How am i supposed to write the title of a book in an essay?

Question

am i supposed to underline it? or write it in italics? or write it in quotes?

Answer 1

God, no wonder you're confused!

Book titles are underlined or put in italics. Before computers, we didn't have the ability to use italics so we always underlined.  

Do not use quotes for a book title.  (quotes are for short story titles, or song titles, or poem titles...)

Answer 2

The title of a book should be written like this  "Harry Potter" or you can underline the the title as well. Make sure to use capital letters though. Remember that books are proper nouns.

Answer 3

El Nino,

You can start out your essay in the normal fashion and simply make the title of the book a few fonts larger than the rest. You can use italics, underline, calligraphy, or just put in in quotes.

If there are no hard and fast rules set down by your instructor, then I would go with what you feel most comfortable with.  

Good luck!

PJ M

Answer 4

No, don't underline it!  You only underline if you're writing the essay by hand.

When you're typing, you italicize the book title.  Quotes are used for articles/stories/poems within a book.

For instance, Falling Up by Shel Silverstein would be italicized, but one of the poems inside would be surrounded by quotes.

Answer 5

Titles of books are underlined, plays are placed in italics, and poems and short stories are placed in quotations.

It looks like you're going to have quite a time trying to pick an answer though, as everyone has a different idea of what's correct. If you don't know, the best thing to do would be ask your teacher about it.

Answer 6

No, you just underline it. Books are underlined, plays are put in quotations or italicized.