Italics are used for large works, names of vehicles, and movie and television show titles. Quotation marks are reserved for sections of works, like the titles of chapters, magazine articles, poems, and short stories.

In general, you should italicize the titles of long works, like books, movies, or record albums. Use quotation marks for the titles of shorter pieces of work: poems, articles, book chapters, songs, T.V.

Italicizing and Underlining The titles of books, the titles of poems (Long poems. The ones that could be a book by themselves.), speeches (particularly famous speeches), the titles of movies, the titles of TV shows, plays, long musical pieces, and magazines.

In contemporary practice, underlining is generally not considered a standard way of distinguishing book titles in your writing. Having said that, there are style guides that prefer enclosing book titles in quotation marks over italics, so it’s always a good idea to check this.

Have you read To Kill a Mockingbird? Her dissertation is titled Feminism in Shakespeare’s Tragedies. Titles of full works like books or newspapers should be italicized. Titles of short works like poems, articles, short stories, or chapters should be put in quotation marks.

Titles of movies, television shows, radio programs, and plays should be italicized. Examples: The gardener’s favorite movie is the documentary Plants Are Awesome. The scientist watches the television show World’s Weirdest Germs every Tuesday night.

Capitalize all major words in journal titles. Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals. Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays in edited collections.

When referring to books, chapters, articles, or webpages, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.

Italicize the title of the video. Include the description “[Video]” in square brackets after the title. Provide the site name (YouTube) and URL of the video.

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).

Italicize titles if the source is self-contained and independent. Titles of books, plays, films, periodicals, databases, and websites are italicized. Place titles in quotation marks if the source is part of a larger work. Articles, essays, chapters, poems, webpages, songs, and speeches are placed in quotation marks.

In APA, use italics for titles of books, scholarly journals, periodicals, films, videos, television shows, and microfilm publications. Quotation marks or italics are not required for articles, webpages, songs, episodes, etc.

Titles of books should be underlined or put in italics. (Titles of stories, essays and poems are in “quotation marks.”) Refer to the text specifically as a novel, story, essay, memoir, or poem, depending on what it is. In subsequent references to the author, use his or her last name.

Your Name, Professor’s Name, Class Name, and Date should double-spaced on the first page of your paper in the upper left-hand corner, with a 1-inch margin from the top and left sides.

Do

1. Keep it concise and informative. What’s appropriate for titles varies greatly across disciplines.
2. Write for your audience.
3. Entice the reader.
4. Incorporate important keywords.
5. Write in sentence case.

How To Introduce an Author

1. Find Out Who the Author Is. Get your details straight. Look up the pronunciation of their name, even if you think you know it.
2. Weed Out Unnecessary/Unimpressive Details. So you’ve printed out the author’s Wikipedia entry.

Because most authors think the purpose of the introduction is to explain everything they will talk about in the book. It pulls them through and makes them excited to start the content, because the introduction has answered the most important question the reader has: “Why should I read this book?”

10 Tips for Starting a Memoir

1. Engage the reader from the first word. A great memoir draws the reader in from the start.
2. Build trust with the reader.
3. Bring emotions out of the reader.
4. Lead with a laugh.
5. Open with a dramatic moment.
6. Think like a fiction writer.
7. Keep it relevant.
8. Write for the reader as well as yourself.