Titles and Introduction

Titles of books and movies should be underlined. Some teachers allow italics. Underlining and italics mean the same thing in the publishing world. I prefer underlining because they're easier to see quickly. Titles of articles and short stories should be in quotation marks.


When we typed with typewriters, we couldn't type in italics. The writer would type something with an underline which told the publishers to put in italics when published.

However, don't do anything to your OWN title--unless it has a title in it. For example, let's say this is your title"

Slow Motion Prose in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon

You don't do anything to your title, but this title has a book in it, so it should be like this:

Also, always introduce the work even if you did so in the title. Here's the wrong way to start the paper for the above title:

     In this story...

Right off the bat, this writer has assumed her title as part of the text of the paper. The right way should be like this:

     In Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon...

Here we have correctly introduced the work, and the book title is underlined.

Other Notes:

The following notes may not apply to the book review but should be applied to your own papers.

Never refer to your paper as a paper, assignment, etc. And never use class discussion or my comments as sources for your papers.

Also, academic papers appear to follow a certain pattern in their titles which you should emolate. So, attempt to include in your titles, the author, the title and the theme you're discussing as in this title: Slow Motion Prose in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon.