Marking Titles
February 15, 2005
A reader asks:
When writing about a short story, do you underline the title of the story or do you use quotation marks around the title of the story?
Quotation Marks:
The most common way to mark a short story title is to enclose it in quotation marks. Titles of newspaper and magazine articles are also enclosed in quotation marks. Here are a few examples:
- "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville
- "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor
- "Mommy Madness" by Judith Warner in Newsweek
Italics or Underlining:
Longer works—novels, magazines, newspapers, movies—are typically underlined or set in italic type. Although either is acceptable, I prefer italics, especially on the web, since an underlined word can be mistaken for a hyperlink.
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Simpsons
- The New York Times
Extra Credit:
I'm not sure why, but The New Yorker puts quotation marks around everything, whether it's a short story or a novel or a television show. I suppose the most important thing is internal consistency. If you use italics for one novel's title, use italics for every novel's title; don't switch to quotation marks or underlining halfway through an article, or even in a different article of the same publication.
Any questions? Post them in the comment form, and I'll answer them as promptly as I can.
Comments (38)
Jill,
As I dig deeper into this issue, I'm finding that the conventions vary depending on where your work is being published.
For many American students and writers of scholarly works in the humanities, the MLA Handbook and MLA Style Manual are the authoritative guides. Their advice is to underline (or italicize) the title of a television show, but to put a show's episode title in quotation marks.
For newspaper and magazine publishing, the Associated Press Stylebook has gained widespread acceptance, though individual publishers often have their own complementary guides. Here's what the AP Stylebook says:
Apply the guidelines listed here to book titles, computer game titles (but not software titles), movie titles, opera titles, play titles, poem titles, song titles, television program titles, and the titles of lectures, speeches, and works of art.
—Put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material.
Feb 25, 2005 ; 10:29 AM
do you underline a song or put it in quotations?
Jan 24, 2006 ; 4:44 PM
Do I underline the title of a play in my essay? or italics, or quotation?
Sep 16, 2006 ; 8:58 AM
Ali, put song titles inside quotation marks.
Sarah, the rule that I learned long ago (and which you probably should double-check) is that one-act and other short plays take quotation marks, but longer plays take italics or underlining. This "rule" is consistent with the distinction between short stories (quotation marks) and novels (italics or underlining).
Sep 26, 2006 ; 11:47 AM
Do you underline a movie title or use quotation mark aroun them?
I read that we use quotation mark around short poems. What do you mean by "short"? How long do you consider "short" ?
Nov 13, 2006 ; 10:38 PM
Do you underline the title of movies or put them in quotation marks?
Nov 27, 2006 ; 9:25 PM
What is the difference between computer games and software? Aren't computer games considered software and if so, do they have to be underlined?
Jan 26, 2007 ; 12:02 PM
Van Anh and mrc, I'm not able to give you a definitive answer to your questions. As you should have read in the entry and in my comment (#2), style guides vary in their rules for formatting titles. Your best bet is to consult the generally accepted style manual for the discipline or field in which you are writing.
Jan 28, 2007 ; 12:56 AM
What about essays? Do they fall into the same category as short stories and articles?
Jan 29, 2007 ; 11:16 AM
Hey, what should I use when sourcing a poem? Quotation marks?
Mar 22, 2007 ; 11:22 AM
Sure, quotation marks will work, unless you're citing an epic poem, in which case italics or underlining would be preferable.
Mar 22, 2007 ; 11:32 AM
What about the title of an art show?
Apr 19, 2007 ; 11:00 AM
do you underline the names of editors or publishing companies?
Apr 29, 2007 ; 3:23 PM
I understand quotes are used for a short story, but what about a collection of short stories?
May 30, 2007 ; 8:12 AM
You can treat a collection of short stories the same way you would treat a novel: Italicize or underline the title.
May 30, 2007 ; 11:46 AM
Do you use italics, quotes or underlining when refering to board games in a newsletter? Specifically: Chess, Snakes and Ladders, Pick Up Sticks, Go Fish.
Thank you.
Aug 1, 2007 ; 4:32 PM
Hi Karen,
The answer is none of the above. All you need to do is capitalize the words.
Aug 2, 2007 ; 12:31 AM
Do you underline the specific name of a store? ex. Johnson's Grocery or Roses and Ribbons?
Aug 6, 2007 ; 11:02 AM
How about TV shows? Underline or quotation marks?
ex. The Tonight Show
Aug 6, 2007 ; 1:19 PM
okay so im writing an essay over poems by walt whitman. would i use quotations or underline the name of one of his short poems in his book leaves of grass?
Aug 12, 2007 ; 6:50 PM
Hello, I ran into your site doing a research on conclusions. I found some of your comments and questions useful. What role do conclusions play in writing? Is there a general rule? Is it an over summary of the story? And is there a wrong way to write them? Anything will be a helpful start.Hope to hear back soon. Thank you.
Sep 20, 2007 ; 6:44 PM
Should you underline the title of a Newsletter when citing it on a webpage or place it in italics?
Oct 22, 2007 ; 3:12 PM
Does the newsletter contain more than one article? If so, treat it the same way you would treat a newspaper: underline or italicize it.
Oct 22, 2007 ; 3:17 PM
Reading the questions and answers has been relly helpful. Thanks!
Nov 3, 2007 ; 12:52 PM
How do you decide whether to capitalize small words like "it "and "is" or "the" in the title of a book etc?
Jan 31, 2008 ; 12:49 AM
In my essay I am unsure if i should use quotation marks or underline the name of a short story
Feb 18, 2008 ; 11:08 AM
What about a band name? Do you use quotations?
I'm writing a story for my class and the sentence is:
As I adjusted my Spice Girls backpack and picked up my Rugrats lunchbox I tried to hold back the tears.
Thanks!
Feb 21, 2008 ; 12:22 AM
Do you underline awards, like Newberry ones, or quote them?
Mar 1, 2008 ; 10:34 AM
Hi. If writing out the title of a chapter in a book do you put it in quotation marks, italicize, or just capitalize?
Mar 5, 2008 ; 2:54 AM
What do I do for the title of an artwork within a quote or block quote? Do I use single quote marks as if it were a quoatation? Or stick with the double?
Apr 2, 2008 ; 3:56 PM
In a novel is it correct to use italics for foreign language words? Please reply as soon as possible.
Thanks,
Miriam Sobel
Apr 16, 2008 ; 4:27 PM
do you underline, italicize, or put the name of an essay in quotes???
i want to put this essay in my very important language arts report, which is like 90% of my grade for this semester....
please answer me....thx!
emma
Apr 30, 2008 ; 6:20 PM
This site was very helpful to me..my question was should I underline a story title in an essay?
Sep 18, 2008 ; 5:23 PM
Nichole,
The very first sentence in the entry above states, "The most common way to mark a short story title is to enclose it in quotation marks."
Don't underline a story; wrap it in quotation marks.
Sep 19, 2008 ; 7:28 AM
When writing about a television show, should you underline the title?
Feb 24, 2005 ; 7:02 PM