How to Punctuate Titles

Step-by-Step Guide

1. 1

   Step 1: Use quotation marks for the title of a poem

   In MLA style, you always use quotation marks to notate the title of a poem if you are citing it as a reference in a bibliography or if you are citing your own original work.
   
   For example, “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe or “Today is a Good Day” by Mark Smith.You also use quotation marks for the titles of short stories.
   
   For example, “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver or “Coyotes” by Jo Ann Beard.
   
   This rule also applies to the title of an essay.
   
   For example, “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell.
2. 2

   Step 2: short story

   If you are citing the title of a book chapter or an article from a journal, magazine, newspaper, or periodical, you will use quotation marks.
   
   This applies to original works and published works.For example, if you are citing a chapter title in Moby Dick, you would cite it as “The Carpet-Bag” chapter in Moby Dick.
   
   If you are citing an article title in a travel journal, it would appear as “Rivers of China” or “Top Hikes in Oregon”.
   
   A newspaper article title would appear as “Woman Missing on Hiking Trail”. , If you are trying to format the title of a song, a television episode, or a television commercial, you should use quotation marks.
   
   For example, “I Did It My Way”, “Obey Your Thirst”, or “The One Where the Monkey Gets Away”.You should also use quotations for the title of a skit or a monologue.
   
   For example, “The Bar Skit”. , If you are trying to format a blog entry title, add quotation marks.
   
   For example, “Meet My New Cat” or “Today’s the Day”.If you have any unpublished works that you are titling, such as manuscripts, speeches, lectures, dissertations, or theses, you should use quotation marks.
   
   For example, “My Speech on Human Rights” or “A Lecture on Bees”. , APA style is different from MLA style in that it has different rules for titles that are in text and titles that are listed in references or in a bibliography.
   
   In text, you should use quotation marks around titles of shorter works, such as articles, chapters, or essays.
   
   For example, “Breaking the Psyche in Adolescents”.In your references or bibliography, you would use plain text for the titles of shorter works, with no quotation marks.
   
   For example, Breaking the Psyche in Adolescents.
3. 3

   Step 3: or essay.

4. 4

   Step 4: Apply quotation marks to the title of a book chapter or an article.

5. 5

   Step 5: Use quotation marks to title of a song

6. 6

   Step 6: a television episode

7. 7

   Step 7: or a commercial.

8. 8

   Step 8: Add quotation marks to the title of a blog entry and any unpublished works.

9. 9

   Step 9: Apply quotations to in-text titles for APA style.

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