DEALING WITH TITLES IN MLA FORMAT
by Dr. Harold William Halbert

The conventions of properly marking a title in MLA style can seem confusing, but the basic issues deal with 1) capitalization and 2) marking the title.

Capitalization:

The standard conventions for capitalizing a title in MLA style are straightforward:

• The first letter of every word is capitalized except for articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.
• Articles ("a," "an," and "the"), coordinating conjunctions ("for," "and," "nor," "but," "or," "yet," and "so"), and prepositions (words such as "on," "above," "below," "to," "throughout," etc.) are NOT capitalized.
• The first word is always capitalized, regardless of if it is an article or preposition.

Note that sometimes writers encounter titles that do not follow these conventions while conducting research. Databases often capitalize the entire title of an article or book, while other types of "styles" (like the AP style or the APA style) only capitalize the first word. You must change the capitalization of the title to MLA style if you reference the title of a work in your paper.

Marking the Title:

There are three possible ways to mark a title: the use of italics, quotation marks, or no mark at all. The following general rules of thumb may help writers conceptualize the difference between the three demarcations:

• Italicize large works or works that contain other works.
• Use quotation marks on shorter works.
• Do not mark sacred texts or political documents such as laws, acts, treaties, or declarations.

The following chart offers specific types of texts and their demarcations:

Note that underlining and italics signify the same type of mark when writing by hand. MLA style requires italics, though, when typing.

Your Own Title:

Your own title for papers and other writings should follow the MLA rules on capitalization. Do not use italics, underlining, or quotation marks on it. Instead, it should appear centered one single-spaced line below the identification information and one single-spaced line above the first line of the paper. Do not increase the font size.

Titles in Titles:

If a title contains another title within it, confusion can occur. Follow the following rules to avoid confusion:

• An underlined title in an underlined title requires that the line be removed from internal title (example: Understanding The Sun Also Rises).
• A quoted title inside a quoted title requires the use of single quotation marks around the internal title (example: "The Dandy in Cather's 'Paul's Case'").