Q. How do I capitalize and format titles of works within the body of my essay?

APA Citation Style has rules for formatting titles of sources when you refer to them in the body of your essay, and these rules differ from the formatting of titles in the References list citations.

APA 7 rules for formatting titles of sources in the body of your essay

When mentioning titles of stand-alone sources (such as books, journals, videos, etc.) in the body of your essay, you should italicize, write in title case, and not use quotation marks:

• In the book The Handmaid's Tale, the main character...

When mentioning titles of sources that are part of a greater whole (such as articles, chapters, encyclopedia entries, etc.) in the body of your essay, you should use quotation marks, write in title case, and not italicize:

• In the article "The Effects of Stress on New Mothers"...

► For examples of how to format titles in your References List citations, see the Citation Examples on the Seneca Libraries APA Citation Guide.

Other Resources

This example from the official APA Style Blog has a chart which shows how to capitalize and format titles of works such as a tv series, podcast, artwork, music albums and more!

Please note that this blog post refers to APA 6, however the rules for APA 7 remain the same with the exception of the "Reference List Entry Examples" at the bottom of the post.

MLA 9th rules for formatting titles of sources in the body of your essay

When mentioning titles of stand-alone sources (such as books, journals, videos, etc.) in the body of your essay, you should italicize, use title-style capitalization, and not use quotation marks:

• In the book The Fellowship of the Ring, the main characters...

When mentioning titles of sources that are part of a greater whole (such as articles, chapters, encyclopedia entries, etc.) in the body of your essay, you should use quotation marks, use title-style capitalization, and not italicize:

In the article "The Effects of Stress on New Mothers"...

► For examples of how to format titles in your References List citations, see the Citation Examples on the Seneca Libraries MLA Citation Guide.