ENGL 1711 03

Rules For Using Titles in MLA Format

Rules for titles in MLA format follow the guidelines below.  The title format for titles used inside your paper should be the same as on the works cited page. 

Capitalization: Capitalize the first letter of each title word except for articles, conjunctions, and prepositions, unless they are the first word of the title.   

 

Title in quotation marks or italics?  If the title is of an essay, article, short story, or poem, use quotation marks around it.  If the title is of a book, journal, name of a database, newspaper or magazine, use the italics font. 

 

Make the necessary changes to the following eight titles based on the information above.  Based on the type of title, use quotation marks around it or underline to represent italics.  Then, make the corrections to the capitalizations for the individual title words.

 

1. Food labels can be confusing (article)

 

2. The old man and the sea (short story)

 

3. Journal of natural science (journal)

 

4. What is the meaning of life?  (essay)

 

5. The road less traveled (poem)

 

6. Bird death in wind turbines alarm environmentalists (article)

 

7. National Geographic (magazine)

 

8. Opposing viewpoints  (database)