case of audiovisual materials a writer or director.

• For editors follow the same rules above and put the abbreviation (Ed.) or (Eds.) behind the name(s). 
• For audiovisual materials follow the same rules as above and put the specialized role (Writer) (Director) behind the name. 

Zhang, Y. H.  (one author)

Arnec, A., & Lavbic, D. (two authors)​

Kent State University (organization as author)

Barr, M. J. (Ed.). (1 editor)

Powell, R. R., & Westbrook, L. (Eds.). (2 editors)

here are certain things to keep in mind when writing a title according to APA style.

• Book titles are italicized and written using sentence case (only the first word of a title, subtitle, or proper noun are capitalized).
• Book chapter titles are written using sentence case and are not italicized.
• Journal titles are italicized and written using title case (all the important words are capitalized).
• Article titles are written using sentence case and are not italicized.
• Webpages and websites are italicized and written using sentence case.

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (book title, American Psychological Association is a proper noun so it is capitalized)

Student perspective of plagiarism (book chapter title)

Internet plagiarism in higher education: Tendencies, trigging factors and reasons among teacher candidates (article title, Tendencies is the first word of a sub-title so it is capitalized)

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (journal title)

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• Last Updated: Jul 14, 2023 4:23 PM
• URL: https://libguides.library.kent.edu/apa7

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Book/Ebook References

Use the same formats for both print books and ebooks. For ebooks, the format, platform, or device (e.g., Kindle) is not included in the reference.

This page contains reference examples for books, including the following:

• Whole authored book
• Whole edited book
• Republished book, with editor
• Book published with new foreword by another author
• Several volumes of a multivolume work

1. Whole authored book

Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000

Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst . Penguin Books.

Svendsen, S., & Løber, L. (2020). The big picture/Academic writing: The one-hour guide (3rd digital ed.). Hans Reitzel Forlag. https://thebigpicture-academicwriting.digi.hansreitzel.dk/

• Parenthetical citations : (Jackson, 2019; Sapolsky, 2017; Svendsen & Løber, 2020)
• Narrative citations : Jackson (2019), Sapolsky (2017), and Svendsen and Løber (2020)
• Provide the author, year of publication, title, and publisher of the book. Use the same format for both print books and ebooks.
• Use the copyright date shown on the book’s copyright page as the year of publication in the reference, even if the copyright date is different than the release date.
• Include any edition information in parentheses after the title, without italics.
• If the book includes a DOI, include the DOI in the reference after the publisher name.
• Do not include the publisher location.
• If the ebook without a DOI has a stable URL that will resolve for readers, include the URL of the book in the reference (as in the Svendsen and Løber example, which is from the iBog database, where ebooks are referred to as “internetbooks”). Do not include the name of the database in the reference.
• If the ebook is from an academic research database and has no DOI or stable URL, end the book reference after the publisher name. Do not include the name of the database in the reference. The reference in this case is the same as for a print book.

2. Whole edited book

Hygum, E., & Pedersen, P. M. (Eds.). (2010). Early childhood education: Values and practices in Denmark . Hans Reitzels Forlag. https://earlychildhoodeducation.digi.hansreitzel.dk/

Kesharwani, P. (Ed.). (2020). Nanotechnology based approaches for tuberculosis treatment . Academic Press.

Torino, G. C., Rivera, D. P., Capodilupo, C. M., Nadal, K. L., & Sue, D. W. (Eds.). (2019). Microaggression theory: Influence and implications . John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119466642

• Parenthetical citations : (Hygum & Pedersen, 2010; Kesharwani, 2020; Torino et al., 2019)
• Narrative citations : Hygum and Pedersen (2010), Kesharwani (2020), and Torino et al. (2019)
• Use the abbreviation “(Ed.)” for one editor and the abbreviation “(Eds.)” for multiple editors after the editor names, followed by a period. In the case of multiple editors, include the role once, after all the names.
• If the ebook without a DOI has a stable URL that will resolve for readers, include the URL of the book in the reference (as in the Hygum and Pedersen example, which is from the iBog database). Do not include the name of the database in the reference.

3. Republished book, with editor

Watson, J. B., & Rayner, R. (2013). Conditioned emotional reactions: The case of Little Albert (D. Webb, Ed.). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. http://a.co/06Se6Na (Original work published 1920)

• Parenthetical citation : (Watson & Rayner, 1920/2013)
• Narrative citation : Watson and Rayner (1920/2013)
• The book by Watson and Rayner was originally published in 1920. It was edited by Webb and republished in 2013.
• Sometimes an authored book also credits an editor on the cover. In this case, include the editor in parentheses without italics after the book title.
• Provide the year of the republication in the main date element of the reference. Provide the year of original publication at the end of the reference in parentheses after the words “Original work published.”
• Both publication years appear in the in-text citation, separated with a slash, with the earlier year first.

4. Book published with new foreword by another author

Kübler-Ross, E. (with Byock, I.). (2014). On death & dying: What the dying have to teach doctors, nurses, clergy & their own families (50th anniversary ed.). Scribner. (Original work published 1969)

• Parenthetical citation : (Kübler-Ross, 1969/2014)
• Narrative citation : Kübler-Ross (1969/2014)
• Use this format when a person other than the original author has added a new part to the work, such as a foreword or introduction.
• Provide the author of the whole book in the main author element of the reference. Then provide the name of the person who wrote the foreword, introduction, or other new part, in parentheses, after the word “with.” In the example, Byock wrote a new foreword to the book by Kübler-Ross.
• When citing the main book, include only the name of the book author in the in-text citation.
• Parenthetical citation of foreword : Workers in the medical community should “listen to the people who need our help and respond with all the knowledge and skill we can bring to bear” (Kübler-Ross, 1969/2014, foreword by Byock, p. xv).
• Narrative citation of foreword : Byock stated that Kübler-Ross’s (1969/2014) work “challenged the authoritarian decorum and puritanism of the day” (p. xii).

5. Several volumes of a multivolume work

Harris, K. R., Graham, S., & Urdan T. (Eds.). (2012). APA educational psychology handbook (Vols. 1–3). American Psychological Association.

• Parenthetical citation : (Harris et al., 2012)
• Narrative citation : Harris et al. (2012)
• Provide the name(s) of the editor(s)-in-chief as the editors of the work, even if the volume editors are different.

Book/ebook references are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Section 10.2 and the Concise Guide Section 10.2

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources / How to Cite a Book Title in APA, MLA or Chicago

How to Cite a Book Title in APA, MLA or Chicago

When writing a book title in the text, not the references, most academic style manuals require title-style capitalization and italics. For example, they would all format the book title Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in the same way. However, each style manual follows slightly different rules for handling hyphenated terms and subtitles. For details, read the guide below.

Below are the guidelines on how to style a book title following MLA , APA , or Chicago.

• Use title-style capitalization when writing book titles in the text: capitalize the first and last words in the title and any other major words.
• Italicize book titles.
• For example, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary styles the word “rewrite” without a hyphen. So, in the book title  Live Free: Re-write Your Story , lowercase “write” after the prefix “re.”
• Though you don’t typically capitalize articles in titles, do capitalize an article that starts a subtitle. In the above example, capitalize “The” since it starts the subtitle.
• The first word of the title
• The first word of a subtitle
• The first word after a colon, em dash, or other end punctuation in a heading
• Major words
• Any words of four letters or more
• Capitalize the second word in a compound hyphenated term in a title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince .
• For subtitles, capitalize the first word of a subtitle, even if it is a short, minor word. For example, Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart .
• The first and last words in titles and subtitles
• Prepositions, even if they are four letters or more
• to (even as part of an infinitive verb)
• Coordinating conjunctions
• For example, in the book title Live Free: Re-write Your Story , lowercase “write” after the prefix “re.”
• If the title includes a hyphenated spelled-out number or fraction, capitalize the second element (e.g., Catch Twenty-Two ).

If a book title appears in an article title, you style it the same way as described above. So for example, if the article you are citing is called: “Why Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the best book in the Harry Potter series,” you would instead style this as: “Why Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets  is the best book in the Harry Potter series.”

For more info on formatting rules for citation styles, visit our guides listed below:

Chicago guide

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How to Write Book Titles in Essays: APA, MLA, Chicago Styles

It’s your practical and up-to-point guide on how to write a book title in an essay. You’ll get the formatting rules and examples for citing book and author names in academic papers.

We’ve covered the top three citation styles: APA, Chicago, and MLA.

How to Write the Title of a Book in an Essay

First, remember the general rules of citing book names in academic works.

Here’s how to cite books in essays :

• Use capitalization. Every word of a book’s name goes in the title case, except prepositions, articles, and coordinating conjunctions.
• Use italics for longer and independent works. Use double quotations for shorter ones (poems, articles, book chapters, or play acts and scenes).
• Use single quotations for a book’s title within another title. (When citing monographs about literary works, for example.) 

While capitalization rules depend on the citation style, some general tips have a place to be. Please, no capitalization for:

• Articles: a, the (unless the book title begins with it)
• Coordinating conjunctions and prepositions: of, and, or, but, for, to, nor, in, so (unless the book title begins or ends with it)

Subordinating conjunctions (although, unless, because, if) go in capital letters.

How to Write a Book Title in an Essay: APA

APA (American Psychological Association) is the most popular style for citing academic works. It’s common for the social sciences like Education, Psychology, Sociology, and others. The current edition: 7th (2019).

Book titles in APA stand for:

• Italics. (If a book name includes any punctuation, italicize it too.)
• Capitalization. (Capitalize all words longer than four letters , regardless of the part of speech. Also, use capital letters for two-part words and those coming after a dash or a colon.)
• Double quotations instead of italics. (When citing a short work like an article or a poem; when citing a book chapter or when the book is a part of an anthology.)

For example: 

The Lord of the Rings but “The Fellowship of the Ring” (The latter is part of the trilogy.)

Related: How to Cite a Movie in APA Format

How to Write the Name of a Book in an Essay: Chicago

The Chicago Manual of Style is a guide by the University of Chicago. It’s common for fields like History, Fine Arts, and Business. The current edition: 17th (2017).

How to format book titles in Chicago:

• Italicize longer and independent works; put shorter ones in double quotations.
• Use italics for punctuation within a title.
• Capitalize all words except articles (a, the) and ALL prepositions or conjunctions (regardless of length).

For example:

In George Orwell’s 1984 , the author presents a dystopian society characterized by pervasive government surveillance and the suppression of individual freedom. The harrowing events in “Chapter 2,” where Winston Smith begins to rebel against the Party by starting a forbidden diary, mark a pivotal moment in the novel’s exploration of resistance against totalitarianism.

The style resembles the MLA format, but it’s flexible, allowing you to “break the rules if necessary.”

How to Write a Book Title in an Essay: MLA

MLA format stands for the Modern Language Association. It’s common for humanities like Literature, Culture, Linguistics, etc. The current edition: 8th (2016). 

How to format books in MLA:

• Italicize all words, including punctuation and those of two parts or going after colons and hyphens.
• Capitalize all words except articles (a, the) , prepositions, and short conjunctions within a book title.
• Use double quotations instead of italics when writing a book chapter or a part of a book series.

In Little Women , Beth March dies in Chapter 40, “The Valley of the Shadow.”

Formatting Book Author Names in Papers

Use the author’s full name (first and last) to format it in your essay for proper credit.

If a book has two authors, use both last names and initials. For works with three or more authors, use the last name of the first one and add “et all.”

No need to italicize author names in papers.

Why Properly Cite Book Titles in Essays

The short answer:

You won’t get a high grade for an essay. Formatting blunders count as mistakes.

The longer answer:

• You prove writing skills and an understanding of the rules in academia.
• Your papers maintain consistency. It’s critical to stick to criteria to prevent confusion. The consistent format for book headings also serves to better scannability and readability.
• You learn to cite different types of references for your future projects.

Do you italicize book titles?

Yes, you put book titles in italics. Please italicize long and stand-alone works: books, movies, webpages, reports, or music albums. Shorter works’ titles (articles, essays, poems, songs, or book chapters) come in quotations. (1)

Do you underline book titles?

Underlining book titles is an outdated practice. Some still use it in handwritten essays, but it’s not a must-follow rule. Neither APA nor MLA (or Chicago) mentions underlining book names in academic papers.

How to use book title capitalization in texts?

Capitalize every word in a book’s title. Exceptions are articles (a, the), prepositions, and short (three or fewer letters) conjunctions in mid-titles.

Are books italicized in all formatting styles?

Yes, book titles come in italics in all styles: APA, MLA, and Chicago. When citing book chapters or a book as a part of a series, use quotation marks instead.

How to write a book author in an essay?

Use the author’s full name when citing their book in your papers. For works with several authors, mention their last names and initials. Unlike book titles, author names come in standard formatting with no italics.

References:

• https://english.csuci.edu/resources/essay-writing-essentials.htm
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How to Write a Book Title in an Essay in MLA & APA Styles

Learn how to properly cite book titles in your essays using MLA & APA styles. Discover guidelines for writing book titles in essays with ease.

Rijvi Ahmed

Last updated on Mar 14th, 2024

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In academic writing, attention to detail is paramount, especially when it comes to writing essays. An often overlooked aspect is how to properly incorporate book titles into text, a seemingly simple thing that can lead to confusion if the task is not done properly.

Whether you follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) or American Psychological Association (APA) approach, an understanding of how to write a book title and how a book’s title is structured is essential to the clarity and coherence of your writing. 

In this guide, we will explore the complexities of a book title for inclusion in an essay according to the MLA-APA method. By the end, you will have a clear understanding of the guidelines for each process along with practical writing tips for ensuring that your essays meet proper editorial standards.

So let’s embark on this journey to demystify the process of writing book titles in essays, and ensure that your academic writing shines with professionalism and accuracy.

Importance of Properly Formatting Book Titles in Essays

Properly organizing book titles into essays is a seemingly mundane part of academic writing, but its importance cannot be overstated. Every aspect, from enhancing readability to supporting scholarly integrity, emphasizes the central role of formalization in academic discourse.

By adhering to established formatting guidelines, whether MLA, APA, or other academic styles, authors ensure a clear and cohesive presentation of their work, allowing readers to focus on the content rather than being swallowed up by inconsistent policy 

Properly formatted book titles serve as signposts, guiding readers to the sources of information and ideas, thereby facilitating further exploration and engagement with the scholarly conversation.

By maintaining these standards, writers uphold the principles of academic honesty and integrity, protecting the credibility of their work and contributing to the advancement of knowledge in their respective fields.

From increasing readability and clarity to supporting and inclusive scholarly integrity, each piece emphasizes the critical role of coherent organization in academic discourse. Through organizational guidance that is established in compliance, writers not only demonstrate their attention to detail and commitment to professionalism.

General Rules When Writing a Book Title in an Essay

When incorporating a book title into an essay, whether you’re following MLA, APA, or another citation style, there are general rules to adhere to for clarity and consistency. Here are some overarching guidelines:

1. Italicization vs. Quotation Marks : Determine whether the citation style you’re using requires book titles to be italicized or enclosed in double quotation marks. In MLA style, for instance, book titles are italicized, while in APA style, they are enclosed in double quotation marks. Be sure to follow the specific requirements of your chosen citation style.

2. Punctuation : Regardless of the citation style, book titles should be punctuated properly. This means using appropriate punctuation marks such as commas, periods, question marks, or exclamation points within or after the title, depending on the context of your sentence.

3. Capitalization : Follow the capitalization rules prescribed by your citation style. Typically, capitalize the first word of the title, as well as any proper nouns or adjectives. However, lowercase all other words unless they are proper nouns or adjectives.

4. Consistency : Maintain consistency throughout your essay in how you format book titles. Whether italicized or enclosed in quotation marks, ensure that you apply the chosen formatting consistently each time you reference a book title within your text.

5. In-text Citation : Provide an in-text citation whenever you reference a book title within your essay. This citation typically includes the author’s last name and the publication year, enclosed in parentheses. Consult the guidelines of your citation style for specific formatting requirements for in-text citations.

6. Reference List or Works Cited : At the end of your essay, include a reference list (APA) or works cited page (MLA) that provides full bibliographic details for all sources cited in your essay, including book titles. Format the entry for each book title according to the guidelines of your chosen citation style.

7. Accuracy : Double-check the spelling and formatting of book titles to ensure accuracy. Incorrectly formatted titles or typographical writing errors can detract from the professionalism and credibility of your essay.

By following these general rules, you can effectively integrate book titles into your essay while maintaining clarity, consistency, and adherence to the conventions of your chosen citation style.

What Are MLA & APA Styles

Two well-known citation formats used in academic writing are MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association). Both styles provide guidelines for formatting various elements of a paper, including citations, references, and formatting of titles, such as book titles within essays.

In MLA style, book titles are generally italicized within the body of the essay. This means that when referring to a book title within the text, it should be italicized to distinguish it from the surrounding text. Additionally, MLA style typically requires authors’ names and page numbers to be included in in-text citations for direct quotations or paraphrased information.

On the other hand, APA style follows slightly different conventions for formatting book titles in essays. According to Wikipedia, APA style (also known as APA format) is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books. In APA style, book titles are not italicized; instead, they are enclosed in quotation marks. Similarly to MLA style, APA requires authors’ names and publication years to be included in in-text citations for direct quotations or paraphrased information.

Understanding these differences is essential for properly formatting book titles in essays according to MLA and APA styles. While both styles aim to maintain consistency and clarity in academic writing, they have distinct rules regarding the formatting of book titles. 

Adhering to the specific guidelines of each style ensures that your writing meets the expectations of scholarly standards and effectively communicates your ideas to readers.

How to Write a Book Title in an Essay in MLA Style

Writing a book title in an essay in MLA style requires attention to detail and adherence to specific guidelines to maintain consistency and accuracy. Whether you’re discussing a classic novel, a contemporary work of fiction, or a scholarly publication, correctly formatting the book title is essential for conveying your ideas effectively. Let’s explore the steps for properly formatting a book title in an essay according to MLA style:

1. Italicize the Title : One of the fundamental rules in MLA style is to italicize the title of the book when mentioned within the body of the essay. Italicization serves to differentiate the title from the surrounding text and emphasizes its importance to the reader. For instance:

– In “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee explores themes of racial injustice and moral growth.

2. Use Title Case : When writing the title of the book, capitalize the principal words, including nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. Articles, conjunctions, and prepositions are generally not capitalized unless they are the first or last word in the title or part of a hyphenated word. Here’s an example:

– “The Catcher in the Rye” remains a classic coming-of-age novel.

3. Include Author’s Name : It is customary to include the author’s name when introducing the title of the book in your essay. This provides essential context for the reader and acknowledges the author’s contribution to the work. Typically, the author’s last name is sufficient, especially if it’s clear from the context which work is being referenced. For example:

– In “Beloved” by Morrison, the legacy of slavery haunts the characters’ lives.

4. Format In-Text Citations : When quoting directly from the book or paraphrasing its content, it’s crucial to include an in-text citation following MLA guidelines. The citation should include the author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken. For instance:

– (Hemingway 22) or (Smith and Johnson 45)

5. Titles Within Titles : If the book you’re discussing contains a title within its title, such as a collection of essays or short stories, follow specific formatting rules. Italicize the title of the larger work and enclose the title of the smaller work in double quotation marks. Here’s an example:

– In “The Norton Anthology of English Literature,” the essay “Shakespeare’s Women” examines the portrayal of female characters in his plays.

By adhering to these guidelines, you can effectively integrate book titles into your essays under MLA style. Consistency and accuracy in formatting not only enhance the professionalism of your writing skills but also demonstrate your commitment to scholarly standards and integrity.

How to Write a Book Title in an Essay in APA Style

Writing a book title in an essay according to APA style necessitates adherence to specific formatting conventions to ensure clarity, consistency, and compliance with academic standards. Here’s a comprehensive guide detailing the steps involved:

1. Punctuation and Enclosure : Book titles must be enclosed within double quotation marks. This distinguishes them from other texts in the essay and signals to readers that they are referring to the title of a specific work. For instance, if you’re discussing the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” within your essay, it should be presented as “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

2. Capitalization : When formatting book titles in APA style, capitalize the first word of the title, as well as any proper nouns or adjectives. However, all other words in the title should be lowercase unless they are proper nouns or adjectives. For example, the book title “The Catcher in the Rye” follows this capitalization pattern.

3. Italicization vs. Quotation Marks : Unlike MLA style, which mandates italicization for book titles, APA style requires book titles to be enclosed in double quotation marks. This distinction is crucial for adhering to APA guidelines accurately.

4. In-text Citation : Whenever you reference a book title within your essay, it’s essential to provide an in-text citation to acknowledge the source. This citation typically includes the author’s last name and the publication year in parentheses. 

For example, you might write, “In the novel ‘1984’ (Orwell, 1949)…”

5. Reference List Entry : After your essay, you must include a reference list that provides comprehensive bibliographic details for all sources cited in your work. When listing a book in the reference list, include the author’s last name followed by their first initial, the publication year in parentheses, the book title in italics (or within double quotation marks if it’s an article or chapter within a larger work), the publication location, and the publisher’s name. Here’s an example of a book reference list entry:

Orwell, G. (1949). 1984. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

By meticulously following these guidelines, you can effectively integrate book titles into your essay according to APA style, ensuring accuracy, professionalism, and adherence to academic conventions.

In conclusion, correctly formatting a book title within an essay is essential for maintaining consistency and adhering to the guidelines set forth by MLA and APA styles. Remember to italicize the title in both styles and to capitalize significant words according to the rules of each style guide. 

By following these simple guidelines, writers or authors can ensure their essays are properly formatted, enhancing the overall professionalism and credibility of their work. 

So, whether you’re citing a classic novel or a contemporary bestseller, mastering the art of writing book titles in MLA and APA styles will undoubtedly elevate the quality of your writing.

FAQs: How to Write a Book Title in an Essay in MLA & APA Styles

What’s the importance of correctly formatting book titles in essays.

Accurate formatting of book titles is crucial for academic integrity and professionalism in writing. It demonstrates your understanding of citation styles like MLA and APA and enhances the clarity and organization of your essay.

How do I format a book title in MLA style within an essay?

In MLA style, italicize the titles of books and use title case (capitalize the first letter of major words and any important words in the title). For example, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

What about formatting book titles in APA style?

In APA style, capitalize only the first word of the title, the first word of the subtitle (if any), and any proper nouns. Additionally, italicize the title. For example, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Are there any exceptions to the italicization rule for book titles?

Yes, if you’re writing by hand or using a typewriter where italics aren’t possible, underline the title instead.

How do I reference a book title in-text using MLA and APA styles?

In MLA style, place the author’s last name and the page number in parentheses after the quote or paraphrase. For example, (Fitzgerald 47). In APA style, include the author’s last name and the publication year, separated by a comma, within parentheses. For example, (Fitzgerald, 1925).

Do I need to include the author’s name in the essay when referring to the book title?

Yes, both MLA and APA styles require you to include the author’s name when referring to the book title in your essay. This helps provide context and credit to the original author.

What should I do if the book title contains a subtitle?

In both MLA and APA styles, include the subtitle after the main title, separated by a colon. Capitalize any proper nouns and the subtitle’s first word. For example, “The Great Gatsby: A Novel of the Jazz Age.”

Can I abbreviate book titles in my essay?

It’s generally recommended to use the full title of the book to ensure clarity and accuracy. Abbreviations might lead to confusion, especially in scholarly writing.

Where can I find more detailed guidelines for formatting book titles in MLA and APA styles?

You can refer to the official MLA Handbook or the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for comprehensive guidelines on formatting book titles and other citation-related issues. Additionally, numerous online resources and style guides provide detailed explanations and examples.

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• Mar 14th, 2024
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In academic writing, attention to detail is paramount, especially when it comes to writing essays. An often overlooked aspect is how to properly incorporate book titles into text, a seemingly simple thing that can lead to confusion if the task is not done properly. Whether you follow the Modern Language

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How to Reference a Book – APA Style

• 3-minute read
• 19th September 2015

Getting your references right is one of the toughest parts of writing a paper, especially if you’re not experienced at using different citation systems . One option to ensure quality referencing is to have a professional check your work . But to help out, we’ve prepared this guide on how to reference a book using the APA system.

APA Referencing

The APA system is widely used by colleges, journals and academic publishers, particularly in the social sciences. Its basic format combines author-date citations and a reference list, the latter of which should be organized alphabetically.

Referencing a Printed Book in APA

References for print books use the following format, with the title and subtitle in italics and the first letter in the subtitle capitalized:

Surname, INITIALS (Year). Title: Subtitle . Publisher.

A book with a single author would therefore appear like this:

Author, A. N. (2013). Citing sources: How to use APA style . PMP Publications.

If the author’s name is mentioned in the text, the citation should include the year of publication in parentheses after the author’s name:

As stated by A. N. Author (2013), APA style referencing is truly awesome.

If the author is not mentioned in the text, include their surname in the citation:

APA style referencing is easy once you get used to it (Author, 2013).

Quoting a Book in APA style

When quoting a source, in-text citations should include relevant page numbers. If you have mentioned the author’s name in the text, page numbers should be provided in brackets after the quote:

A . N. Author (2013) claims that “APA referencing changed my life” (p. 40).

If the author’s name isn’t mentioned, give page numbers along with the surname and year after the quoted text:

Find this useful?

Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

According to one expert, “the APA system makes life so much easier” (Author, 2013, p. 271).

Books with Multiple Authors

You reference works by two or more authors in a similar way. For example, a book co-authored by A. N. Author and B. A. Writer would appear in the reference list as:

Author, A. N., & Writer, B. A. (2001). Writing together: The ups and downs of collaboration. PMP Publications.

But for a source with three or more authors, the in-text citation is different. Rather than naming all authors, you simply name the first author and then write “et al.,” which means “and others”:

Two is company, three is a crowd (Smith et al., 1985).

You would then give the names of all authors in the reference list.

Republished Books in APA Style

Finally, if you’re citing a republished or reprinted version of the book, make sure to include both the original date of publication and the date of republication:

The work was later reissued (Smith, 1940/1992).

In the reference list, meanwhile, you will need to include the original date of publication at the end of the reference. For instance:

Smith, B. (1992). Some books live forever: A history of republication . Re-Press Inc. (Original work published 1940)

Expert APA Proofreading Services

Hopefully, this post helps you reference books in APA style. If you’d like to learn how to cite 50+ other source types in APA style, as well as frequently asked questions relating to APA, check out our free online APA guide . Alternatively, if you’d like an APA expert to check your work, discover our APA proofreading services .

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How to Write a Book Title in an Essay (MLA, APA etc.)

Formatting your essay correctly ensures that you get full recognition for the hard work you put into it. Wondering what to do? There are two scenarios that lead you to the question of "how to write a book title in an essay":

• You have not been required to use a particular style guide, in which case consistency remains important.
• You have been instructed to use a particular style guide. You now simply need to ensure that you are familiar with its rules.

Regardless of which of these scenarios holds true for you, this guide is here to help.

How to Write a Book Title in an Essay

Many style manuals call on writers use title case and italics to format a book title. Title case rules vary slightly from one style guide to the next, but generally capitalize all important words — nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adverbs. Conjunctions and prepositions are not capitalized unless they are very long (generally more than four letters) or they appear at the beginning or end of a book title.

Writers who are not required to work with a specific style manual can't go wrong if they stick to this style. Some examples would be:

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals That Protect us From Violence by Gavin de Becker
• The Cat With a Feathery Tail and Other Stories by Enid Blyton

If, on the other hand, you're required to use a style guide, it will likely be one of these:

• MLA, commonly used in disciplines relating to literature and social sciences.
• APA, commonly used in psychology and other sciences.
• Chicago, often used in the publishing industry.
• Harvard style, commonly used in philosophy and social sciences.

These are certainly not the only "big players" in the style guide world, but they're ones it's good to be familiar with. There is overlap between these styles, but there are also major differences — so knowing one definitely does not mean you know the others, too.

Guidelines for Writing a Book Title in an Essay

Looking for a short and sharp answer, so you can get on with the rest of your essay? This is it.

This quick guide will help you reference the book title of your choosing in the body of your essay, but what about your Works Cited pages? Each style guide offers different rules, and we'll use the same book as an example to illustrate the differences.

• MLA uses the following format: Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Book . City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Year. Example: Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. Tor Books, 1985. (You only have to detail the city of publication if the book was published before 1900, the publisher has offices in many localities, or the publisher is not known in the US.)
• APA uses the following format: Author Last Name, First Name. (Year of Publication). Title of book. Example: Card, Orson Scott. (1985). Ender's game.
• Chicago style uses the following format: Author Last Name, First Name. Book Title: Subtitle . Place of publication: Publisher, Year. Example: Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game . Tor Books, 1985.
• Harvard uses the following format: Author Last Name, First Initial. (Publication Year). Title . ed. City: Publisher. Example: Card, O. (1985). Ender's Game. Tor Books.

If, after researching, you cannot find relevant information about publication years, publishers, or the city in which a book was published, you may omit it. For a full guide, it is always best to have a physical copy of the latest edition of the style manual you are using. You can, however, get by without this if you need to.

Should you still not know what to do, it will be helpful for you to know that you can "generate" citations for a particular style manual with the help of online tools like Cite Me . These are not always accurate, so if you decide to use one, always check the citation manually.

Why Is Proper Formatting Important?

All of the well-known style manuals ultimately serve the very same set of purposes, although they were each developed for a particular niche. The goals of these style manuals are both explicit and implicit:

• Following a style guide ensures consistency throughout a document, in this case an essay.
• Consistency ensures that reader's understand precisely what the writer is talking about, without exerting any effort on figuring that out. Clarity is especially important in academic writing.
• By using a style guide within a certain discipline, you show that you understand the rules within that discipline. This adds credibility to your voice as a writer. You have done your homework, have ideally bought the style manual, and are part of the "in group".
• Sticking to a certain style guide makes it easier for relevant parties to check your references, which they can then use to perform further research.

Students are increasingly asked to refer to style guides at all levels, including in high school. In this case, formatting your essay correctly, in accordance with the right style manual, serves two additional purposes:

• You'll lose points if you don't do it right, offering you an additional reason to do your research.
• Getting used to these formats prepares you for further education. If you are in high school, it prepares you for college-level writing. If you are an undergraduate student, it prepares you for academic work at the graduate and post-graduate levels.

Can you start an essay with a book title?

Yes, you can start an essay with a book title. This is a valid stylistic choice, but you will always want to consider your introduction carefully.

How do you write a book title in handwriting?

Students sometimes ask whether it is acceptable to underline book titles instead of italicizing them. This practice indeed stems from a time in which most students wrote their essays by hand. Although it has largely fallen out of practice now, you can still underline a book title if you are handwriting your essay.

How do you write a book title and chapter in an essay?

You should mention the chapter title first: "Rat" from Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Consult the relevant style manual to ensure you get the formatting right.

Can you shorten a book title in an essay?

Yes, you can. Reference the full title the first time you mention it (for example: Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things ). The next time you mention the book, you may simply refer to Furiously Happy .

Related posts:

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• How to cite a book in APA Style (6th edition)

Citing a Book in APA Style (6th Edition) | Format & Examples

Published on November 5, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on January 25, 2024.

A book citation in APA Style always includes the author’s name, the publication year, the book title, and the publisher.

You can use our free APA Citation Generator to generate your APA book citations . Just paste the ISBN or DOI and the generator retrieves all the necessary information.

Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr

Table of contents, basic book citation format, ebooks and online books in apa, citing a chapter from an edited book, multivolume books, where to find the information for an apa book citation.

The APA in-text citation for a book includes the author’s last name, the year, and (if relevant) a page number.

In the reference list , start with the author’s last name and initials, followed by the year. The book title is written in sentence case (only capitalize the first word and any proper nouns). Include other contributors (e.g. editors and translators) and the edition if specified.

Scribbr Citation Checker New

The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

• Missing commas and periods
• Incorrect usage of “et al.”
• Ampersands (&) in narrative citations
• Missing reference entries

To cite a book you accessed online, replace information about the publisher with information about the book’s format and location online.

Books accessed on e-readers

A citation of an ebook (i.e. a book accessed on an e-reader) includes the ebook format in square brackets. Add a DOI where available, and otherwise link to the page where the ebook can be purchased or accessed.

Since ebooks sometimes do not include page numbers, APA recommends using other methods of identifying a specific passage in your in-text citations – for example, a chapter or section title or a paragraph number.

Books accessed online

A book accessed through a web browser (for example, in PDF form or on Google Books) follows a slightly different format:

When citing a particular chapter from a book containing texts by various authors (e.g. a collection of essays), begin the citation with the author of the chapter and mention the book’s editor(s) later in the reference. A page range identifies the chapter’s location in the book:

Citing a single volume

When citing from one volume of a multivolume book, the format varies slightly depending on whether each volume has a title or just a number.

If the volume has a specific title, this should simply be written as part of the title in your reference list entry:

Eliot, T. S. (2015). The poems of T. S. Eliot: Vol. 1. Collected and uncollected poems (Ricks, C., & McCue, J., Eds.). London, England: Faber & Faber.

If the volume is only numbered, not titled, the volume number is not italicized and appears in parentheses after the title:

Dylan, B. (2005). Chronicles (Vol. 1) . New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Citing a multivolume book as a whole

If you refer to the book in general, you may wish to cite the whole thing rather than a specific volume. In this case, individual volume titles are not included even if they do exist:

Eliot, T. S. (2015). The poems of T. S. Eliot (Vols. 1–2) (Ricks, C., & McCue, J., Eds.). London, England: Faber & Faber.

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All the information you need to cite a book can usually be found on the title page and the copyright page:

The APA reference list entry for the book above would look like this:

Butler, C. (2002). Postmodernism: A very short introduction . Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2024, January 25). Citing a Book in APA Style (6th Edition) | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved September 3, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/6th-edition/archived-apa-book-citation/

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Answered By: Adele Georgievski Last Updated: Feb 02, 2024     Views: 8097

APA Citation Style has rules for formatting titles of sources when you refer to them in the body of your essay, and these rules differ from the formatting of titles in the References list citations.

APA 7 rules for formatting titles of sources in the body of your essay

When mentioning titles of stand-alone sources (such as books, journals, videos, etc.) in the body of your essay, you should italicize, write in title case, and not use quotation marks:

• In the book  The Handmaid's Tale , the main character...

When mentioning titles of sources that are part of a greater whole (such as articles, chapters, encyclopedia entries, etc.) in the body of your essay, you should use quotation marks, write in title case, and not italicize:

In the article "The Effects of Stress on New Mothers"...

► For examples of how to format titles in your References List citations, see the Citation Examples on the Seneca Libraries APA Citation Guide .

Other Resources

This example  from the official APA Style Blog has a chart which shows how to capitalize and format titles of works such as a tv series, podcast, artwork, music albums and more !

Please note that this blog post refers to APA 6, however the rules for APA 7 remain the same with the exception of the "Reference List Entry Examples" at the bottom of the post.

MLA 9th rules for formatting titles of sources in the body of your essay

When mentioning titles of stand-alone sources (such as books, journals, videos, etc.) in the body of your essay, you should italicize, use title-style capitalization, and not use quotation marks:

• In the book The Fellowship of the Ring , the main characters...

When mentioning titles of sources that are part of a greater whole (such as articles, chapters, encyclopedia entries, etc.) in the body of your essay, you should use quotation marks, use title-style capitalization, and not italicize:

► For examples of how to format titles in your References List citations, see the Citation Examples on the Seneca Libraries MLA Citation Guide .

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• In APA, how is the in-text citation formatted when referencing an article with no author?
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Q. If I'm naming the title of my source (e.g., a book title) in my text, should I put the title in quotation marks?

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Answered By: Jonathan Faerber (he/him/his) Last Updated: Nov 04, 2021     Views: 7866

APA Style (7th ed.)

The titles of resources seldom appear in text because the important information for your reader is the author's name and what the author said, whereas the title of the resource simply indicates where the information was published. For this reason, the title information is available in the references only. If you think the title of the resource is critical information and therefore needs to be included in your text, please note that authors should "use italics for books, reports, webpages, and other stand-alone works" (p. 170) and "set off the title of a periodical article or book chapter" in quotation marks (American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 158).   For more information on what titles are italicized rather than quoted, please see Use of Italics from the APA Style website and A Tale of Two Reference Formats from the APA Style blog .

American Psychological Association. (2020).  Publication manual of the American Psychological Association  (7th ed.).  https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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Mentioning Titles in Your Writing

• Using Abbreviations
• Capitalization
• Lists of Items Using Bullet Points
• Lists of Items Within a Sentence
• Key Terms and Invented Phrases
• Numbers Format

Writing Details

Sometimes you want to mention the title of a source in the text of your assignment. Different types of sources are formatted differently when referred to in text.

Referring to Stand-Alone Documents in Text

Use italics and Title Case Capitalization for the following stand-alone documents:

• website documents, and
• blog posts.

Both children and adults enjoy Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein .

Documents That Are Part of a Larger Source

Use double quotation marks and Title Case Capitalization for documents which are part of a larger source:

• journal articles,
• newspaper/magazine articles,
• book chapters, and
• dictionary entries.

"How the Hare Lost to the Tortoise: A Review” is a new interpretation of an old fable.

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How to write a book title in an essay: essential guidelines for students

Updated 20 Aug 2024

Unlocking the art of seamlessly integrating book titles in essays is a skill every writer should master. Navigating the intricate landscape of various style guides, such as MLA, APA, Harvard, or Chicago, requires a nuanced understanding of formatting rules. Whether you’re a student aiming for precision in academic writing or an aspiring author looking to enhance your literary prowess, this article will guide you through the nuances of how to write a book title in an essay in different citation styles.

Let’s delve into the subtleties and ensure your book details are written and presented with finesse!

General rules

Crafting a polished essay or writing book report involves well-thought-out content and meticulous attention to formatting, especially when writing book title. Understanding the general guidelines across popular citation styles is essential for presenting your literary references coherently. Discover where all styles agree on how to quote books in essays. 

• Following formatting requirements, self-contained and independent books, spanning genres like novels, short stories, a collection of poems, and plays, share a common trait. Are book titles italicized? Yes, they are. Consider the following masterpieces as prime examples:

• Components within a larger work, such as acts, chapters, scenes, songs, or individual poems, are embraced by quotation marks. In this case, the whole book title in an essay remains italicized. Let’s see some examples:

• When the book's name mentioned within the overarching title is typically formatted in italics, it’s advisable to employ italic letters consistently. So, the overarching title that encompasses the specific book's discussion should also be italicized. 
• If the name of book in essay (poem or novel) referenced within the overarching title typically appears within double quotation marks, it’s recommended to enclose it in single quotation marks instead. Besides, ensure the formatting is consistent throughout your text. If the main title is italicized, remember to maintain this style for the entire heading, including the nested title within quotation marks. If it’s challenging, you may pay someone to do my homework to avoid any inconsistencies in your formatting. Let’s see how these two guidelines can be implemented in the following examples:

• Both stand-alone books and subsections within a larger work adhere to title case capitalization, where major words are capitalized. Consider the following examples:

When considering how to write book titles in essays it's essential to note that capitalization rules can vary significantly between style guides, adding a layer of complexity. Therefore, the path you choose for capitalization should align with the specific style requirements, ensuring consistency and adherence to academic standards. Whether following APA, MLA, or another guide, clarity in title presentation is a key element in elevating the overall quality of your handwritten work.

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How to write a book title in different citation styles: APA, MLA, Chicago, AMA, and CSE 

Navigating the proper formatting of book titles in an essay requires understanding the diverse rules prescribed by various style guides. Whether you’re following the guidelines of the Modern Language Association, American Psychological Association, Chicago Manual of Style, or another specific style, each has unique conventions for presenting the book’s details within your text. In this exploration, we delve into the nuances of formatting an essay body containing book names and emphasize the distinct approaches dictated by different styles.

How to write a book title in an essay in APA style? The rules for indicating the names of books and authors are as follows:

Book titles:

• Italicize all the words and punctuation. Do not underline or place them in quotation marks.
• Capitalize the first word of titles of books in papers, the first word after a colon, and all major words. Avoid capitalizing minor words (e.g., articles, prepositions, conjunctions) unless they are the first word of the name or longer than four letters.
• Always place the book title after the author’s name.

Example: The Great Gatsby .

Author names:

• Write the author’s last name followed by their initials without spaces or periods.
• If multiple authors are indicated in your college papers for sale , separate their names with commas and use an ampersand (&) before the last author’s name.
• If the work has a group or corporate author (e.g., an organization), write the name in full.

Example 1 (single author): Smith, J. A.

Example 2 (multiple authors): Smith, J. A., Johnson, M. R., & Brown, P. S.

Example 3 (group author): American Psychological Association.

Should we italicize or quote book titles according to MLA style? Modern Language Association suggests the following guidelines for academic papers:

• Write the book title in essay in italics. Underlining or placing them in quotation marks is not required.
• Capitalize the first and last words of the title, as well as all major words in between. Do not capitalize minor words unless they are the first or last words of the title or come after a colon.

Example: A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

• Write the author’s full name with the last name first, followed by the first name.
• If there are multiple authors, enumerate them in the order they appear on the title page.
• If the work has a corporate author (e.g., an organization), you can use the organization’s name.

Example 1: Fitzgerald, F. Scott.

Example 2: Smith, John, and Mary Johnson.

Example 3: Modern Language Association.

“Do you italicize authors names in Chicago?” you can ask. Let’s speak about this formatting style. The rules listed in the Chicago essay guide prescribe the following:

• Italicize or underline (older tradition) the titles of larger works, including books. It's more common for readers to see italics in modern Chicago style.
• Capitalize the first and last words of the title, along with all major words in between. Do not capitalize minor words unless they are the first or last words of the title or come after a colon.

Example: Murder on the Orient Express .

• Write the author's full name with the last name first, followed by the first name.
• If there are several writers, indicate them in the order they appear on the title page.

Example 1: Ellison, Ralph.

Example 2: Wood, James, and Mary Jane.

Example 3: University of Chicago Press.

Discover how to quote a book in an essay in AMA. The American Medical Association has specific guidelines for citing and formatting. Here are the rules:

• Use italics for the titles of larger works, including books ─ no need to underline or place them in quotation marks.
• Capitalize only the first word of the title and any proper nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of subsequent words unless they are proper nouns.

Example: The great Gatsby .

• Write the author's last name followed by their initials without spaces or periods.
• If there are multiple authors, use commas to separate them and apply an ampersand (&) before the last author’s name.
• If the work has a group or corporate author, write the name in full.

Example 1: Fitzgerald FS.

Example 2: Smith JA, Johnson MR, & Brown PS.

Example 3: American Medical Association.

The requirements of the Council of Science Editors are similar to the AMA style. If you find them challenging or need clarifications, you may always send us your “write an essay for me” request and get support with your formatting anytime. Let’s see the essential guidelines: 

• Italicize the title of books in essay (here, we mean larger works, not chapters or articles). Do not underline them, and avoid using quotation marks.
• Use capitalizing for only the first word of the title, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon or em dash.

Example: A tale of two cities.

• Write the author's last name followed by a space and their initials, with no commas or periods between the initials.
• If there are multiple authors, use commas to separate them, and use an ampersand (&) before the last author's name.

Example 1: Dickens C.

Example 2: Clark JB, Doe JM, & Anderson KL.

Example 3: Council of Science Editors.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, navigating the intricacies of writing a book title in an essay is an important skill for any writer. By mastering the diverse formatting rules of style guides, you’ll meet academic standards and infuse your work with professionalism. As you embark on your next writing journey, remember that precision matters. 

For personalized assistance and expert guidance in creating argumentative essays, consider EduBirdie as your go-to ally. Elevate your writing experience and achieve excellence with the support of a trusted partner. Take the first step towards impeccable papers ─ choose EduBirdie for your writing success!

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Written by Steven Robinson

Steven Robinson is an academic writing expert with a degree in English literature. His expertise, patient approach, and support empower students to express ideas clearly. On EduBirdie's blog, he provides valuable writing guides on essays, research papers, and other intriguing topics. Enjoys chess in free time.

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APA In-Text Citations and Sample Essay 7th Edition

This handout focuses on how to format in-text citations in APA.

Proper citation of sources is a two-part process . You must first cite each source in the body of your essay; these citations within the essay are called in-text citations . You MUST cite all quoted, paraphrased, or summarized words, ideas, and facts from sources. Without in-text citations, you are technically in danger of plagiarism, even if you have listed your sources at the end of the essay.

In-text citations point the reader to the sources’ information on the references page. The in-text citation typically includes the author's last name and the year of publication. If you use a direct quote, the page number is also provided.

More information can be found on p. 253 of the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Citation Rules

Direct quotation with the author named in the text.

Heinze and Lu (2017) stated, “The NFL shifted its responses to institutional change around concussions significantly as the field itself evolved” (p. 509).

Note: The year of publication is listed in parenthesis after the names of the authors, and the page number is listed in parenthesis at the end of the quote.

Direct Quotation without the Author Named in the Text

As the NFL developed as an organization, it “shifted its responses to institutional change around concussions significantly” (Heinze & Lu, 2017, p. 509).

Note: At the end of the quote, the names of the authors, year of publication, and page number are listed in parenthesis.

Paraphrase with 1-2 Authors

As the NFL developed as an organization, its reactions toward concussions also transformed (Heinze & Lu, 2017).

Note: For paraphrases, page numbers are encouraged but not required.

Paraphrase with 3 or More Authors

To work toward solving the issue of violence in prisons begins with determining aspects that might connect with prisoners' violent conduct (Thomson et al., 2019).

Direct Quotation without an Author

The findings were astonishing "in a recent study of parent and adult child relationships" ("Parents and Their Children," 2007, p. 2).

Note: Since the author of the text is not stated, a shortened version of the title is used instead.

Secondary Sources

When using secondary sources, use the phrase "as cited in" and cite the secondary source on the References page.

In 1936, Keynes said, “governments should run deficits when the economy is slow to avoid unemployment” (as cited in Richardson, 2008, p. 257).

Long (Block) Quotations

When using direct quotations of 40 or more words, indent five spaces from the left margin without using quotation marks. The final period should come before the parenthetical citation.

At Meramec, an English department policy states:

To honor and protect their own work and that of others, all students must give credit to proprietary sources that are used for course work. It is assumed that any information that is not documented is either common knowledge in that field or the original work of that student. (St. Louis Community College, 2001, p. 1)

Website Citations

If citing a specific web document without a page number, include the name of the author, date, title of the section, and paragraph number in parentheses:

In America, “Two out of five deaths among U.S. teens are the result of a motor vehicle crash” (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2004, Overview section, para. 1).

Here is a print-friendly version of this content.

Learn more about the APA References page by reviewing this handout .

For information on STLCC's academic integrity policy, check out this webpage .

For additional information on APA, check out STLCC's LibGuide on APA .

Sample Essay

A sample APA essay is available at this link .

Book Titles in Essays: Formatting Rules and Examples

How do you write the title of a book in an essay?

A short answer: You look at the assignment’s requirements, see the citation style you should use, and go to a corresponding manual to see what rules it prescribes for writing book titles.

That’s when you might hit a snag:

Most rules for the main styles — APA, MLA, and Chicago — seem identical at first glance. It’s easy to miss a preposition or punctuation rule, capitalize a wrong word, or forget about italics. The devil is in the details, and the final grade for your paper depends on them.

Why not gather the formatting rules for all the citation styles in one place so that it’s more comfortable to compare them and spot specifics?

We’ve got you covered:

In this article, our essay writers share the guidelines for citing book titles in five styles. You’ll see how to write a book title in an essay and how to introduce authors. For the sake of clarity, examples are also here.

What is the title of a book in an essay?

You have several options for formatting a book title in your essay.

First, you can mention it in the essay’s body if you are quoting or paraphrasing information from the book. Also, when compiling a bibliography of the resources you used for research, you’ll need book titles for the reference list.

A book’s title and the details of its author are also essential components in the structure of book review . You’ll mention it in the introduction before summarizing a book’s plot, characters, and themes.

How to put book title in essay:

• Use italics
• Don’t underline or use quotation marks, please
• Don’t capitalize minor words like prepositions and conjunctions of three or fewer letters ( a, of, to, the, etc.) unless they are the first or last word in a book’s title

How to write a book title and author in an essay?

Details to consider:

• Is it an in-text mention or part of a reference list?
• Are you writing about an entire book or one of its chapters?
• Does the book have one or several authors?
• Does the book have a subtitle?
• Is it an independent publication or a collection of essays, series, or short stories? Are you introducing a poem in your essay?

The answers to these questions will give you a clear understanding of how to write a book title and author in an essay. The formatting rules will depend on the above factors and the citation style you should follow. (We’ve covered the two main styles —  APA and MLA — in our essay writing book , available on Amazon.)

There are also some general rules to remember, regardless of the style. Let’s move to them and explore the principles of citing book titles inside and out.

How to Introduce a Book in an Essay: General Rules

Here’s what all the styles agree on in terms of how to introduce a book in an essay:

1 — Italicize the titles of self-contained books. If you mention a novel, a movie, a stand-alone poem, a play, a database, or a website, there’s no need to use quotation marks. For example: 

• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
• If by Rudyard Kipling

2 — The titles of parts within a book should go in quotation marks: chapter titles, titles of poems inside a collection, acts or scenes in a play, and so on. For example:

• The Great Gatsby’s “Chapter 5: The Meeting” 
• “The Mirror of Erised” from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

3 — Capitalize both stand-alone book titles and the parts within a complete work. For example:

• The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
• “Sometimes They Come Back” from Stephen King’s Night Shift

4 — When the title of a book goes within another title (like in cases with monographs about novels or poems), you should also use italics for independent works and single quotation marks for short stories and parts of books.

For example, this is how to write the title of a journal article containing the book’s title:

• “The Unbearable Weight of Authenticity: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and a Theory of Touristic Reading.”

And this is how you’d write a journal article title containing the title of a short story:

• “Individualism in O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.'”

When to use a capital letter is the trickiest part of writing book titles in essays. The rules vary between style guides and their editions, which can appear confusing and make it more challenging for students to align with the requirements and ensure consistency.

Below, we’ll explore how to put book title in essay according to five different citation styles: APA, MLA, Chicago, CSE, and AMA.

How to Write the Title of a Book in an Essay: Citation Styles

While most students use APA and MLA citation styles in their academic papers, some institutions also assign alternatives like AMA or CSE. We’ve chosen the five most widespread styles for this guide so that you can have all the rules in one place and see the tiny differences between them for more precise writing.

Here, you’ll find the book title writing guidelines for these styles:

• APA (the American Psychological Association)
• MLA (the Modern Language Association)
• Chicago, aka CMOS (the Chicago Manual of Style)
• CSE (the Council of Science Editors)
• AMA (the American Medical Association)

We also recommend using an AI essay checker to revise your papers and reference lists once your drafts are ready. Whatever style you use to cite sources, this will help ensure that your text doesn’t look AI-generated. (Believe us, your teachers won’t appreciate it.)

APA is the documentation style that the American Psychological Association uses for citing sources. Originated in 1929, this form of writing is standard for social sciences like psychology, communications, sociology, and anthropology. Sometimes, it also relates to engineering, nursing, education, and other corresponding fields.

APA addresses manuscripts for journals and the academic papers students write in college. It’s the most popular and common citation style for the essays your teachers will assign during a course.

The latest version is APA Style’s 7th edition, released in 2020.

When it comes to formatting the title of a book in an essay, APA style’s requirements are easy to remember. Take a look:

MLA is a citation style created by the Modern Language Association and is mainly used in humanities like linguistics, literature, philosophy, and cultural and media studies. It’s the second most used style (after APA), with the most recent manual released in 2021 (the 9th edition).

The manual focuses on the formatting rules for in-text citations, which most users find challenging. It also has expanded guidelines on research papers, grammar mechanics, and inclusive language.

Here’s how to write a book title in an essay, according to MLA:

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is more common for published works than college papers. Many see it as the top one for writers, editors, and publishers to follow when formatting content. Unlike APA or MLA, Chicago style provides two methods for documenting sources:

• Author-date , recommended for works in the physical, natural, and social sciences. It requires using parenthetical citations in the text, with a corresponding entry on the reference page.
• Notes-bibliography , recommended for works in humanities and some social sciences. It requires using numbered footnotes in the text, with a corresponding shortened citation at the bottom of the page and a fuller citation on the reference page.

The author-date system is similar to APA style and, thus, more common for college essays. When in-text, you mention the author, the date, and the page number (if applicable) in parentheses after the quotation. Like this:

• Enlightenment thinkers, such as Kant, believed in the “universal, eternal, and … immutable qualities of all of humanity” (Harvey 1990, 12).

We can almost hear you asking:

“Can you write my essay in this format?”

Yes, we can. Whenever necessary, ask our academic expert for help with your written assignments. When asking your question, provide detailed requirements, including the citation style you need, so that they know what formatting rules to follow.

Below, let’s explore how to put a book title in an essay in CMOS:

Previously known as CBE (the Council of Biology Editors), this style provided formatting guidelines for the editors of biology journals. Today, we know it as CSE (the Council of Science Editors), and it includes many scientific fields in the life sciences, the physical sciences, and mathematics.

As with CMOS, CSE style recommends two systems for documenting sources:

• Citation-sequence , listing sources on a reference page according to the order of their appearance in the document.
• Name-year , which is similar to the author-date system used in Chicago and APA.

The complete guide is available in Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (8th ed.) by the Council of Science Editors. Below, we’ll explore how to write a book title in an essay according to this citation style.

AMA stands for the American Medical Association, so it’s a standard citation style in medicine. While it’s less popular than APA or MLA, we’ve decided to include it in this guide anyway, given that medical students might find it helpful.

Is AMA citation the same as APA?

Not quite. While sharing some nuances, the core difference between these two citation styles is that AMA doesn’t use an author-date system in the text. Instead, we use a superscript numbering system here. Like this:

• “Smith² argues that….”

Also, unlike APA, AMA style doesn’t organize the reference list alphabetically, but numerically, based upon the order of the sources’ appearances in the text.

How to write the title of a book in an essay when you use AMA style:

How to Format a Book Title in an Essay

Long story short, most citation styles agree on using the same format for book titles in essays: capitalized, italicized, and with no underlining or quotation mark (unless you write about a book’s chapter or a shorter work like an article, an essay, or a poem within a more extensive work).

Speaking of underlined titles:

When googling information on how to write a book title in an essay, you can find questions from people wondering if they need to underline titles in papers. It’s an old-time practice from when essays were written by hand: You can’t italicize when handwriting, so you underline a title to distinguish it.

Check any book review sample online, and you’ll see that underlining isn’t a common practice anymore.

How to format a book title in an essay in your reference list:

So, How Do You Write the Title of a Book in an Essay?

Now that you’ve read our detailed guide on how to write a book title in an essay, let’s recap:

• Read the guidelines from your teacher before writing: What citation style do you need to follow?
• Check the manual for your assigned style (APA, MLA, or any other) to ensure that you format the book titles and author names correctly.
• Most citation styles (except for CSE) tell you to italicize and capitalize book titles in essays. Nevertheless, proofread carefully to avoid mistakes with the formatting of prepositions, punctuation, and subtitles.

Are you looking for a title for your next paper? Get help from our essay title generator : Give it several keywords on your topic, and get relevant and creative titles that hook your readers.

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APA 7th Edition Citation Examples

Capitalization, article title, journal title.

• Volume and Issue Numbers
• Page Numbers
• Undated Sources
• Citing a Source Within a Source
• In-Text Citations
• Academic Journals
• Encyclopedia Articles
• Book, Film, and Product Reviews
• Online Classroom Materials
• Conference Papers
• Technical + Research Reports
• Court Decisions
• Treaties and Other International Agreements
• Federal Regulations: I. The Code of Federal Regulations
• Federal Regulations: II. The Federal Register
• Executive Orders
• Charter of the United Nations
• Federal Statutes
• Dissertations and Theses
• Interviews, E-mail Messages + Other Personal Communications
• Social Media
• Business Sources
• PowerPoints
• AI: ChatGPT, etc.

Capitalization: For all sources other than periodical titles (that is, newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals), capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns only. Do not capitalize the rest (see examples below).

All major words in periodical titles should be capitalized (for example, Psychology Today , Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. )

Italics: Titles are italicized for the following items:

• Books and ebooks
• Periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers)
• Websites and web pages
• Dissertations/theses
• Reports/technical papers
• Works of art

Capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns only.

Toughing it out at Harvard: The making of a woman MBA

Use italics and capitalize all major words. 

American Journal of Distance Education

Use italics and capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns only.

Student cheating and plagiarism in the Internet era: A wake-up call

See  Publication Manual , pp. 291-293.

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• Last Updated: Mar 18, 2024 12:55 PM
• URL: https://libguides.umgc.edu/apa-examples

Do I have to cite a book if I'm only mentioning the title?

You can mention the title of a book without needing to cite it on the References page.

• Example: Dr. Seuss wrote many great children's books such as Green Eggs and Ham , The Cat in the Hat , and Horton Hears a Who .
• This does not need a citation.

However , if summing up (or paraphrasing) content or ideas from the book, cite the book and put it on the References page.

• Example:  Dr. Seuss wrote a great children's book, Green Eggs and Ham , that encourages children to eat foods that they have never tried because it could be good and they could like it (Seuss, 1960).
• The book would be listed as a source on the References page.

For examples of citations, go to the  APA Help  guide and click on APA Citation Examples - References & In-Text .

Thank you for using ASK US.  For further assistance, please contact your Baker librarians .

• Last Updated Apr 14, 2023
• Views 27098
• Answered By Baker Librarians

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