User:Vasha77/MLA Handbook on Capitalization

Excerpts from the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th edition).

3.6 TITLES OF WORKS IN THE RESEARCH PAPER
3.6.1 Capitalization and Punctuation
The rules for capitalizing titles are strict. In a title or subtitle, capitalize the first word, the last word, and all principal words, including those that follow hyphens in compound terms. Therefore, capitalize the following parts of speech:

• Nouns
• Pronouns [including the subordinating pronouns who, which, that] (e.g. our, as in Save Our Children, that, as in The Mouse That Roared)
• Verbs (e.g. watches, as in America Watches Television; is, as in What Is Literature?
• Adjectives [including demonstrative adjectives, numerals, etc.]
• Adverbs (e.g. Only Slightly Corrupt; Go Down, Moses)
• Subordinating conjunctions (after, although, as if, as soon as, because, before, if, that, unless, until, when, where, while and so forth)

Do not capitalize the following parts of speech when they fall in the middle of a title:

• Articles
• Prepositions (e.g. The Merchant of Venice; A Dialogue between the Soul and Body)
• Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet) [Vasha's note: this recommendation would capitalize this title as "They've Got Bread Mold, so Why Can't They Make Penicillin?"]
• The to in infinitives (e.g. How to Play Chess)

Use a colon and a space to separate a title from a subtitle, unless the title ends in a question mark or an exclamation point. Include other punctuation only if it is part of the title or subtitle.
Examples:
      The Teaching of Spanish in English-Speaking Countries
      Storytelling and Mythmaking: Images from Film and Literature
      Life As I Find It
      The Artist as Critic
      Whose Music? A Sociology of Musical Language
      "Italian Literature before Dante"
      "What Americans Stand For"
      "Marcel Proust: Archetypal Music—an Exercise in Transcendence"
When the first line of a poem serves as the title of the poem, reproduce the line exactly as it appears in the text.
       Example: "Dickinson's poem 'I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—' contrasts the everyday and the momentous."

3.6.4 Titles and Quotations within Titles
Italicize a title normally indicated by italics when it appears within a title enclosed in quotation marks. (e.g. "Romeo and Juliet and Renaissance Politics")

Enclose in single quotation marks a title normally indicated by quotation marks when it appears within another title requiring quotation marks. (e.g. "Lines after Reading 'Sailing to Byzantium'")

Use quotation marks around a title normally indicated by quotation marks when it appears within an italicized title. (e.g. "The Lottery" and Other Stories)

There are two common methods for identifying a normally italicized title when it appears within an italicized title. In one practice, the title within is neither italicized nor enclosed in quotation marks. This method is preferred in publications of the Modern Language Association. (e. g. From The Lodger to The Lady Vanishes: Hitchcock's Classic British Thrillers)

In the other method, all titles within italicized titles are placed in quotation marks and itlaicized. (e.g. From "The Lodger" to "The Lady Vanishes": Hitchcock's Classic British Thrillers)