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MLA (9th ed.) Citation Style: Title of Source

Title of Source

Overview
  • This element ends with a period.

  • After the author, the next element in the citation is the title.  Enter the title as it is given in the source, capitalizing each major word.

  • "When you copy an English title or subtitle or write the title of your own research project, use the title-style capitalization: capitalize the first word, the last word, and all principal words, including those that follow hyphens in compound terms." (MLA Handbook, 9th ed., p. 54)

  • Capitalize: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, subordinating conjunctions

  • Don't capitalize: prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, the to in infinitives, articles

  • For more information, refer to pages 121-134 of the MLA Handbook, 9th ed.

 

The way a title is formatted helps the reader understand the type of source easily.  If the source is self-contained and independent (and not part of a larger container), the title is italicized.  If the title is part of a larger work, such as an article in a journal, chapter in a book, or a web page on a website, the title is placed within quotation marks.

 

Examples

The title of a book should be in italics:

Villoldo, Alberto. Illumination: The Shaman's Way of Healing. Hay House, 2010.

 

Title of a web page from a website should be in quotation marks:

"Drugged Driving by the Numbers." MADD, 2015, www.madd.org/

drugged-driving/drugged-driving-by-the.html. Accessed 18 June 2016.

 

The title of article from a journal/magazine/newspaper should be in quotation marks:

Conatser, Phillip, and Martin Block. "Aquatic Instructors' Beliefs Toward Inclusion."

Therapeutic Recreation Journal, vol. 35, no. 2, 2001, pp. 170-184.

 

The title of an essay/chapter/short story etc from an anthology should be in italics:

Brant, Beth. “Coyote Learns a New Trick.” An Anthology of Canadian Native 

Literature in English, edited by Daniel David Moses and Terry Goldie,

Oxford UP, 1992, pp. 148-150.