Do You Underline Or Italicize Book Titles In Apa

This is one of the frequently asked questions and to be honest it can be quite confusing.

Do you underline or italicize book titles in apa. Titles of periodicals books brochures or reports should be in italics and use normal title capitalization rules. When you cite or mention a book in a paper you should italicize the title. You can also underline the titles of books or journal instead of italicizing them.

At first this rule seems arbitrary. Citations of books in your reference list should begin with the last name of the book s author then the author s initials. Whereas in the past some style guides recommended underlining titles today most prefer italics or quotation marks.

In this case you d put the title of the specific books in quotation marks but you d keep the title of the collection in italics. How to emphasize book titles. Instead these are capitalized.

Like with most aspects of english there are some exceptions to the rule. This is essential since it allows you to stick to the rules of various referencing styles such as apa mla and chicago. One exception is when you have a book that is a collection of various novel titles like lord of the rings.

The punctuation mark after an italicized word or phrase or between elements of a reference list entry e g the comma after a periodical title or issue number the period after a book title journal of abnormal psychology 128 6 510 516. Don t underline and italicize together like this. That sure is painful to read.

You must underline the entire title and ensure you are consistently using the same format throughout your writing. Don t italicize the titles of songs chapters in books or poems. Exceptions for emphasizing titles.