Can you Quote Essay Titles: How to use Quotes as Paper Titles

How to Use Quotation Marks On Essay TitlesHow to Use Quotation Marks On Essay Titles

How to Use Quotation Marks On Essay Titles

The purpose of writing an effective essay is to understand the topic. When you quote an essay title, you will be confirming the credibility of your argument. Furthermore, it affirms the authority of your research.

When you are making an argument using someone’s position, it is considered that you quote it well. In this write-up, we want to discover the relevance of quoting titles.

Can you Quote Essay Titles?

This is an interesting question because most essay titles are basic words that do not need any special treatment. However, when necessary, it may be possible to use quotes if the rules allow.

Typically, the author should italicize the title that belongs to the longer works. Such include record albums, books, and movies.

You can quote essay titles or put quotation marks on them if the words represent another person’s speech or some literary works. Quotations indicate the special aspect of the words and help to bring the meaning of the title.

However, the rules of the quotation marks around the titles will differ depending on the style you are following.

You can still use quotation marks for titles of shorter works like poems, songs, chapters of books, etc. For example, in the following sentences,

using quotation marks
  1. My favorite movie is “The Four Edges.”
  2. I read the article “Seven Secrets of Effective People” by Norman Gilbert.

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Types of Titles You Can Quote

As noted in the other guide, every essay title needs a title. However, not all are easy. Therefore, it is good to explore different titles that you can quote. Several titles exist for the author to quote and prove that you did enough research concerning the topic at hand.

You can quote the title from various sources as long as it adds value to what you what to put across to validate your argument. The following list has the type of titles you intend to quote:

  • Recorded Albums
  • Website page
  • Movies
  • Books
  • Songs
  • Plays
  • Films
  • Magazine articles
  • News articles
  • Poems
  • TV episodes
  • Articles
  • Book chapters

How to Quote Essay Titles in MLA

MLA essay title page

When quoting titles in the MLA format, the titles should appear in either quotation marks or italics.

For example, you can use quotation marks suppose the title is part of the more considerable work. Such could be a website page, an article in a journal, etc. 

Also, you can opt to italicize the title when dealing with a self-contained whole.  Such could be a website, journal, film, or book. In this case, you should capitalize all significant words in the title.

We also have titles within titles. It happens when the title contains another title.

In this case, you can maintain the same formatting in the same way as if the title stood on its own.

When working with the MLA format, it has notable exceptions. For example, you cannot italicize or enclose the following names in the quotation marks, the Koran, Bible, or the Gospel.

Others are laws or acts in the related category. It could be such items like, the Constitution or Paris Agreement.

Another exemption where you should never italicize is the musical composition conferences, workshops, seminars, and other sources. For example, MLA Annual Convention.

1. Abbreviating Titles

Whenever you want to mention the sources of the work, you can state the full title and eliminate the subtitle. When you refer to the same work many times, then shorten the title to something readable. If a stand-alone abbreviation cannot deliver, introduce the same in the parenthesis.

When you are abbreviating the title, let the formatting remain consistent. If the formatting consists of only letters, put it in the quotation marks or make it italic.

2. Titles in Foreign Language

When listing titles outside the English version, adding the translated title in the square brackets is vital. If the text includes a foreign language, have the translation in the parenthesis.

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How to Quote Essay Titles in APA

APA format title page

APA has a unique formatting rule for the titles related to the source you are using in the paper.

Such titles include various sources such as books, book chapters, web pages, reports, and articles.

You can use varying formats in capitalization, italics, and quotation marks. You can use them in varying combinations for various sources in unique contexts. When you are formatting the titles, you will depend on the following factors:

  1. The independence of the sources
  2. The location of the title

Italics

When dealing with a standalone source such as a report or a book, you italicize the titles. On the contrary, if the title is part of the greater works, then you do not italicize them.

You can opt not to italicize them if you are unsure if soothing is standalone such as a webpage.

Capitalization

When you are formatting the reference titles, APA uses two different styles. You capitalize the primary word of the title. Specifically, you should capitalize the pronoun and other types of words.

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Can You Capitalize Essay Titles

No, you should only capitalize the first letter and any other important words in the title. You should follow the general rules of capitalizing the title.

As a rule of thumb, only capitalize the fort word and other adverbs, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs. However, it would be best if you did not capitalize conjunctions like a, an, and, too, the, nor unless they are the first and the last

By the way, essay titles can also be underlined if needed or if it is part of the requirements.