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MLA General Format
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MLA Style specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and citing research in writing. MLA Style also provides writers with a system for referencing their sources through parenthetical citation in their essays and Works Cited pages.
Writers who properly use MLA also build their credibility by demonstrating accountability to their source material. Most importantly, the use of MLA style can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism, which is the purposeful or accidental uncredited use of source material produced by other writers.
If you are asked to use MLA format, be sure to consult the MLA Handbook (9th edition). Publishing scholars and graduate students should also consult the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd edition). The MLA Handbook is available in most writing centers and reference libraries. It is also widely available in bookstores, libraries, and at the MLA web site. See the Additional Resources section of this page for a list of helpful books and sites about using MLA Style.
Paper Format
The preparation of papers and manuscripts in MLA Style is covered in part four of the MLA Style Manual . Below are some basic guidelines for formatting a paper in MLA Style :
General Guidelines
- Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper.
- Double-space the text of your paper and use a legible font (e.g. Times New Roman). Whatever font you choose, MLA recommends that the regular and italics type styles contrast enough that they are each distinct from one another. The font size should be 12 pt.
- Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks (unless otherwise prompted by your instructor).
- Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides.
- Indent the first line of each paragraph one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the “Tab” key as opposed to pushing the space bar five times.
- Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor may ask that you omit the number on your first page. Always follow your instructor's guidelines.)
- Use italics throughout your essay to indicate the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary, provide emphasis.
- If you have any endnotes, include them on a separate page before your Works Cited page. Entitle the section Notes (centered, unformatted).
Formatting the First Page of Your Paper
- Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested or the paper is assigned as a group project. In the case of a group project, list all names of the contributors, giving each name its own line in the header, followed by the remaining MLA header requirements as described below. Format the remainder of the page as requested by the instructor.
- In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.
- Double space again and center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks. Write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.
- Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text. For example: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play; Human Weariness in "After Apple Picking"
- Double space between the title and the first line of the text.
- Create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with a page number. Number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor or other readers may ask that you omit the last name/page number header on your first page. Always follow instructor guidelines.)
Here is a sample of the first page of a paper in MLA style:
The First Page of an MLA Paper
Section Headings
Writers sometimes use section headings to improve a document’s readability. These sections may include individual chapters or other named parts of a book or essay.
MLA recommends that when dividing an essay into sections you number those sections with an Arabic number and a period followed by a space and the section name.
MLA does not have a prescribed system of headings for books (for more information on headings, please see page 146 in the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing , 3rd edition). If you are only using one level of headings, meaning that all of the sections are distinct and parallel and have no additional sections that fit within them, MLA recommends that these sections resemble one another grammatically. For instance, if your headings are typically short phrases, make all of the headings short phrases (and not, for example, full sentences). Otherwise, the formatting is up to you. It should, however, be consistent throughout the document.
If you employ multiple levels of headings (some of your sections have sections within sections), you may want to provide a key of your chosen level headings and their formatting to your instructor or editor.
Sample Section Headings
The following sample headings are meant to be used only as a reference. You may employ whatever system of formatting that works best for you so long as it remains consistent throughout the document.
Formatted, unnumbered:
Level 1 Heading: bold, flush left
Level 2 Heading: italics, flush left
Level 3 Heading: centered, bold
Level 4 Heading: centered, italics
Level 5 Heading: underlined, flush left
Home > Blog > Tips for Online Students > Knowing When To Underline Or Italicize: Your Go-To Guide
Tips for Online Students , Tips for Students
Knowing When To Underline Or Italicize: Your Go-To Guide
Updated: October 24, 2024
Published: May 27, 2021
In this article
Knowing when to underline or italicize can be confusing. But it doesn’t have to be! In this article, we’ll lay out all the basics, plus a few common difficulties that confuse many writers, so you’ll be an expert in no time.
At the end of the article, you’ll get the chance to practice your hand at some sample sentences, so you’ll be sure that you know the ins and outs of using italics and underlines.
Italics Vs Underline: Clarifying The Confusion
In the past (before computers and MLA handbooks), italics and underlines were used to emphasize certain words or titles within the text. It let the reader know what was important, or what was separate from the rest of the sentence. They were both used interchangeably, as long as they were consistent.
Now, with the ability to change formatting with the click of a button, italics are generally used to indicate titles, and only sometimes for emphasis. Meanwhile, underlining is mostly reserved to replace italics in handwritten papers. Manuals and guidebooks, such as the MLA handbook, are now widely used in large institutions or according to the country’s standards, so that specific writing conventions, grammar rules, and formatting styles have become uniform.
With that said, the general rule is that italics are used for titles of books, movies, TV and radio shows, magazines, works of art, and long poems. As mentioned before, underlining is a substitute for italics when writing titles by hand.
Proper formatting in an essay can be confusing for many students: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-blue-blazer-holding-white-paper-3727468/
Titles of long works.
Titles that should be italicized are longer works. These include titles of books, movies, TV and radio shows, journals and magazines, and long poems. In the next section, we’ll see how these works differ from titles of shorter works which are put in quotations instead.
- The novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, was published in 1847 under the pen name of Currer Bell.
- The movie Home Alone , released in 1990, made a worldwide total of $476,684,675 in box office revenue.
Titles Of Smaller Works
The titles of smaller works are put in “quotations” in order to differentiate them from longer works. These smaller works include titles of chapters, short stories, TV or radio show episodes, articles, and short poems.
In the examples below, note how you can recognize the difference between the shorter works and larger works just by seeing how they are emphasized in the sentence. This makes it impossible to confuse the title of a chapter with the book that it belongs to, or the episode from its TV show.
- The chapter entitled “The Castaway” in Moby Dick describes the near-death experience of a character named Pip.
- Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” was originally published in a Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine.
- The pilot episode of Friends , which was released on September 22, 1994, is called “The One Where Monica Gets A Roommate.”
Punctuation In Titles: Common Confusions
Question marks.
Confusion can come up when a title includes a question mark or an exclamation mark in the title itself. For example, the book Who Has Seen the Wind? includes a question mark in it.
The way to deal with these titles is to italicize the question mark as well, just as it is above. By doing so, you can differentiate this title from an actual question, such as writing: Have you read Gone With the Wind ?
The same idea applies to exclamation marks — for example, the movie Mamma Mia! , which includes an exclamation mark in the title. Note the italicization, and the difference between writing Mamma Mia! , the movie, and writing: I can’t believe that you never watched The Parent Trap !
Commas and periods
The confusion of commas and periods when it comes to quotations is a debate between different handbooks and countries. According to the MLA (Modern Language Association) handbook, commas and periods are placed inside of quotation marks.
- “The Seinfeld Chronicles , ” the first episode of Seinfeld , had 15.4 million viewers in America.
- Among the short stories of James Joyce included in the collection Dubliners are “Araby , ” “The Sisters , ” and “The Encounter.”
Solidify your new skills by completing practice sentences: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-wearing-black-and-white-stripe-shirt-looking-at-white-printer-papers-on-the-wall-212286/
Let’s practice.
Try your hand at your new skills! Below are five sentences without any italics or quotations. Italicize the longer works and put the shorter works in quotations. If you get stuck, check back in the article, and you’ll be an expert in no time. Be sure to pay attention to tricky commas, periods, and question marks.
- The Lazy Controller, chapter two of Thinking Fast and Slow, talks about multitasking and its effect on thinking.
- The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story by Catherine Perkins Gilman, was originally published in The New England Magazine in January 1892.
- John Lennon’s album Imagine included favorites such as Gimme Some Truth, How Do You Sleep?, and, of course, Imagine.
- The premiere episode of Family Matters is called The Mama Who Came To Dinner, and relays the drama of Carl’s mother coming to live with him.
- The short story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway was first published in a magazine called Transition, and was only later published in his book Men Without Women.
Why Is Proper Indentation Important?
College essays .
No matter what you study in college, most students write a lot of essays during their school years. While some degrees may put more of an emphasis on writing proper essays , most teachers and professors will expect a certain level of basic grammar and formatting knowledge. Before you even step foot into college, you’ll most likely be expected to write an application essay . It’s important to put your best foot forward, and small formatting rules can go a long way in making a good first impression.
Landing your dream job
In addition to college essays, prospective employers and job positions will require and look for basic (or advanced, depending on the position) writing skills. Whether you think your dream job requires writing skills or not, writing is a part of everyday life and work, from emails and text messages, to presentations and reports. Having good writing skills will help you make a good first impression, land your dream job, and do your best work.
Proper writing is an important skill for any job: https://www.pexels.com/photo/writing-notes-idea-class-7103/
Having a successful career.
Though different students earn a degree for different reasons, many are hoping to work toward a successful career. In order to do this, the right preparation is key. Preparation may be earning a degree, gaining specific skills, or having the right guidance along the way.
University of the People prepares our students for successful careers by providing program advising , mentorship , and an emphasis on career development . We know that these extra details, much like formatting in an essay, make a big difference for the future success of our students. University of the People is a tuition-free online university that offers degree programs in business administration, computer science, health science, and education.
Wrapping Up
Now you know when to underline or italicize, and much more. To wrap up, italics should be used for the titles of longer works such as movies, books, and TV shows, and underlining for handwritten papers.
In addition, we hope you’ve learned the more tricky rules such as question marks and commas, and that you’ve given some thought to the importance of writing for your future education and success.
At UoPeople, our blog writers are thinkers, researchers, and experts dedicated to curating articles relevant to our mission: making higher education accessible to everyone. Read More
When writing a paper, do I use italics for all titles?
Simply put: no .
APA's Publication Manual (2020) indicates that, in the body of your paper , you should use italics for the titles of:
- "books, reports, webpages, and other stand-alone works" (p. 170)
- periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers)
Beyond APA's specific examples, know that certain types of titles are almost always written in italics.
A general rule of thumb is that within the text of a paper, italicize the title of complete works but put quotation marks around titles of parts within a complete work.
The table below isn't comprehensive, but it's a good starting point
On an APA-style reference page , the rules for titles are a little different. In short, a title you would italicize within the body of a paper will also be italicized on a reference page. However, a title you'd place in quotation marks within the body of the paper (such as the title of an article within a journal) will be written without italics and quotation marks on the references page.
Here are some examples:
Smith's (2001) research is fully described in the Journal of Higher Education.
Smith's (2001) article "College Admissions See Increase" was published in the Journal of Higher Education after his pivotal study on the admissions process.
Visit the APA Style's " Use of Italics " page to learn more!
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Italics: The Dos and Don’ts
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I spend a lot of my editing hours at ProofreadingPal dealing with wayward italics, so let’s talk about times when they are used properly and when they aren’t.
Do: Some Titles
Some titles are italicized, and some are put in quotation marks. My handy rule of thumb is to think of titles in terms of being heavy and light.
A play is heavy: Waiting for Godot . An act is light: “Act 2: The Judgment.”
A magazine/journal is heavy: Fox and Hound . An article is light: “Better Oral Horse Health.”
Get a free sample proofread and edit for your italics. Two professional proofreaders will proofread and edit your italics.
Movies and TV shows are heavy: The Fugitive . An episode is light: “Viking Bikers from Hell” (extra points if you can name the TV show for that one).
A series of reports is heavy: US Treasury Dept. Reports on Global Finance . A single report is light: “Iran Economics.”
Don’t: Vocal Emphasis
This is the #1 misuse of italics. Fortunately, I’ve got a whole other post on how you should use sentence structure to create emphasis, not italics, bold, all-caps, and the like.
To put it briefly, the idea is that people shouldn’t need italics to get the meaning of what you’re saying. Besides , cuing the readers over and over that they should stress this word and then this word gets irritating .
Let the words do the talking, not the font.
Do: References (MLA, APA, Chicago)
Reference styles vary greatly with MLA , APA , and Chicago , but they do tend to follow the idea that “heavy” titles get italicized.
Don’t: Comparison Emphasis
Similar to vocal emphasis, this use of italics assumes readers are too stupid to figure out the important words on their own.
It’s clear when I say that being candid is quite different from being genuine which two words are being compared. Italicizing them does nothing. See for yourself:
Being candid is quite different from being genuine .
Do: Introducing/Defining a Term
APA and increasingly Chicago call for a term to be italicized when you’re introducing/defining the term, though this should be done only once.
For example:
There are three basic types of color work in knitting. Slip stitching involves knitting with one yarn color for two rows then switching to another color for the next two rows. Fair isle knitting brings two or more colors along for the ride on all rows. Intarsia involves knitting with alternate yarns on the same row by using separate yarn skeins. Intarsia can get quite complicated compared to fair isle, which is also called stranded color work .
Don’t: Common Non-English Terms
Almost all of English comes from some other language, though some words seem more “foreign” than others. Once a French, Spanish, German, Latin, or whatever term becomes commonly used, you don’t put it in italics anymore, such as:
- Café au lait
- Fleur-de-lis
(The exception is some scientific names no matter how often they’re used.)
Do: The Written Word
This is primarily for fiction writing. When you have a character read a sign or a letter, it’s traditional for the words to be italicized.
She walked out of the door marked Private .
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Thank you so much for your great editing work. BTW, excellent shoes.
Don’t: Epigraphs
It can be fun to put little thoughts and quotes at the beginning of chapters and long passages, but don’t put them in italics.
Do: Thought-Speak
Again, this is a fiction thing. While spoken dialogue goes in quotation marks (unless you’re James Joyce ), when characters are thinking to themselves or telepathically communicating with someone else, the words get italicized.
The lights in the bedroom began to flicker. Great , Dean thought. That’s either a bad bulb or some showboating ghost .
In a related vein, dialogue that’s “off screen” goes into italics as well, such as a voice on the other end of a phone or the announcer’s voice on TV.
Don’t: Long Passages
Finally, italics are hard to read. A page full of that slanted script is severely off-putting. You need to figure out ways around that when you can. If a whole chapter is going to be a letter, have mercy on the readers’ eyes and use plain text. Bend the rules if you’re writing need to. Got a heated argument among fifteen telepaths? Figure something out.
And it’s worth repeating: don’t use italics for simple emphasis unless you really, really need to.
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- Writing Tips
When to Use Italics in Your Writing
6-minute read
- 24th November 2019
Of all the typographic styles, italicization may look the most dynamic. Perhaps it’s the way the words slant to the right, as if striding confidently to a business meeting. Or perhaps we’re overthinking this. The point is that italics are a useful, versatile part of writing. But when should you use them?
Key occasions for using italics include:
- To emphasize something.
- For titles of standalone works, such as books and movies.
- For vehicle names, such as ships.
- To show that a word is borrowed from another language.
- For the Latin “scientific” names of plant and animal species.
Let’s take a look at each of these to see how they work in practice.
Italics for Emphasis
Like bold fonts or underlining, italics are often used for emphasis . This means we can use italics to stress or draw attention to a particular word or phrase:
Italicization is the best way to emphasize something.
Here, italicizing best shows that we feel strongly about italics.
Generally, italics are the standard form of emphasis in academic writing. This is because they look more formal than bold formatting . However, always check your style guide if your university or employer has one, since some organizations have different rules about emphasizing text.
Italics in Place of Quote Marks
It would be unusual to italicize a full quote rather than placing it in quote marks. However, some people do use italics to set single words apart in the same way you might with quotes. For example:
Quote Marks: The word “italic” comes from a Greek word meaning “Italy.”
Italics: The word italic comes from a Greek word meaning Italy .
As with emphasis, if you are using a style guide, you may want to check whether it allows this. Otherwise, though, italics can be helpful if using too many quote marks makes your writing look cluttered.
When to Use Italics for Titles
Another common use of italicization is for titles. Not your own headings – you can italicize these, but that’s a matter of stylistic preference – but the titles of published works, such as books. For instance, if we mentioned a work by Charles Dickens in an essay, we would write it like this:
Queen Victoria read The Old Curiosity Shop in 1841.
By using italics, we set the title text apart from the rest of the sentence.
It’s not just books that you should do this for. Typically, the same applies for any self-contained media product or publication (i.e., something published by itself rather than as part of a collection). This includes the titles of:
- Books and book-length poems
- Academic journals (i.e., the journal title itself, not individual article titles)
- Magazines and newspapers
- Movies, radio programs, and TV shows
- Plays and other stage shows
- Music albums and other published audio recordings
- Paintings, statues, and other works of art
Titles of shorter works, by comparison, are often placed in quotation marks . However, the rules for presenting titles do vary between style guides.
Italicizing Vehicle Names
You can use italics for the names of individual vehicles, such as a ship or space rocket. For instance, we would italicize the following vehicle names:
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The sailors boarded the HMS Belfast in silence.
The Titanic sank during her maiden voyage.
Here, we italicize Belfast and Titanic because they’re the proper names of specific ships. We do not italicize the initials preceding names of ships (e.g., HMS, RMS, USS). In addition, you should only italicize the names of individual vehicles. If you’re writing the name of a brand or make of a vehicle (e.g., Ford Escort or Boeing 747), by comparison, you don’t need italics.
Italicizing Non-English Words
Make sure to italicize any non-English words you use in English-language writing. This shows the reader that the word was borrowed from another language. For instance, we could say:
In Germany, this feeling is known as Waldeinsamkeit .
The exact rules for when to italicize foreign words may vary depending on the style guide you check. For instance, most style guides make exceptions for words that are now fairly common in English even if they are still loanwords, so you would not usually need to italicize terms like “raison d’être.”
If in doubt, though, you can always check a good dictionary (e.g., the OED or Webster’s). Assuming you can find the word in the dictionary, it should be widely used enough in English to write without italics.
Italicizing Species Names
Binomial nomenclature (i.e., the Latin names given to plant and animal species) is usually italicized. For example, we could say:
Nobody wants Amorphophallus titanum growing in their garden.
As above, you should also capitalize the first word (i.e., the genus) in scientific plant and animal names, but not the second term (i.e., the species).
Other Uses for Italics
There are occasions when you may want to use italics not covered above. In fact, italics are useful for most situations where you need to make some part of a text distinct. One example comes from creative writing, where some people use italics to indicate an unspoken thought. For instance, we could use italics to show a character’s inner monologue:
Jeff sat silently in the doctor’s office. It wasn’t his usual doctor, so he was already nervous before the needle appeared.
“Don’t worry,” said the doctor. “It won’t hurt.”
Easy for you to say, Jeff thought. It’s not you at the sharp end of that thing. But he kept this to himself, instead uttering a meek “OK.”
However you use italics, though, there are two main rules to follow:
- Try not to use italics for too many different reasons in a single document. For instance, if you are writing something with a lot of titles and foreign words, you may want to find a different way of formatting emphasis.
- If you use italicized text for any part of a document, apply it consistently. So, for instance, if you’re using italics for loanwords in one part of an essay, you’ll want to do the same throughout the document.
And if you need anyone to check your use of italics in a document, our editors are here to help. Just submit your work for proofreading today.
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Titles of books, reports, webpages, and other stand-alone works. Assessment and treatment of older adults: A guide for mental health professionals ... if the term appears in a dictionary for the language in which you are writing, do not italicize it. Their favorite term of endearment was mon petit chou. When not to use italics.
Italicize titles of longer works (e.g., books, edited collections, names of newspapers, and so on). Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as chapters in books or essays in edited collections. Basic Rules for Articles in Academic Journals. Present journal titles in full. Italicize journal titles.
Movie titles, along with play and TV show titles, are written in italics. In general, the titles of longer works are italicized, while those of shorter works use quotations. So the name of a TV show is written in italics, but the title of a TV episode is written in quotes. Are poem titles in quotes or italics? Most poem titles are written in ...
Do Not Use Italics. For the title of book series - i.e., "the Dan Brown series" Punctuation around italics - i.e., "(extremely dissatisfied)" Words from foreign languages that are in the dictionary of the language you are writing - i.e., "per se" Things To Remember. This list of rules and exceptions can feel overwhelming.
In MLA style, source titles appear either in italics or in quotation marks: Italicize the title of a self-contained whole (e.g. a book, film, journal, or website). Use quotation marks around the title if it is part of a larger work (e.g. a chapter of a book, an article in a journal, or a page on a website). All major words in a title are ...
Use italics throughout your essay to indicate the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary, provide emphasis. If you have any endnotes, include them on a separate page before your Works Cited page. Entitle the section Notes (centered, unformatted). ... Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks. Write ...
The way to deal with these titles is to italicize the question mark as well, just as it is above. By doing so, you can differentiate this title from an actual question, such as writing: Have you read Gone With the Wind? The same idea applies to exclamation marks — for example, the movie Mamma Mia!, which includes an exclamation mark in the title.
On an APA-style reference page, the rules for titles are a little different.In short, a title you would italicize within the body of a paper will also be italicized on a reference page. However, a title you'd place in quotation marks within the body of the paper (such as the title of an article within a journal) will be written without italics and quotation marks on the references page.
Do: Some Titles. Some titles are italicized, and some are put in quotation marks. My handy rule of thumb is to think of titles in terms of being heavy and light. A book is heavy, and a chapter is light. The title of a book is italicized because it's leaning under that weight: Living Right. A chapter just gets quotation marks: "Chapter 2 ...
In addition, you should only italicize the names of individual vehicles. If you're writing the name of a brand or make of a vehicle (e.g., Ford Escort or Boeing 747), by comparison, you don't need italics. Italicizing Non-English Words. Make sure to italicize any non-English words you use in English-language writing.