How to mention an article title in a paper apa 7

One author: Where the Wild Things Are (Sendak, 1963) is a depiction of a child coping with his anger towards his mom.

Two authors (cite both names every time): Brabant and Mooney (1986) have used the comic strip to examine evidence of sex role stereotyping. OR The comic strip has been used to examine evidence of sex role stereotyping (Brabant & Mooney, 1986).

Three or more authors (cite the first author plus et al.): Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy (Clare et al., 2016) depicts a young man's experience at the Shadowhunter Academy, a place where being a former vampire is looked down upon.OR Clare et al. (2016) have crafted a unique story about a young man's journey to find himself.

No author: Cite the first few words of the reference entry (usually the title) and the year. Use double quotation marks around the title of an article or chapter, and italicize the title of a periodical, book, brochure, or report. Examples: From the book Study Guide (2000) ... or ("Reading," 1999).

Note: Titles of periodicals, books, brochures, or reports should be in italics and use normal title capitalization rules.

If you are citing multiple sources by multiple authors in-text, you can list all of them by the author's last name and year of publication within the same set of parentheses, separated by semicolons.

Example: (Adams, 1999; Jones & James, 2000; Miller, 1999)

For more information on how to cite books in-text and as a reference entry, see the APA Publication Manual (7th edition) Section 10.2 on pages 321-325.

Including an article title in the text of your writing serves a different purpose than including it in the Works Cited section of a paper. You may want to include the title of an article in your paper when it is the main subject you’re writing about, a subject you’re discussing that you’re referring to simply as an example, or if the research for your writing isn’t extensive enough to require a citation page. The American Psychological Association (APA) has specific guidelines on how to include an article title in the text of your writing.

Consider section 4.21 of the APA Publication Manual "Use of Italics;" according to it, italics should be used for titles of books, periodicals, films, videos, television shows, and microfilm. Make an exception if words in the title are usually italicized and set them in normal type instead; this is called reverse italicization.

Consider section 4.07 of the APA Publication Manual, “Quotation Marks;” according to it, quotes should be used to set off the title of books, articles, and chapters when you are including it in the text.

Check your writing to make sure you’re following the previous two guidelines; the article you mention in your text should be formatted as follows:

Ms. Bond published her controversial piece, “Housebreaking the Habit” in (italics)Dogfancy(/italics) magazine in June of 2010.

references

  • 1 “Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed.”; American Psychological Association; 2010

About the Author

In 1998 Catherine Bowers began writing articles for newspapers, including "The Daily Collegian" at Pennsylvania State University. She also edited a Spanish-language journal and wrote product and patent descriptions for inventors. Bowers assists with the Gutenberg Project and graduated from Pennsylvania State with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

No, typically you don’t italicize article titles. Instead, you may enclose article titles in double quotation marks (MLA 9: “Article Title”) or simply use regular font without quotation marks (APA 7: Article title). The exact format for article titles depends on the style guide you’re using. Different academic disciplines use different style manuals that follow differing rules. However, generally, you do italicize the larger work of which the article is a part (Journal/Magazine/Newspaper Title). 

Let’s look at how MLA 9, APA 7, and Chicago styles handle title formatting for articles.

MLA 9 Style for Article Titles

Since journal, magazine, and newspaper articles are part of a larger standalone work, you use regular font (not italics) for article titles and double quotation marks in MLA 9 style.

Here is a template for a magazine article in MLA 9-style:

Author Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Article.” Magazine Title, Publication Month. Year, pp. #-# or URL.

Here is an MLA 9-style reference list entry example for a magazine article:

Parker, James. “An Ode to My Thesaurus.” The Atlantic, July-Aug. 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/07/an-ode-to-my-thesaurus/638453/

Notice the regular font for the magazine article and the italics for the magazine title:

  • Article title: “An Ode to My Thesaurus”
  • Magazine title: The Atlantic

MLA 9’s style manual uses the term containers for larger standalone works. For example, a book is a container for a chapter. Here are more container examples:

  • Container –> Item in container
  • Album –> Song
  • Book –> Chapter
  • Journal –> Article
  • Television show/series –> Episode
  • Newspaper or Magazine Publication –> Interview

Standalone works or containers are italicized. That includes the titles of the following:

  • Albums
  • Books
  • Films
  • Journal Titles
  • Magazine Titles
  • Newspaper Titles
  • Photo/Image/Painting
  • Television series
  • Videos
  • Webpages/Websites
  • etc.

Works contained within a standalone work should be enclosed in double quotation marks. In the works-cited entry, these titles are placed before the container’s, or standalone work’s, title. Titles of works that are part of larger standalone works include the following:

  • Book chapters
  • Interviews in a magazine
  • Journal articles
  • Magazine article
  • Newspaper article
  • Short stories
  • Song on an album
  • Webpage/Website articles
  • etc.

APA 7 Style for Article Titles

Since journal, magazine, and newspaper articles are part of a larger standalone work, you use regular font (not italics) for article titles in APA style.

Here is a template for a journal article in APA 7-style:

Author Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Publication Year). Title of the journal article: Subtitle of article. Title of the Journal, VolumeNumber(IssueNumber), Page#-#. URL.

Here is an APA 7-style reference list entry example for a journal article:

Jacoby, W. G. (1994). Public attitudes toward government spending. American Journal of Political Science, 38(2), 336-361. https://doi.org/10.2307/2111407

Notice the regular font for the journal article and the italics for the journal title:

  • Article title: Public attitudes toward government spending.
  • Journal title: American Journal of Political Science

In APA 7, you italicize titles of sources that stand alone. Standalone sources are not part of another work. Standalone works that you italicize in APA include:

  • Books
  • Films
  • Journal Titles (not journal articles)
  • Magazine Title
  • Music Album (not a song on the album)
  • Newspaper Title
  • Podcast (not a podcast episode)
  • Photo/Image/Painting
  • Reports
  • Television Series
  • Video
  • Webinar
  • Webpages/Websites
  • YouTube Video
  • etc.

Works that are just a part of another work, like a chapter in a book, are not italicized. Sources that are part of another work and in regular font in APA include:

  • Edited Book Chapters
  • Journal Articles
  • Magazine Articles
  • Newspaper Articles
  • Podcast episodes
  • Short stories
  • Songs on an album
  • Television episodes
  • etc.

Chicago Style (17th ed. notes-bibliography format)

Since journal, magazine, and newspaper articles are part of a larger standalone work, you use regular font (not italics) and quotation marks for article titles in Chicago style.

Here is a template for a newspaper article in Chicago-style:

Note:

  1. Author First Name Last Name, “Newspaper Article Title,” Newspaper Title, Publication Month Day, Year, URL.

Bibliography:

Author Last Name, First Name. “Newspaper Article Title.” Newspaper Title, Publication Month Day, Year. URL.

Here are Chicago-style note and bibliography entry examples for a newspaper article:

Note:

  1. Emmett Lindner, “Keeping Up With Crypto,” New York Times, June 3, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/insider/keeping-up-with-crypto.html.

Bibliography:

Lindner. Emmett. “Keeping Up With Crypto.” New York Times, June 3, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/insider/keeping-up-with-crypto.html.

Notice the regular font for the newspaper article and the italics for the newspaper title:

  • Article title: “Keeping Up With Crypto”
  • Newspaper title: New York Times

In Chicago style, you italicize titles of sources that stand alone. Standalone sources are not part of another work. Standalone works that you italicize in Chicago include:

  • Books
  • Films
  • Journal Titles (not journal articles)
  • Magazine Title
  • Music Album (not a song on the album)
  • Newspaper Title
  • Podcast (not a podcast episode)
  • Photo/Image/Painting
  • Reports
  • Television Series
  • Video
  • Webpages/Websites
  • etc.

Works that are just a part of another work, like a chapter in a book, are not italicized. Sources that are part of another work and in regular font in Chicago style include:

  • Edited Book Chapters
  • Journal Articles
  • Magazine Articles
  • Newspaper Articles
  • Podcast episodes
  • Short stories
  • Songs on an album
  • Television episodes
  • etc.

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How do I write the title of an article in MLA?

The article title does not appear in in-text citations. It appears only in the corresponding works-cited-list entry. To cite the article title in MLA style in your works cited list, you need to follow the format given in the below template. An example of an article written by a single author is given for your understanding.

Works cited list template and example

The title of the article is in plain text and title case; it is placed inside quotation marks. Follow the punctuation and formatting as given in the example.

Template:

Surname, First Name. “Title of the Article.” Journal Title, volume #, issue #, publication date, page range.

Example:

Etchells, Tim. “On the Skids: Some Years of Acting Animals.” Performance Research, vol. 5, no. 2, 2000, pp. 55–60.

Should an article title be italicized?

The article title of a journal, newspaper, or magazine is never italicized in either APA or MLA style. In APA style, the article title is given in plain text and sentence case. In MLA style, the article title is written in title case and given in quotation marks.

How do I mention an article title within an APA paper?

Titles of books and reports are italicized or underlined; titles of articles and chapters are in quotation marks.

How do you write the title of an article in APA 7?

Basic Form. APA style dictates that authors are named with their last name followed by their initials; publication year goes between parentheses, followed by a period. The title of the article is in sentence-case, meaning only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized.

Do I italicize article titles in APA 7?

Do not italicize the titles of articles. Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the article title. If there is a colon in the article title, also capitalize the first letter of the first word after the colon. If an item has no date, use the short form n.d. where you would normally put the date.

Do I italicize article titles in APA?

Do not italicize or use quotation marks for the titles of articles. Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the article title.