Long titles, such as novels, movies, or record albums, should be italicized in general. Poems, articles, book chapters, songs, TV episodes, and other shorter works should be titled using quotation marks. Multiple words within the title itself can be set off by commas.
In English-language films, television programs, and audio recordings, the title must be given at the beginning of each sentence. This is because each word in the title has its own meaning, and thus needs to be defined individually before the sentence can be completed. For example, "The Great Gatsby" is a long sentence that functions as a title because each word has been emphasized through capitalization. "Gatsby" here represents a person, while "gatsby" is an obsolete term for a small fish.
Titles can be used to describe a film, television show, album, etc. They can also act as summaries of stories within those items. For example, the title "Empire Records: The Name of the Game" provides information about the film/album's genre (i.e., hip hop) and also acts as a summary of some of the content within it. Titles can also give away important details about a film's or album's plot.
Often, titles are used to attract attention or make a statement.
Full-text titles, such as books or newspapers, should be italicized. Poems, articles, short tales, and chapters should have their titles in quotation marks. If the name of the book series is italicized, titles of volumes that create a greater body of work may be put in quotation marks. For example: "The Lord of the Rings" is the title of both a novel and a collection of three novels by J.R.R. Tolkien.
For example: "The Divine Comedy" is the complete title of Dante Alighieri's famous poem about a pilgrim who encounters different levels of hell and heaven while traveling through purgatory.
Titles of films, songs, and plays are usually not italicized.
Italicize work titles (books, magazines, newspapers, movies, plays, and CDs). For shorter works, use quote marks (book chapters, articles, poems, and songs).
Movie titles are usually written in the first person singular, although the third person is used occasionally. The title of a film or television program is often printed in large, eye-catching type on its own panel or within an opening credit sequence.
Writers tend to be vague about how they come up with titles. They may have an idea for a story that doesn't yet have a name, so they start with something that sounds good and then find another use for it later. Some say they pick words that fit together well; others say they try different combinations until something catches their interest. Whatever the process, they know it's not just anything that comes into mind.
Titles also can help tell readers more about the content inside. A book called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer might lead readers to believe that it will be a story about young Tom Sawyer trying various adventures. But what if I told you that this book was actually about Huckleberry Finn trying various adventures too? With that information, you would understand that this is not just any old story about young people doing things but one with a particular theme and tone.
Poems, articles, short tales, and chapters should have their titles in quotation marks... So, for example, "The Raven" would be appropriate for a poem.
Titles of books, films, and other publications are often set in small, non-italic type. Although this is common practice, it is not required by any particular standard. If you use these titles, they too should be put in quotation marks.
Finally, there are cases where only the first word of a sentence is capitalized. For example, "the" and "and" are both lowercase letters. However, if you create a long series of sentences using only the first word of each sentence, then, of course, they too will be lowercase.
Sometimes you'll find yourself trapped and unsure of what punctuation to use. In that case, follow the publication's guidelines.
Shorter works' titles (e.g., articles, songs, poems, and short tales) are surrounded by quotation marks: "Title." Longer works' titles (e.g., novels, journals, albums, and movies) are italicized: title. In addition, the first word of a sentence is capitalized: He said "good-bye" instead of saying good-bye.
Movie titles use an initial caps format, which should be followed when writing about film in general or any other form of media. This style was popular in the 1930s and 1940s among writers who wanted to indicate that they were dealing with a major work. Today, it is considered bad taste to use this formatting for ordinary books or magazines. However, for films, video games, and other forms of entertainment, this style is used extensively throughout North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel.
This style is used because film titles are often written in block capitals, which look like text and can be easily differentiated from photographs or other illustrations. Although this style is not required by today's publishing standards, it does help readers identify important words within the text.
Furthermore, using upper case for the first letter of each sentence makes for a more dramatic opening title sequence. This style is commonly used in fiction books and movies.
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