One of the first concerns some writers face is often how to type a book title correctly whenever you’re working on an essay or paper. Whether you’re writing a literary analysis, crafting a research paper, or typing up any essay, an essential element is properly formatting the title of a book or body of literature.
There are different style guides that have their own rules, but one of the most common and widely used governing body of rule is the MLA (Modern Language Association) format. This is especially the case in humanities and literature papers.
Now, let’s dive into how to type book titles and other formatting essentials for MLA to gain some further insight on how to properly carry it out. Also, we’ll cover some tips on writing and formatting in Word documents.
How to Type Titles of Books
First things first—how do you format the title of a book in your paper?
The general rule is that book titles should be italicized regardless of the medium used to write the title. It will hold the same whether you’re writing by hand or typing on a computer. Writing a title in italics helps the title stand out from the surrounding text and makes it clear that you’re referring to a published work.
Take a look at two examples for comparison:
– Correct application: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a classic of American literature.
– Incorrect application: “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is a classic of American literature.
Notice that the title is italicized for the correct entry. Furthermore, the title is not placed in quotation marks. Quotation marks are typically reserved for shorter works, like poems, articles, or short stories.
The same rule applies whether you’re typing up a book title in an essay, research papers, or even a writing assignment for an English class. Whenever you’re wondering how to type a book title in a paper, italics will most often be the proper formatting choice.
How to Type a Title in an Essay
Now, let’s say you’re not typing a book title but the title of your own essay. The rules are going to be a bit different in this case. Titles of your essays or papers should not be in italics, quotation marks, or bold. Further, the title of an essay should always be at the top of the page and centered. It should be in the same font and size as the rest of the text, and the typical format will be Times New Roman and a 12-point font.
Moreover, the title of your essay should give a general idea of the paper’s content if the title contains the title of a book.
The following to examples demonstrates how it is applied:
– Correct application:
The Theme of Innocence in To Kill a Mockingbird
– Incorrect application:
The Theme of Innocence in To Kill a Mockingbird
In the first example, the essay’s title is centered, and only the book title is italicized. Understanding how to type a title in an essay correctly is important for following academic guidelines.
How to Type a Book Title in MLA Format
In academic writing, MLA format is one of the most common citation styles. If you’re not confident on how to type a book title in MLA, the essential rule to remember is that book titles should always be italicized. This will apply to both in-text references and works cited pages.
For example, if you are referencing a book within the body of your paper, it should look something similar to the following example:
– According to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, empathy is a central theme of the novel (Lee 123).
On the Works Cited page of your paper, the title of the book will be presented like this:
– Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1960.
You’ll demonstrate that you know how to follow the correct MLA style guidelines by italicizing the book title both in your essay and your Works Cited page. Understanding how to type a book title in MLA will ensure your work is formatted properly, and it will give your paper a polished and professional appearance.
How to Type an Essay in MLA Format
Expanding upon academic styles of writing, one must note that the MLA format has specific guidelines for titles and the entire structure of your essay. When you’re learning how to type an essay in MLA format, it’s wise to follow these general rules:
- Use 12-point Times New Roman font.
- Apply Double-space to an entire essay, including quotes and the Works Cited page.
- Include a header with your last name and page number in the upper right corner of each page.
- Use the top left corner of the first page to include your name, instructor’s name, course name and number, and the date the paper is written.
- Your title should be centered, but not italicized, bolded, or underlined (unless it contains a book title).
You’ll typically have a very well formatted MLA paper when keeping these guidelines in mind.
How to Type a Book in Word
If you’re working on a larger project, such as a novel or a book-length piece of work, you may be wondering how to go about typing a book in Word. Now, Microsoft Word is a versatile tool that offers plenty of features to help with formatting a book. This is especially true for when you start to edit and refine your work.
Here’s how to get started with this word processing software:
- Use provided “Styles” for Consistency: Word’s “Styles” feature allows you to create consistent formatting for your chapter titles, headings, and body text as a built-in application. You can access this on the “Home” tab, under “Styles.” Also, you can tailor it to your approach.
- Insert Page Numbers: To give a book a professional look and structure, you’ll need to add page numbers which can be easily carried. You can insert these by clicking “Insert” > “Page Number” and choosing where you want them to appear.
- Create a Table of Contents: If you’re writing a non-fiction book or a thesis, Word has the features that allow an automatically generated a Table of Contents based on your headings. Simply click “References” > “Table of Contents.” The Table of Contents will be created as you apply the headings. Also, make sure to update the table periodically so it captures all the headings.
- Save Regularly: This seems obvious, but writing a book can be a long process. Make sure to save your work often and consider saving multiple drafts to ensure no work is lost.
When typing up a book in a Word document, the process may seem overwhelming at the start, but it’s key to know that it provides plenty of tools to manage the process. Play around with the processor to get a feel of the different applications you’ll need to efficiently write your body of work.
Wrapping Up
Whether you’re writing an academic paper, a blog post, or even a full-length book, knowing how to type titles of books correctly is a small but significant detail that will give your work a more polished and professional look and feel. Whether it’s following MLA guidelines or formatting a manuscript in Word, attention to detail in how you present titles and structure your writing goes a long way toward creating a successful final product.
As with all projects one may decide to take on, the key to success with writing is consistent application and editing of your work. The guidance provided by an authoritative body such as MLA gives writers a format to achieve consistency without the guesswork.