A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, Ninth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2018

Titles of works
Names, special terms, and titles of works
Style

When you cite a work, present its title exactly as it appears in the original work or, if the original is unavailable, in a reliable authority.

Always preserve the original spelling (including hyphenation) in such titles, even if it does not conform to current American usage as described in chapter 20. See 17.1.2 for some permissible changes to the punctuation of titles, such as the use of a colon between a title and a subtitle, and the addition of a comma before dates.

Academic convention prescribes that titles follow specific patterns of capitalization and the use of italics or quotation marks (or neither), regardless of how they appear in the original.

22.3.1 Capitalization

Titles have two patterns of capitalization: headline style and sentence style. Present most titles in headline style. For titles in languages other than English, use sentence style.

Both citation styles described in this manual prescribe headline-style capitalization for English-language titles. See 16.1.3 and 18.1.3.

Also use headline-style capitalization for the title of your paper and the titles of any parts or chapters within it unless your discipline prefers sentence style (see A.1.5).

22.3.1.1 HEADLINE-STYLE CAPITALIZATION. Headline-style capitalization is intended to distinguish titles clearly from surrounding text. In this style, capitalize the first letter of the first and last words of the title and subtitle and all other words, except as follows:

✵ ▪ Do not capitalize articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for), or the word to or as except as the first or last word in the title or subtitle.

✵ ▪ Do not capitalize prepositions (of, in, at, above, under, and so forth) unless they are used as adverbs (up in Look Up) or adjectives (on in The On Button).

✵ ▪ Capitalize the second part (or subsequent parts) of a hyphenated compound unless it is an article, preposition, or coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for), or a modifier such as sharp or flat following a musical key; or unless the first part is a prefix (anti, pre, and so forth). (Remember to follow the original hyphenation of a title even if it differs from the principles discussed in 20.3.)

✵ ▪ Lowercase the second part of a species name, such as fulvescens in Acipenser fulvescens, even if it is the last word in a title or subtitle (see also 22.1.3).

✵ ▪ Do not capitalize parts of proper nouns that are normally in lowercase, as described in 22.1.1 (van in Ludwig van Beethoven).

The Economic Effects of the Civil War in the Mid-Atlantic States

To Have and to Hold: A Twenty-First-Century View of Marriage

All That Is True: The Life of Vincent van Gogh, 1853—90

Four Readings of the Gospel according to Matthew

Self-Government and the Re-establishment of a New World Order

Global Warming: What We Are Doing about It Today

Still Life with Oranges

From Homo erectus to Homo sapiens: A Black-and-White History

E-flat Concerto

Although many short words are lowercase in this style, length does not determine capitalization. You must capitalize short verbs (is, are), adjectives (new), personal pronouns (it, we), and relative pronouns (that), because they are not among the exceptions listed above. Use lowercase for long prepositions (according), since prepositions are among the exceptions.

Two kinds of titles should not be presented in headline style even if you use it for all other titles:

✵ ▪ For titles in languages other than English, use sentence-style capitalization (see 22.3.1.2).

✵ ▪ For titles of works published in the eighteenth century (1700s) or earlier, retain the original capitalization (and spelling), except that words spelled out in all capital letters should be given with an initial capital only.

A Treatise of morall philosophy Contaynyge the sayings of the wyse

22.3.1.2 SENTENCE-STYLE CAPITALIZATION. Sentence-style capitalization is a simpler, though less distinct, way of presenting titles than headline style. In this style, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the title and subtitle and any proper nouns and proper adjectives thereafter.

Seeing and selling late-nineteenth-century Japan

Natural crisis: Symbol and imagination in the mid-American farm crisis

Religious feminism: A challenge from the National Organization for Women

Starry night

Unless your discipline says otherwise, reserve sentence style for titles of works in languages other than English.

Note that other languages have different conventions for capitalization. For example, German nouns are generally capitalized, whereas German adjectives, even those derived from proper nouns, are not. If you are uncertain about the conventions of a particular language, consult a reliable authority.

Speculum Romanae magnificentiae

Historia de la Orden de San Gerónimo

Reallexikon zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte

Phénoménologie et religion: Structures de l’institution chrétienne

22.3.2 Italics or Quotation Marks

Most titles of works are set off from the surrounding text by italics or quotation marks, depending on the type of work. The guidelines listed here apply not only to titles used in text but also to most titles in source citations (see chapters 15—19).

The examples below are presented with headline-style capitalization, but the guidelines also apply to titles with sentence-style capitalization (see 22.3.1.2).

22.3.2.1 ITALICS. Italicize the titles of most longer works, including the types listed here. For parts of these works and shorter works of the same type, see 22.3.2.2.

✵ ▪ books (Culture and Anarchy, The Chicago Manual of Style)

✵ ▪ plays (A Winter’s Tale) and very long poems, especially those of book length (Dante’s Inferno)

✵ ▪ journals (Signs), magazines (Time), newspapers (the New York Times), and blogs (Dot Earth); an initial The in periodical titles is normally treated as part of the surrounding text (and omitted in source citations) but may be capitalized and italicized along with the title if it forms an integral part of a name that otherwise consists of a single word (The Intercept)

✵ ▪ long musical compositions (The Marriage of Figaro) or titles of albums (Michael Jackson’s Thriller)

✵ ▪ paintings (the Mona Lisa), sculptures (Michelangelo’s David), and other works of art, including photographs (Ansel Adam’s North Dome)

✵ ▪ movies (Citizen Kane) and television (Sesame Street) and radio programs (All Things Considered)

22.3.2.2 QUOTATION MARKS. Enclose in quotation marks, but do not italicize, the title of a shorter work, whether or not it is part of a longer work (such as those listed in 22.3.2.1).

✵ ▪ chapters (“The Later Years”) or other titled parts of books

✵ ▪ short stories (“The Dead”), short poems (“The Housekeeper”), and essays (“Of Books”)

✵ ▪ articles or other features in journals (“The Function of Fashion in Eighteenth-Century America”), magazines (“Who Should Lead the Supreme Court?”), newspapers (“Election Comes Down to the Wire”), and websites or blogs (“An Ice Expert Muses on Greenhouse Heat”)

✵ ▪ individual episodes of television programs (“The Opposite”)

✵ ▪ short musical compositions (“The Star-Spangled Banner”) and recordings (“All You Need Is Love”)

Also use quotation marks and roman type for titles of whole works that have not been formally published, including the following:

✵ ▪ theses and dissertations (“A Study of Kant’s Early Works”)

✵ ▪ lectures and papers presented at meetings (“Voice and Inequality: The Transformation of American Civic Democracy”)

✵ ▪ titled documents in manuscript collections (“A Map of the Southern Indian District of North America”)

22.3.2.3 NEITHER. Capitalize but do not use italics or quotation marks with these special types of titles:

✵ ▪ book series (Studies in Legal History)

✵ ▪ manuscript collections (Egmont Manuscripts)

✵ ▪ scriptures (the Bible) and other revered works (the Upanishads), as well as versions of the Bible (the King James Version) and its books (Genesis; see 24.6 for a complete list)

✵ ▪ musical works referred to by their genre (Symphony no. 41, Cantata BWV 80), though the popular titles for such works should be italicized (the Jupiter Symphony) or placed in quotation marks (“Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott”) depending on their length, as noted above

✵ ▪ websites (Google Maps, Facebook, Apple.com, the Internet Movie Database, IMDb, Wikipedia), though exceptions may be made for sites that are closely analogous to a type of work listed in 22.3.2.1 (the Huffington Post)

Treat generic terms for parts of books or other works as you would any other word. Do not capitalize them or use italics or quotation marks unless you would do the same for an ordinary word (such as at the beginning of a sentence). If a part includes a number, give it in arabic numerals, regardless of its appearance in the original work (see 23.1.8).

✵ in Lionel Trilling’s preface

✵ a comprehensive bibliography

✵ as discussed in chapters 4 and 5

✵ killed off in act 3, scene 2

22.3.3 Punctuation

Preserve any punctuation that is part of a title when using the title in a sentence (see 17.1.2). If the title is used as a restrictive clause or in another position in the sentence that would normally be followed by a comma (see 21.2), add the comma.

Love, Loss, and What I Wore was later adapted for an off-Broadway play.

but

Her favorite book, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, is an autobiography recounted largely through drawings.

Punctuation within a title should not affect any punctuation called for by the surrounding sentence. One exception: omit a terminal period after a title ending in a question mark or an exclamation point. See also 21.12.2.

“Are You a Doctor?” is the fifth story in Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?