How do I present titles of poems, novels, etc. in my essay?
Generally, when writing the title of a selection, use quotation marks for shorter pieces and italicize or underline longer pieces (you should pick one and use it consistantly throughout your essay -- I suggest italicizing if you use a word processor). Titles of short poems, songs, short stories, television shows, and articles (essays) should appear in quotation marks; titles of novels (books), movies, long poems, plays, and television series should be presented in italics or underlined. For example:
- Short story: "The Harmony of the Spheres," “Indian Camp,” “Babylon Revisited”
- Novel: Perfume, Moby Dick, The Satanic Verses
- Feature film: Blade Runner, The Day After Tomorrow, Star Wars
- Poem: "To His Coy Mistress," “Ulysses.” “Daddy”
- Television show: "Star Trek", “Battlestar Galactica”
- Television series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Song: "Ants Marching", “Stairway to Heaven,” “Come Sail Away”
- Long poem (epic): Odyssey, Beowulf, Paradise Lost
- Play: Hamlet, Oedipus Rex, Death of a Salesman
If you are unsure about how to present a title, look it up and see how critics have done it. The titles of novellas or long poems, like Tolstay’s The Death of Ivan Ilyitch, Kafka’s Metamorophsis, or Poe’s Rape of the Lock, can be tricky, so checking a secondary source becomes necessary.