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


In academic writing, authors' names are never italicized, except when forming part of a book or play title. Various academic style guides such as MLA, APA, CMS, Turabian, and Harvard consistently agree on this rule. The title of a book containing a short story is italicized, but not the story's title. For instance, in MLA style, the reference would be Alice Munro, "Boys and Girls," Dance of the Happy Shades.


To write a book title in an essay, italicize it if required by your citation style, and ensure it is properly formatted according to the context of your essay.

There are several styles used in writing academic papers. "Style" in thiscontext means a complete set of standards for things such as citation format,title page, font, spacing, abbreviations, and punctuation. Which style youshould use depends on your academic discipline, country, and the instructor'spreferences. In the United States and Canada, the most common academic stylesare MLA (Modern Languages Association), Chicago (University of Chicago Press),and APA (American Psychological Association), while journalists tend to followAP (Associated Press) style. In Britain and Europe, MHRA (Modern HumanitiesResearch Association) style is common for academic papers.

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

The first examples show a translated book where the translator's name is in the position of "other contributors", and is preceded by the words translated by.

From 'how to write a book title in an essay' to 'how to format a book title in an essay', our AI assistant covers all aspects of writing and formatting book titles in your essays, ensuring they are correctly presented.

's “” is actually a short story in a bookentitled Dance of the Happy Shades. In most styles, neither theauthor's name nor the name of a short story is italicized, but the title of thebook containing the story is italicized. You should also note that in BritishEnglish, you should use single quotation marks and place punctuation outsidethe quotation marks, whereas in U.S. English one uses double quotation marksand places punctuation inside the closing quotation mark.

Learn how to properly quote book titles in your essays. Whether you need to know 'how to quote a book title' or 'how to punctuate a book title', our service provides clear instructions for all citation styles.


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

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Below is an example of how to cite the Bible in APA format.

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

No, you never italicize the name of the author, and you only italicize thetitle of the work if it is a book. If you are referring to a short story youput the title of the story in quotes. This is what you should do if your is about Alice Munro's story "Boys and Girls." (Notice that the period at theend of the sentence comes inside the closing quotation mark.) Titles of poemsand essays and other short pieces are also put in quotes. Titles of plays arecustomarily italicized. You can see in the reference link below how AliceMunro's "Boys and Girls" is set off in quotes.

But in an essay, there is no need to bold or italicize book names.

So what does this mean for you? It means: Don't worry about it too much. Just pick one way and stick with it for consistency purposes (for example, if you italicize the name of the book your character is reading on page one of your novel, make sure you italicize it on page 214, too). All publishers have their own style, so if you're fortunate enough to get the work in question published, an editor will edit your story to fit her style preferences anyway. Your goal is to turn in a professional-looking manuscript, and consistency in your style is one key way to do that.

Here’s how to cite books in MLA style:

When a work has two authors
Both names should be cited every time the reference is required. Use an ampersand (&) to separate the names of authors. If a text has been authored by more than five individuals, the full listing of authors is not required in the first reference or any subsequent in-text references.