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When you are writing the title of a work in an MLA-formatted paper, the rules can appear confusing. However, they are simple once you get used to working with them. If the title on the cover and title page do not match, use the one from the title page. You will probably capitalize most of the words in the title.
Here is what you capitalize:
Here is what you don't capitalize:
If you are not sure what part of speech a word is, online dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster will tell you.
Note: There are two exception to the capitalization rules. First, capitalize any word if it's the last word in the title. For example, you would write the book title Island Between with between capitalized even though it's a preposition. The second exception is that you capitalize anything that follows a colon. Here is an example: Citations: A Study of Good Practices. Normally, you wouldn't capitalize a, but in this case you would.
If you would like more information on capitalizing titles, check out page 54 of the MLA Handbook, Ninth Edition. It is available in the library with the call number LB 2369 .M52 2021.
According to MLA style, how you capitalize words in quotes depends upon the context.
Whenever you quote a text, you may need to change the capitalization used in the quote. If your sentence before the quote uses a word like says, states, writes, etc., you will want to capitalize the first word you quote. If you do change a lower case word to upper case, put the capitalized letter in brackets. This tells your reader that you changed the text a little. Here is an example:
Original sentence: Cats are affectionate, and dogs are playful.
Example one: Smith says "Cats are affectionate."
Example two: Smith says "[D]ogs are affectionate."
If your sentence uses a word that isn't says, writes, etc., you will want to make the first word of the quote lower case, unless it is a proper noun like someone's name. Here is an example:
Original sentence: Cats are affectionate, and dogs are playful.
Example one: Smith's research determined that "[c]ats are affectionate."
Example two: Smith noted that "dogs are affectionate."
The first word of block quotes are always capitalized, and brackets used if you have to change the first word from lower case to capitalized.
If you would like more information on capitalization in quotes, check out page 268 of the MLA Handbook, Ninth Edition. It is available in the library with the call number LB 2369 .M52 2021.
When using the MLA citation method, there are two different ways to style titles you write in your text. They will be either italicized or in quotation marks. As a general rule, complete works (like a book, play, or movie) would be italicized, but works that appear inside another work (such as a short story that appears in an anthology of stories, or an article from a scholarly journal) will be put in quotation marks. Here is an example:
Smith's short story "The Happy Dog" first appeared in his book of collected stories Dog and Cat Tales.
There are exceptions, however. If a work would normally be italicized, but appears inside another work, it stays italicized. For example, a publisher may print a collection of short novels or plays inside one large book. Because novels and plays are normally italicized, they stay italicized even though they're part of a larger work.
Here is a brief list of what is italicized, and what is put in quotation marks:
| Capitalize | Quotation Marks |
| Books | Short Stories |
| Plays | Poems and Songs |
| Newspapers and Journals | Articles from Newspapers and Journals |
| Movies and Television Shows | Book Chapters |
| Whole Websites | Web Pages |
If you would like more information on styling titles, check out page 66 of the MLA Handbook, Ninth Edition. It is available in the library with the call number LB 2369 .M52 2021.
