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How to Write Book Titles in Your Essays

3-minute read

• 26th May 2023

When writing an essay, you’re likely to mention other authors’ works, such as books, papers, and articles. Formatting the titles of these works usually involves using quotation marks or italics.

So how do you write a book title in an essay? Most style guides have a standard for this – be sure to check that first. If you’re unsure, though, check out our guide below.

Italics or Quotation Marks?

As a general rule, you should set titles of longer works in italics , and titles of shorter works go in quotation marks . Longer works include books, journals, TV shows, albums, plays, etc. Here’s an example of a book mention:

Shorter works include poems, articles, chapters of books, episodes of TV shows, songs, etc. If it’s a piece that’s part of a biggHow to Write Book Titles in Your Essayser work, the piece considered a short work:

Exceptions to the Rule

The rule for writing book titles in italics applies specifically to running text . If the book title is standing on its own, as in a heading, there’s no need to italicize it.

Additionally, if the book is part of a larger series and you’re mentioning both the title of the series and that of the individual book, you can consider the book a shorter work. You would set the title of the series in italics and place the book title in quotation marks:

Punctuation in Book Titles

Do you need to apply italics to the punctuation in a book title? The short answer is yes – but only if the punctuation is part of the title:

If the punctuation isn’t part of the title (i.e., the punctuation is part of the sentence containing the title), you shouldn’t include in the italics:

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Summary: Writing Book Titles in Essays

We hope you’ll now feel confident when you’re writing and formatting book titles in your essays. Generally, you should set the title in italics when it’s in running text. Remember, though, to check your style guide. While the standards we’ve covered are the most common, some style guides have different requirements.

And once you finish writing your paper, make sure you send it our way! We’ll make sure any titles are formatted correctly as well as checking your work for grammar, spelling, punctuation, referencing, and more. Submit a free sample to try our service today.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you write the title of a book in a sentence.

Set the title of the book in italics unless the book is part of a larger work (e.g., a book that’s part of a series):

When do you use quotation marks for titles?

Place titles of shorter works or pieces that are contained in a larger work in quotation marks:

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How to Write a Book Name in an Essay

Last Updated: February 14, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Noah Taxis and by wikiHow staff writer, Danielle Blinka, MA, MPA . Noah Taxis is an English Teacher based in San Francisco, California. He has taught as a credentialed teacher for over four years: first at Mountain View High School as a 9th- and 11th-grade English Teacher, then at UISA (Ukiah Independent Study Academy) as a Middle School Independent Study Teacher. He is now a high school English teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School in San Francisco. He received an MA in Secondary Education and Teaching from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. He also received an MA in Comparative and World Literature from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a BA in International Literary & Visual Studies and English from Tufts University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 62,061 times.

When you’re writing an essay that includes a book title, it can be confusing to write the title correctly. However, it’s really easy once you know the rules. How you write the title will vary a little bit depending on the style your instructor assigns and if you are typing or handwriting the essay. Luckily, it's easy to follow the rules for writing a book name in an essay.

Writing Help

Typing an Essay in MLA or Chicago Style Format

• For example, you would write To Kill a Mockingbird , The Lord of the Rings , or Wuthering Heights .

• If you have the book name in front of you, you can just copy it down as it is printed.
• Articles include a, an, and the.
• Prepositions include at, in, on, of, about, since, from, for, until, during, over, above, under, underneath, below, beneath, near, by, next to, between, among, and opposite.
• Coordinating conjunctions include the FANBOYS, which are for, and, not, but, or, yet, and

• For example, you would write the name of William Faulkner’s novel Absalom, Absalom! with both the comma and the exclamation point in italics.

• If the highlight bar goes away, try again, making sure that you don’t click anywhere on the page after you highlight the book name.

• Alternatively, you can press the italicize icon before you type the title.
• If you’re using Microsoft Word to type your essay, the italicize key may appear if you hover over the highlighted book name.

• If the next word after your title appears italicized when you resume typing, simply highlight it and click the italicize icon to remove the formatting.

• For example, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is sometimes published in one volume. In this case, you could write the name of the first novel as "The Fellowship of the Ring" when citing it in an essay.

Typing an Essay in APA Format

• Capitalize the first letter of the words, not the entire word.
• If the word is a two-part hyphenated word in the title, you should capitalize both words. For example, you would write Blue River: The Trial of a Mayor-Elect .
• If there is a dash or colon in the title, you should capitalize the word after the punctuation, regardless of how long the word is. As above, you would write Blue River: The Trial of a Mayor-Elect .

• For example, you would write Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? with the question mark italicized.

• If the book name is not highlighted, left click and drag your cursor again, making sure that you don’t click again anywhere on the page.

• If you are using Microsoft Word, the italics icon may appear when you hover over the highlighted book title. It’s okay to click this key.

Handwriting an Essay

• For MLA and Chicago style essays, capitalize the first word of the book name and every word other than articles, prepositions, or coordinating conjunctions. For example, write The Lord of the Rings .
• If you’re using APA style, capitalize the first word and all words longer than 4 letters. [9] X Research source This means you would write Public Policy in Local Government .

• If you’re writing on lined paper, it may help to follow along the line of the paper. However, make sure your line is dark enough so that your instructor will see that you properly underlined the book name.

• For example, you would write Judy Blume’s Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by underlining the punctuation marks as well as the words.

Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about academic writing, check out our in-depth interview with Noah Taxis .

• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_general_format.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/writing_about_literature/formatting.html
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/underline-or-italicize-book-titles/
• ↑ https://askus.library.wwu.edu/faq/116757
• ↑ https://libguides.up.edu/apa/books_ebooks
• ↑ https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/italics-quotations/italics

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Q. How do I refer to a book by title in-text in APA format?

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Answered By: Gabe Gossett Last Updated: Jun 22, 2023     Views: 612282

The basic format for an in-text citation is: Title of the Book (Author Last Name, year).

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 .

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Comments (13)

• This was very useful for me! I was having a really hard time finding information on how to mention an article title AND the author in text in APA so this was very helpful!!! by Ryan Waddell on Jun 27, 2019
• If I just mention that I used a book to teach a topic do I have to include it in the reference list? by Franw on Oct 17, 2019
• @Franw, if it is a source that informs your paper in any way, or if your reader would have reason to look it up, then you should include a full reference list entry for the book. by Gabe [Research & Writing Studio] on Oct 18, 2019
• Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question, but I think the OP is asking how to refer to a book title, not how to cite one. I believe APA uses quotation marks around book titles and MLA uses italics. by AB on Dec 12, 2019
• @AB: The first sentence has been tweaked to clarify title of book usage, reflecting the examples given. For APA style you should use italics for book titles. It would be quotation marks. by Gabe [Research & Writing Studio] on Dec 12, 2019
• Hi, can any one help me with in-text-citation of this, how can i cite it in the text Panel, I. L. (2002). Digital transformation: A framework for ICT literacy. Educational Testing Service, 1-53. by Milad on Aug 20, 2021
• @Milad: In that case it would be (Panel, 2002). If you are quoting, or otherwise choosing to include page numbers, put a comma after the year, then p. and the page number(s). by Gabe Gossett on Aug 20, 2021
• Hey, I'm a little bit curious, what if I'm mentioning a book and paraphrasing it but still want to give credit. Would I put the information into parenthesis instead? Like: Paraphrased info. ("Title in Italics" Author, year) by Kai on Sep 14, 2023
• @Kai: Apologies for not seeing your question sooner! (Our academic year has not started yet). If I am understanding your question correctly, what I suggest is referring to the book title in the narrative of your writing, rather than in the in-text citation. I do not see an examples of using a book title in an in-text citation except for rare circumstances including citing a classic religious text or using the title when there is no author information because it is the start of your reference list entry. Basically, APA's in-text convention is supposed to make it easy for your reader to locate the source being cited in the reference list. So the first part of the in-text citation, usually authors, comes first to locate it alphabetically. Putting the book title first when you have an author name can throw that off. by Gabe Gossett on Sep 21, 2023
• Perhaps this is along the lines of the response to Kai - Can you reference a book title as a common point of social understanding to demonstrate a common concept? Is official citing required if you use widely known titles such as "Where's Waldo" and "Who Moved My Cheese?" to make a point of illustration? by Chez Renee on Sep 30, 2023
• @Chez: Aside from some classical religious texts, if it is a published book, I'd try to make sure that it is appropriately cited for APA style. That said, I think I understand where it gets tricky with things like Where's Waldo, since that is a series of books and stating "Where's Waldo" is a cultural reference many people would understand, though you can't reasonably cite the entire series. I don't believe that APA gives guidance for this particular issue. If it is being referred to in order to back up a claim, it would help to cite a particular book. If not, then it might work to use a statement such as, "Hanford's Where's Waldo series . . ." by Gabe Gossett on Oct 02, 2023
• How to cite a dissertation thesis in apa form? by Elizabeth on Feb 05, 2024
• @Elizabeth: For citing a dissertation or thesis you can check out our page answering that here https://askus.library.wwu.edu/faq/153308 by Gabe Gossett on Feb 05, 2024

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How to Write a Book Title in an Essay (MLA, APA etc.)

Formatting your essay correctly ensures that you get full recognition for the hard work you put into it. Wondering what to do? There are two scenarios that lead you to the question of "how to write a book title in an essay":

• You have not been required to use a particular style guide, in which case consistency remains important.
• You have been instructed to use a particular style guide. You now simply need to ensure that you are familiar with its rules.

Regardless of which of these scenarios holds true for you, this guide is here to help.

How to Write a Book Title in an Essay

Many style manuals call on writers use title case and italics to format a book title. Title case rules vary slightly from one style guide to the next, but generally capitalize all important words — nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adverbs. Conjunctions and prepositions are not capitalized unless they are very long (generally more than four letters) or they appear at the beginning or end of a book title.

Writers who are not required to work with a specific style manual can't go wrong if they stick to this style. Some examples would be:

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals That Protect us From Violence by Gavin de Becker
• The Cat With a Feathery Tail and Other Stories by Enid Blyton

If, on the other hand, you're required to use a style guide, it will likely be one of these:

• MLA, commonly used in disciplines relating to literature and social sciences.
• APA, commonly used in psychology and other sciences.
• Chicago, often used in the publishing industry.
• Harvard style, commonly used in philosophy and social sciences.

These are certainly not the only "big players" in the style guide world, but they're ones it's good to be familiar with. There is overlap between these styles, but there are also major differences — so knowing one definitely does not mean you know the others, too.

Guidelines for Writing a Book Title in an Essay

Looking for a short and sharp answer, so you can get on with the rest of your essay? This is it.

This quick guide will help you reference the book title of your choosing in the body of your essay, but what about your Works Cited pages? Each style guide offers different rules, and we'll use the same book as an example to illustrate the differences.

• MLA uses the following format: Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Book . City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Year. Example: Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. Tor Books, 1985. (You only have to detail the city of publication if the book was published before 1900, the publisher has offices in many localities, or the publisher is not known in the US.)
• APA uses the following format: Author Last Name, First Name. (Year of Publication). Title of book. Example: Card, Orson Scott. (1985). Ender's game.
• Chicago style uses the following format: Author Last Name, First Name. Book Title: Subtitle . Place of publication: Publisher, Year. Example: Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game . Tor Books, 1985.
• Harvard uses the following format: Author Last Name, First Initial. (Publication Year). Title . ed. City: Publisher. Example: Card, O. (1985). Ender's Game. Tor Books.

If, after researching, you cannot find relevant information about publication years, publishers, or the city in which a book was published, you may omit it. For a full guide, it is always best to have a physical copy of the latest edition of the style manual you are using. You can, however, get by without this if you need to.

Should you still not know what to do, it will be helpful for you to know that you can "generate" citations for a particular style manual with the help of online tools like Cite Me . These are not always accurate, so if you decide to use one, always check the citation manually.

Why Is Proper Formatting Important?

All of the well-known style manuals ultimately serve the very same set of purposes, although they were each developed for a particular niche. The goals of these style manuals are both explicit and implicit:

• Following a style guide ensures consistency throughout a document, in this case an essay.
• Consistency ensures that reader's understand precisely what the writer is talking about, without exerting any effort on figuring that out. Clarity is especially important in academic writing.
• By using a style guide within a certain discipline, you show that you understand the rules within that discipline. This adds credibility to your voice as a writer. You have done your homework, have ideally bought the style manual, and are part of the "in group".
• Sticking to a certain style guide makes it easier for relevant parties to check your references, which they can then use to perform further research.

Students are increasingly asked to refer to style guides at all levels, including in high school. In this case, formatting your essay correctly, in accordance with the right style manual, serves two additional purposes:

• You'll lose points if you don't do it right, offering you an additional reason to do your research.
• Getting used to these formats prepares you for further education. If you are in high school, it prepares you for college-level writing. If you are an undergraduate student, it prepares you for academic work at the graduate and post-graduate levels.

Can you start an essay with a book title?

Yes, you can start an essay with a book title. This is a valid stylistic choice, but you will always want to consider your introduction carefully.

How do you write a book title in handwriting?

Students sometimes ask whether it is acceptable to underline book titles instead of italicizing them. This practice indeed stems from a time in which most students wrote their essays by hand. Although it has largely fallen out of practice now, you can still underline a book title if you are handwriting your essay.

How do you write a book title and chapter in an essay?

You should mention the chapter title first: "Rat" from Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Consult the relevant style manual to ensure you get the formatting right.

Can you shorten a book title in an essay?

Yes, you can. Reference the full title the first time you mention it (for example: Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things ). The next time you mention the book, you may simply refer to Furiously Happy .

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How to Write Book Titles in Essays: APA, MLA, Chicago Styles

It’s your practical and up-to-point guide on how to write a book title in an essay. You’ll get the formatting rules and examples for citing book and author names in academic papers.

We’ve covered the top three citation styles: APA, Chicago, and MLA.

How to Write the Title of a Book in an Essay

First, remember the general rules of citing book names in academic works.

Here’s how to cite books in essays :

• Use capitalization. Every word of a book’s name goes in the title case, except prepositions, articles, and coordinating conjunctions.
• Use italics for longer and independent works. Use double quotations for shorter ones (poems, articles, book chapters, or play acts and scenes).
• Use single quotations for a book’s title within another title. (When citing monographs about literary works, for example.) 

While capitalization rules depend on the citation style, some general tips have a place to be. Please, no capitalization for:

• Articles: a, the (unless the book title begins with it)
• Coordinating conjunctions and prepositions: of, and, or, but, for, to, nor, in, so (unless the book title begins or ends with it)

Subordinating conjunctions (although, unless, because, if) go in capital letters.

How to Write a Book Title in an Essay: APA

APA (American Psychological Association) is the most popular style for citing academic works. It’s common for the social sciences like Education, Psychology, Sociology, and others. The current edition: 7th (2019).

Book titles in APA stand for:

• Italics. (If a book name includes any punctuation, italicize it too.)
• Capitalization. (Capitalize all words longer than four letters , regardless of the part of speech. Also, use capital letters for two-part words and those coming after a dash or a colon.)
• Double quotations instead of italics. (When citing a short work like an article or a poem; when citing a book chapter or when the book is a part of an anthology.)

For example: 

The Lord of the Rings but “The Fellowship of the Ring” (The latter is part of the trilogy.)

Related: How to Cite a Movie in APA Format

How to Write the Name of a Book in an Essay: Chicago

The Chicago Manual of Style is a guide by the University of Chicago. It’s common for fields like History, Fine Arts, and Business. The current edition: 17th (2017).

How to format book titles in Chicago:

• Italicize longer and independent works; put shorter ones in double quotations.
• Use italics for punctuation within a title.
• Capitalize all words except articles (a, the) and ALL prepositions or conjunctions (regardless of length).

For example:

In George Orwell’s 1984 , the author presents a dystopian society characterized by pervasive government surveillance and the suppression of individual freedom. The harrowing events in “Chapter 2,” where Winston Smith begins to rebel against the Party by starting a forbidden diary, mark a pivotal moment in the novel’s exploration of resistance against totalitarianism.

The style resembles the MLA format, but it’s flexible, allowing you to “break the rules if necessary.”

How to Write a Book Title in an Essay: MLA

MLA format stands for the Modern Language Association. It’s common for humanities like Literature, Culture, Linguistics, etc. The current edition: 8th (2016). 

How to format books in MLA:

• Italicize all words, including punctuation and those of two parts or going after colons and hyphens.
• Capitalize all words except articles (a, the) , prepositions, and short conjunctions within a book title.
• Use double quotations instead of italics when writing a book chapter or a part of a book series.

In Little Women , Beth March dies in Chapter 40, “The Valley of the Shadow.”

Formatting Book Author Names in Papers

Use the author’s full name (first and last) to format it in your essay for proper credit.

If a book has two authors, use both last names and initials. For works with three or more authors, use the last name of the first one and add “et all.”

No need to italicize author names in papers.

Why Properly Cite Book Titles in Essays

The short answer:

You won’t get a high grade for an essay. Formatting blunders count as mistakes.

The longer answer:

• You prove writing skills and an understanding of the rules in academia.
• Your papers maintain consistency. It’s critical to stick to criteria to prevent confusion. The consistent format for book headings also serves to better scannability and readability.
• You learn to cite different types of references for your future projects.

Do you italicize book titles?

Yes, you put book titles in italics. Please italicize long and stand-alone works: books, movies, webpages, reports, or music albums. Shorter works’ titles (articles, essays, poems, songs, or book chapters) come in quotations. (1)

Do you underline book titles?

Underlining book titles is an outdated practice. Some still use it in handwritten essays, but it’s not a must-follow rule. Neither APA nor MLA (or Chicago) mentions underlining book names in academic papers.

How to use book title capitalization in texts?

Capitalize every word in a book’s title. Exceptions are articles (a, the), prepositions, and short (three or fewer letters) conjunctions in mid-titles.

Are books italicized in all formatting styles?

Yes, book titles come in italics in all styles: APA, MLA, and Chicago. When citing book chapters or a book as a part of a series, use quotation marks instead.

How to write a book author in an essay?

Use the author’s full name when citing their book in your papers. For works with several authors, mention their last names and initials. Unlike book titles, author names come in standard formatting with no italics.

References:

• https://english.csuci.edu/resources/essay-writing-essentials.htm
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Writing A Book Title In Your Essay – The Right Way

Table of contents

• 1 APA Style: How to Write Book Titles in Essays
• 2 APA Style Essay: Writing The Name of The Author
• 3 MLA Style Essay: Citing a Book Title
• 4 Chicago Style Essay: Writing the Book Title
• 5 Writing Various Types of Titles
• 6 Should We Underline or Italicize Book Titles?

When you are writing an academic essay , the book title and author’s name should be written in italics. However, if the book title is part of a larger work (such as a journal article), it should be underlined instead. So, you’re wondering how to write a book title in an essay?

Writing an essay with a book title can be tricky, particularly because each style guide has its own formatting rules for including titles in the main text. Whether you are using MLA, APA, Chicago, or Harvard referencing styles, you will need to consider how to properly format the book title. For more complicated literature-based assignments, seeking assistance from an admission essay writing service may be wise, as they specialize in writing essays that incorporate academic sources.

In this article, we will explore how to write both titles in an essay properly so that you avoid any mistakes!

APA Style: How to Write Book Titles in Essays

When writing an essay, you must follow the style guide provided by your professor. Some teachers may require you to use APA style and others MLA style. There are some rules on how to quote a book title in an essay. You should use italics and quotation marks when writing book titles in essays. For example: “ The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. “

When writing a book title in APA Style , you should be aware of these rules:

Write the book title in italics and place it after the author’s name, which is presented in reverse order (last name first).

Use quotation marks around the headline of a chapter or article.

Capitalize proper names that are not common nouns (names of people, places, organizations), but do not capitalize words such as “and,” “or,” “to,” or “and/or.”

Do not capitalize prepositions that appear at the beginning of titles if they are followed by an article (e.g., “A,” “An”), but do capitalize prepositions at the beginning of titles if they are not followed by articles (“Of”).

The first word of the headline should be capitalized, as well as any other words after a colon or hyphen. For example, “The Elements of Style: Grammar for Everyone”  or “Theories of Personality: Critical Perspectives.”

Capitalize proper names and words derived from them (e.g., the names of people, places, organizations), except proper nouns used generically (e.g., ‘a bed’).

APA Style Essay: Writing The Name of The Author

You should always use the full name and surname of the author in your APA essay because this will give proper credit to the writer. If you do not mention the author’s full name, people may not know who wrote what and will think you copied it from somewhere else. This will cause lots of problems for you and your reputation as well.

Make sure that all authors’ names appear in the same format in each entry. For example, if one person’s surname is Smith and another’s is Jones, both have first names starting with “J.” It may seem like they are being cited as different people when they’re actually written differently from each other on separate pages in your paper.

To write an APA essay without any issues, there are certain rules that you need to follow while writing an author’s name in APA essay:

• Use only one author’s name in your paper unless there are multiple authors
• If there are multiple authors, then use both their last names followed by the initials of their first names
• Only use initials of first names when there are three or more authors; otherwise, use full names with their last names

Example: Johnson, M.C., Carlson, M., Smith, J. N., & Hanover, L. E.

MLA Style Essay: Citing a Book Title

Now let’s discuss how to mention a book in an essay. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition, published by the Modern Language Association (2014), contains detailed rules about how to cite a book title in an essay.

The following guidelines will instruct you on how to refer to a book in an essay in MLA style :

• List your sources at the end of your paper, before the works cited page or bibliography.
• Use italics for titles of books, magazines, and newspapers, but not for articles within those publications, which should be placed in quotation marks.
• Include all relevant book information under two categories: “title” and “author.” In the former category, include the work’s title and its subtitle if there is one; do this even if neither appears on your title page (see below). In the latter category, include only primary authors who have written or edited an entire book; if there are multiple contributors, you should cite them separately under each.

The general format for citing the title of the book in an essay is as follows:

Author’s last name, first initial (Date). Title of Book with Subtitle if there is one. Publisher Name/Location of Publisher; Year Published

Chicago Style Essay: Writing the Book Title

One of the most important things to remember when writing in Chicago style is how to write the title of a book in an essay. To write a good book title in an essay, you should follow these steps:

• Write it at the beginning of your sentence.
• Capitalize it just like any other noun or proper noun.
• Put a comma after the title unless it’s an introductory clause or phrase. For example: “The Firm,” by John Grisham (not “by”) and “The Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D Salinger (not “and”).
• In addition to the book’s name, punctuation marks should also be italicized.

For example: Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince: Children’s Edition

Writing Various Types of Titles

Now that we covered how to write a book title and author in an essay, it’s time to look at some different types of titles. When you write a book title in an essay, several things must be considered. Whether it’s a book, series, chapter title, editor’s name, or author’s name, how you write it depends on where it appears in your paper.

Here are some key rules for writing headings for novels:

•  Use capital letters to write the title of the novel. For example,  The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett .
• Use italics and capital letters to write the name of the author and his/her other works mentioned in a book title—for example,  Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) .

You should use quotation marks when writing headings of short title poems, articles, and stories.

However, before deciding which format to use, it is important to understand the main idea you want to express in your essay. Additionally, you could use essay papers for sale to help you accomplish your goal of writing an essay effectively.

Should We Underline or Italicize Book Titles?

It depends on which style guide you use. The Modern Language Association and Chicago Manual of Style both suggest using italics, while the American Psychological Association suggests using quotation marks with a few exceptions.

The way you write the title of a book in an essay is different depending on the instructions you were given. For example, if you’re writing an essay in APA style, use quotation marks around the book’s name. If you’re writing for MLA or Chicago style , however, italicize the book’s name instead. If you’re writing a handwritten essay instead of using a computer, capitalize and underline the book’s name.

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How Do You Write a Book Title in an Essay

The art of essay writing is a multifaceted endeavor, requiring attention to detail, clarity of expression, and adherence to established conventions. Among the myriad elements that contribute to a well-crafted essay, the proper incorporation of book titles holds a distinct significance. Mastering the skill of effectively integrating book titles into your essays not only enhances the overall readability and professionalism of your work but also reflects your proficiency in academic communication.

In this exploration, we delve into the nuances of writing book titles within essays, dissecting the rules and principles that govern their presentation. From understanding the appropriate formatting to providing context and maintaining consistency, this guide will navigate you through the essential aspects of seamlessly incorporating book titles into your written discourse.

By the end of this journey, you will possess a comprehensive understanding of how to elegantly and appropriately weave book titles into your essays, elevating the impact and cohesiveness of your scholarly compositions.

Related: Why Should Abortion Be Illegal? Essay

How Do You Write a Book Title in an Essay?

To write a book title in an essay, you must follow specific formatting rules to ensure consistency and clarity. The title of a book should be treated differently depending on whether you are using it in the body of the essay or in a reference section. Let’s explore how to handle book titles in various contexts:

In-Text References:

When incorporating a book title within the body of your essay, follow these guidelines:

• If the book title is short, such as a single word or a short phrase, use quotation marks. For example: In To Kill a Mockingbird , Scout’s character development is evident.
• If the book title is longer, italicize it. For example: In his analysis of The Great Gatsby , Smith explores…

Reference Section:

In your reference section (bibliography or works cited), the formatting varies slightly:

• Italicize the title of the book, even if it was in quotation marks within the essay. For example: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby . Scribner, 1925.

Remember to maintain consistency throughout your essay and adhere to the chosen formatting style guide, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago.

Related: What is the format of a term paper?

Engaging with LSI Keywords:

Incorporating relevant Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords can enhance the depth and quality of your essay. When discussing how to write a book title in an essay , consider integrating related keywords like “ formatting book titles ,” “ citing books in essays ,” and “writing guidelines for essays.” By naturally incorporating these LSI keywords, you can broaden the scope of your content and provide valuable insights to readers.

Tips for Writing Engaging Essays with Book Titles:

Crafting an engaging essay that effectively incorporates book titles requires finesse. Here are some expert tips to elevate your essay-writing skills:

1. Contextual Relevance :

When mentioning a book title, ensure it is relevant to your essay’s context. Analyze how the book’s themes, characters, or arguments contribute to your discussion.

2. Clarity and Consistency :

Maintain clarity by consistently using either quotation marks or italics for book titles. This uniform approach enhances the professional appearance of your essay.

3. Citing Page Numbers :

When referring to specific pages or quotes from a book, include the page numbers in your citation. This adds credibility to your analysis and allows readers to locate the referenced content.

4. Integrating Book Titles in Analysis :

Rather than merely mentioning book titles, integrate them into your analysis. Discuss how a particular book’s concepts relate to your thesis or support your arguments.

5. Emphasizing Book Titles :

To emphasize the importance of a book in your essay, consider discussing its significance in relation to the topic. Explain why the book’s content adds depth to your analysis.

6. Creating Engaging Introductions :

Incorporate book titles creatively in your essay’s introduction to capture readers’ attention. Highlight the relevance of the book to your essay’s theme.

FAQ’s

Q: Can I use underlining instead of italics for book titles in essays? A: No, underlining is considered outdated in modern writing styles. Stick to using italics or quotation marks, depending on the length of the book title.

Q: Are there exceptions to the rule of italicizing or using quotation marks for book titles? A: Yes, if you are referring to the title of a sacred text or a legal document, different formatting rules may apply. Consult the appropriate style guide for guidance.

Q: Should I include the author’s name when mentioning a book title in an essay? A: While including the author’s name is not mandatory, it can provide context and enhance the credibility of your reference. Use your discretion based on the essay’s focus.

Q: How do I format book titles from different languages in my essay? A: Treat book titles from different languages similarly to English titles. Apply italics or quotation marks based on the title’s length and follow the same conventions.

Q: Can I use abbreviations for book titles in my essay? A: Avoid using abbreviations unless they are widely recognized, such as “UNESCO” or “NASA.” It’s best to use the full book title to ensure clarity.

Q: What if I am referring to multiple books in my essay? A: When mentioning multiple books, maintain consistency in your formatting. Apply the same rules (italics or quotation marks) to all the book titles you discuss.

Final Thoughts

Incorporating book titles effectively and accurately in your essays is a crucial skill that enhances both the credibility and coherence of your writing. By following a few essential guidelines, you can ensure that your references to book titles are seamless and contribute to the overall quality of your work.

I will also say that it is essential to correctly format book titles. In most cases, book titles should be italicized or underlined to set them apart from the surrounding text. This practice not only conforms to established writing conventions but also signals to readers that you are referencing a specific work.

Also, provide context for the book titles you mention. Clearly introduce the book and its author within the text before referring to it by its title alone. This helps orient the reader and establishes the relevance of the book to your essay’s topic or argument.

Furthermore, consider including brief explanations or summaries of the books you reference. This not only showcases your understanding of the material but also adds depth to your analysis. By demonstrating how each book contributes to your argument or perspective, you create a stronger, more cohesive essay.

Another important aspect is to be consistent in your usage of book titles. Whether you choose to italicize, underline, or use quotation marks, maintain uniformity throughout your essay. This consistency ensures that your writing appears polished and professional.

Additionally, avoid overloading your essay with too many book titles. Select only the most relevant and impactful works that directly support your argument or enhance your discussion. This demonstrates your discernment in choosing sources and keeps your essay focused.

Lastly, when incorporating book titles, pay attention to proper citation formats. Depending on the citation style (such as APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) required by your academic institution or publisher, make sure to follow the specific guidelines for citing book titles, authors, publication dates, and other relevant details.

You need to know that incorporating book titles effectively in your essays involves a combination of correct formatting, clear context, concise summaries, consistent usage, selective referencing, and accurate citations. Mastering these techniques not only enhances the overall readability and coherence of your writing but also showcases your proficiency in scholarly communication. By adhering to these guidelines, you can confidently integrate book titles into your essays while maintaining a high standard of academic excellence.

Related: What does leadership mean to you? Essay with Example

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In-Text Citations: The Basics

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Note:  This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style  can be found here .

Reference citations in text are covered on pages 261-268 of the Publication Manual. What follows are some general guidelines for referring to the works of others in your essay.

Note:  On pages 117-118, the Publication Manual suggests that authors of research papers should use the past tense or present perfect tense for signal phrases that occur in the literature review and procedure descriptions (for example, Jones (1998)  found  or Jones (1998)  has found ...). Contexts other than traditionally-structured research writing may permit the simple present tense (for example, Jones (1998)  finds ).

APA Citation Basics

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, like, for example, (Jones, 1998). One complete reference for each source should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

If you are referring to an idea from another work but  NOT  directly quoting the material, or making reference to an entire book, article or other work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication and not the page number in your in-text reference.

On the other hand, if you are directly quoting or borrowing from another work, you should include the page number at the end of the parenthetical citation. Use the abbreviation “p.” (for one page) or “pp.” (for multiple pages) before listing the page number(s). Use an en dash for page ranges. For example, you might write (Jones, 1998, p. 199) or (Jones, 1998, pp. 199–201). This information is reiterated below.

Regardless of how they are referenced, all sources that are cited in the text must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

In-text citation capitalization, quotes, and italics/underlining

• Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials: D. Jones.
• If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source:  Permanence and Change . Exceptions apply to short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs:  Writing New Media ,  There Is Nothing Left to Lose .

( Note:  in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized:  Writing new media .)

• When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word:  Natural-Born Cyborgs .
• Capitalize the first word after a dash or colon: "Defining Film Rhetoric: The Case of Hitchcock's  Vertigo ."
• If the title of the work is italicized in your reference list, italicize it and use title case capitalization in the text:  The Closing of the American Mind ;  The Wizard of Oz ;  Friends .
• If the title of the work is not italicized in your reference list, use double quotation marks and title case capitalization (even though the reference list uses sentence case): "Multimedia Narration: Constructing Possible Worlds;" "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry."

Short quotations

If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and page number for the reference (preceded by "p." for a single page and “pp.” for a span of multiple pages, with the page numbers separated by an en dash).

You can introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses.

If you do not include the author’s name in the text of the sentence, place the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation.

Long quotations

Place direct quotations that are 40 words or longer in a free-standing block of typewritten lines and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout, but do not add an extra blank line before or after it. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.

Because block quotation formatting is difficult for us to replicate in the OWL's content management system, we have simply provided a screenshot of a generic example below.

Formatting example for block quotations in APA 7 style.

Quotations from sources without pages

Direct quotations from sources that do not contain pages should not reference a page number. Instead, you may reference another logical identifying element: a paragraph, a chapter number, a section number, a table number, or something else. Older works (like religious texts) can also incorporate special location identifiers like verse numbers. In short: pick a substitute for page numbers that makes sense for your source.

Summary or paraphrase

If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication in your in-text reference and may omit the page numbers. APA guidelines, however, do encourage including a page range for a summary or paraphrase when it will help the reader find the information in a longer work. 

How To Write Book Titles The Proper Way: A Complete Guide For Writers

• February 10, 2022

Book titles within essays or papers can be tricky. There are specific rules that are given for how to include a book title in a way that sets it apart from the content of your writing given by the Modern Language Association. However, as with many other things in life, there are exceptions to the rules. This article will guide you through the rules of the writing style guides so that you can include a book’s title in your paper or essay correctly.

How to write book titles:

Style guides and book titles.

When it comes to book titles within text, there are a few different style guides that have rules you can follow, depending on your writing type. The three types that you will encounter most often are; MLA style, Chicago manual of style, and APA. A writing instructor will usually tell you what style guide you are expected to use for a particular essay or paper.

MLA Style Guide

The MLA handbook states that you should always italicize book titles when styling book titles within your text. The exception to this rule are religious texts. You would not italicize the Holy Bible or the sacred books or titles of other religions. Note the following example.

Pam had stayed most of the summer indoors, re-reading her favorite book series. She was already up to  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone , and she didn’t regret not being more active or going outside.

In the above example, the book title is italicized. Fiction titles and nonfiction titles alike must be in italics when within the text.

Series Titles in MLA

In the above example, a book from a series was used. But what if the text had not specified which book from the series Pam was reading? Would it still need to be in italics? The answer is: in this case, yes. In other cases, sometimes.

It’s really not as confusing as it seems. When you are talking about a book series but don’t want or need to include the complete series titles for the purposes of your work, you only have to put words in italics that also appear in the book titles. So, because  Harry Potter  is part of the title of all of the books in the series, you would italicize his name every time you mention the book.

However, if you were talking about Katniss Everdeen, you would not have to do this, as the book series she is featured in doesn’t use her name in the titles of  The Hunger Games  series. The same would be true of books like the Nancy Drew books.

Quotation Marks

There are instances in which titles should be placed inside of quotation marks within a paper or essay. This is done when you cite the titles of poems , a chapter title, short stories, articles, or blogs.

So, for example, if you were to write a paper that featured a poem from a book, you would put the book title in italics and the poems cited in quotation marks.

An example of an enduring love poem is “Annabel Lee” from  The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. 

Chapter Title

Another time that quotation marks should be used is when using the title of a chapter. If you are citing a specific chapter of a book, you would enclose the title of the chapter in quotation marks, and the title of the book should be in italics.

The desperation and sadness of a man on death row can be seen in the “Wild Wind Blowing” chapter of Norman Mailer’s  The Executioner’s Song. 

Short Stories

Short stories are another case. Much like the title of a chapter or poem, in which the title is placed in quotation marks, while the title of the book or collection it is found in is italics. The same can be said for sections, stories, or chapters cited within a literary journal.

Stepping away from his norm of horror and gore, Stephen King writes of trust, love, and regret in his story “The Last Rung on the Ladder,” which can be found in his short story collection  Night Shift. 

Punctuation Marks

If you are citing a story or title that includes question marks, you need to make sure to italicize the question mark when citing. Keep all punctuation, such as a question mark, comma, ellipses, colon, or exclamation mark, as it is in the original individual books.

If you want a funny and irreverent read, you’ve got to try  Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea.  Chelsea Handler has done a phenomenal job of being vulgar, relatable, and explaining life from her viewpoint in this hilarious and memorable book.

The Digital Age: Are Book Titles Underlined Anymore?

MLA style used to dictate that a book title should either be in italics or underlined. However, that is no longer the case. As computers started to take over as the major tool used in writing, it became unpopular to underline book titles. Therefore, this rule was dropped from the style guides.

However, it should be mentioned that when handwriting an essay or research paper, many instructors prefer that you underline book titles, as it’s relatively difficult to handwrite italics. If you are in a writing course or a class that is heavy on handwritten work, be sure to ask your instructor or teacher which method they prefer for citing a book title.

How to Come Up with Book Title Ideas

Now that quotation marks, italics, and style guides have been discussed, let’s move on to how you can come up with your own book title. If you’d like a title for your book that sounds interesting and will get a reader’s attention, you may find this article helpful.

Coming up with a good title for your book is a challenging yet essential marketing decision . The right title can make your target audience choose your new book off of the shelf instead of another writer’s work. Your book cover and your book title are quite possibly the most important marketing decisions you will make.

How to Choose a Good Book Title

Certain criteria should be met if you want to have a good book title , and there are specific steps involved in getting there. You may have assumed up until now that titles of books were just spur of the moment decisions made by authors or publishers, but a lot of work goes into writing good titles.

Grab the Reader’s Attention

As a general rule, you want your reader to remember your title and to sound interesting, even without the reader having seen the cover. There are several ways to do this. You can be a little dark with your title, be controversial, provoke the reader, or even be funny.

There are many examples of such works that use memorable and attention-seeking titles. The following are some different titles that are effective and would most likely provoke a reader to grab them from a shelf for closer inspection.

• Burn After Writing (Sharon Jones)
• Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
• Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (Mindy Kaling)
• Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea (Chelsea Handler)
• The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger)
• Chicken Soup for the Soul (various authors)
• God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (Kurt Vonnegut)

Shorter Titles

If your full title for your book is long, you may end up boring a reader or creating a situation where a reader tries to remember the title of your book, but it’s too long and ends up getting it confused with another book. Although you should always do your best to make sure that there aren’t books by other authors that share a title or have a title similar to your book (more on that in a minute), you don’t want a person to get confused and get the wrong book instead.

Research Your Title Ideas

It’s a good idea to take the titles you have considered for your book and make a list. Then, do your homework. You can use tools like Google Adwords to test out your title to see if there are others like it, or you can simply use any search engine and plug your title ideas into the search bar and see what similar or exact titles of the same words pop up.

Readers are generally busy people. They don’t have the time or the energy to ensure that writers get a title right. They’ll look for the book they are interested in, and if it proves to be too difficult, or if there are other books written that have the same title, they’ll move on to something else.

A writer really has to make sure that they have a title that isn’t going to be ignored, is interesting, isn’t too long, and isn’t too similar to other works.

The same goes for titles of short works within a larger body of work. Short works, like poems or stories, need to have unique titles as well when included in a larger body of work, such as a collection. If stories are similar in nature, be sure to title them differently so that readers will be able to tell them apart, as well.

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How to Write a Book Title and Author in an Essay?

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So, you’re writing an essay, and you’re referencing a book. But how on earth do you write and cite the title and the author’s name correctly?

Do you use quotation marks? Italics? Punctuation? And what about capitalization?

The answer is a little more complicated than you might think. It all depends on the style of essay you’re writing, but once you’ve familiarized yourself with the rules for each one, it’s easy to mention and cite any book title and author’s name correctly, so you can get top marks from your instructor, each and every time.

Table of Contents

The Correct Way to Write a Book’s Title And Author in an Essay

In this post, we’ll look at the three most common essay formats used in the US and learn how to properly display book titles and author names in each one.

The Most Popular Essay Formats

The three most commonly used essay formats found in schools, universities, and higher education institutions across America are known as APA, MLA, and Chicago style.

The format your professor assigns will depend on the subject matter, the department, the purpose of the essay, and the instructor’s individual preferences.

APA stands for the American Psychological Association. This is the go-to format for scientific essays, including many social and behavioural sciences.

MLA stands for Modern Language Association and is the most frequently used format in humanities and liberal arts subjects, such as literature and history.

Chicago format, also known as Turabian after its creator, Kate L. Turabian, is commonly used in the publishing world and also in subjects such as anthropology, history, and selected social sciences.

Why is Using The Correct Format so Important?

The short answer is that you’ll receive a lower grade if you don’t.

But of course, there are many good reasons why proper formatting is important when writing papers and essays.

1. Consistency

Formats like APA, MLA, and Chicago provide a strict set of criteria to stick to throughout an essay, ensuring consistency.

Consistency avoids confusion for the reader and helps them to quickly and easily identify what the writer is trying to say.

2. References And Research

Sticking with one style or format makes it easier for readers to check citations and conduct further research into the chosen topic.

3. Demonstrating Understanding

In academic settings, adhering to a particular style guide, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago, demonstrates your understanding of the rules and principles of written material within that field.

This shows that you don’t just understand the subject; you also know how to write about it.

4. Preparation For Future Studies

Suppose you’re a high school student or a college undergrad, familiarizing yourself with the basic principles of essay formatting. In that case, it is a great way to prepare yourself for your future academic pursuits, especially if you plan to progress onto a graduate or postgraduate program.

How to Write a Book’s Title in The Main Body of an APA Style Essay?

Here are the key rules to remember when writing book titles in the main body of an APA-style essay:

• Use quotation marks (not italics) on either side of the book’s title (with the exception of the holy texts like the Bible and reference works like dictionaries and almanacs).
• The first word of the title should be capitalized.
• All words and terms containing more than four letters or symbols should be capitalized.
• Any two-part words containing a hyphen should be capitalized.
• Words placed directly after a colon or dash should also be capitalized.

For example, “Slaughterhouse-Five”

How to Write a Book’s Title in The Main Body of an MLA or Chicago Style Essay?

MLA and Chicago-style essays use similar rules when it comes to mentioning book titles in the main body of an essay. Here are the key things to remember when using either of these formats:

• The book’s title should be displayed in italics (not quotation marks), with the exception of holy texts like the Bible.
• If the title contains punctuation, this should be italicized, too.
• All verbs, nouns, and adjectives should be capitalized.
• If you’re referring to a chapter or mentioning a book alongside the series it belongs to, use quotation marks, not italics.

For example,

O ne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, or “A Clash of Kings” from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

1. Avoid Capitalizing Minor Words

Unless they appear as the first word in a title, the following words should be displayed in lowercase.

• Prepositions , such as on, in, at, and from.
• Articles , such as the, a, and an.
• Coordinating conjunctions , such as so, and, yet, but, and for.

This might sound a little complex at first, but it’s pretty simple and intuitive once you get the hang of it.

99% of the time, the book’s title as it is displayed on the front cover is correct for both MLA and Chicago-style essays.

How to Write a Book’s Title in The Main Body of a Handwritten Essay?

Handwritten essays used to be the norm, but these days, they’re most definitely the exception.

Still, there may be some instances where you’re asked to handwrite an essay rather than type it, in which case, you should follow the rules below.

1. Capitalization

The capitalization rules for writing book titles in the main body of a handwritten essay are the same as with typed essays.

So, if you’re handwriting an APA-style essay, make sure to capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title and do the same for every word containing more than four letters.

And when handwriting an MLA or Chicago-style essay, capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title and do the same for every word except for articles, prepositions, or coordinating conjunctions.

2. Underlining

No matter the format, book titles should always be underlined when handwriting an essay

• Underline the complete title, including any words that come after a colon or dash
• Underline any punctuation that appears in the book’s title
• Avoid underlining each word separately; always use one continuous line
• Make your line as straight as possible by using a ruler or following the line on the paper

How to Cite a Book And its Author in a References or Works Cited Page?

So, now you know how to write the title of a book mentioned in the body of an essay.

But what do you do when you need to cite a book and its author in your references or works cited page?

To keep it simple, I’ll use Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 1908 classic children’s novel , Anne of Green Gables, as an example for each essay style.

1. Book Citations in APA Style

Here’s the proper format for citing authors and their book titles in APA:

Last Name, First Names. (Year the book was published). Book title .

For example, Montgomery, Lucy Maud. (1908). Anne of Green Gables.

2. Book Citations in MLA Style

Here’s the proper format for citing authors and their book titles in MLA:

Last Name, First Names. Book title . City of Publication, Publisher, Year the book was published.

Note: You only need to include the city of publication if the book was published before 1900 or if the publisher is not based in the US.

For example, Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables. L.C. Page & Co., 1908.

3. Book Citations in Chicago Style

Here’s the proper format for citing authors and their book titles in Chicago style:

Last Name, First Names. Book Title: Subtitle . City of publication: Publisher, Year the book was published.

Note: Just like with MLA style, you only need to include the city of publication if the book was published before 1900 or if the publisher is not based in the US.

For example, Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables . L.C. Page & Co., 1908.

4. Book Citations in a Hand Written Essay

If you’re handwriting an essay, you’ll no doubt be handwriting your references or works cited page, too.

In this case, you should still follow the appropriate formatting rules above in relation to the chosen essay style.

But where a title appears in italics in a printed essay, in a handwritten essay, it should be neatly underlined instead.

Missing Information

If you’ve searched high and low for a book’s publisher, publication date, or the city in which it was published, but you still can’t find the information, it’s generally acceptable to leave it out.

Essay writing is a skill that takes practice, and at first, the rules and principles of the different formats can seem complex. This is especially true when you’re writing about books and their authors or citing other people’s work.

But hopefully, this post has helped explain the structures used in each of the most commonly used formats so that next time you write an essay, you can be confident that you’re doing it right.

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How to Write Book Titles in an Essay

Jana sosnowski.

Essays in literature often refer to the title of the book referenced. A reference to the book title may occur only once, but it gives the reader of your essay information about the subject of your discussion.

Explore this article

1 mla style.

In an MLA-formatted essay, the title of a book should appear in italics. In the case of a handwritten essay, the title of the book should be underlined. Novels, textbooks and anthologies should all be italicized, while portions of these books, including chapters, short stories and poems, are noted within quotes.

2 APA Style

In an essay formatted in APA style, the title of a book also appears in italics. Additionally, any words in the title that are four letters or longer should be capitalized. Italicization is also required for edited collections of short stories and essays, movies, television series, documentaries and albums.

• 1 Purdue University Online Writing Lab: Writing in Literature: Formatting
• 2 Purdue University Online Writing Lab: APA Formatting and Style Guide: In-Text Citations: The Basics

About the Author

Based in Los Angeles, Jana Sosnowski holds Master of Science in educational psychology and instructional technology, She has spent the past 11 years in education, primarily in the secondary classroom teaching English and journalism. Sosnowski has also worked as a curriculum writer for a math remediation program. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in print journalism from the University of Southern California.

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Unlocking Book Title in Essay: Expert tips

Getting yourself into a college, plus completing assignments on time, is a double trouble. You wouldn’t wish to go through this process even if it seems so easy. This issue escalates and becomes a heavy burden when students need to write a book title in essay. Choosing a book title is often not only difficult but requires a broad knowledge of the topic, content, and its implications. 

Before you start sweating and unable to keep your cool, read this blog. Our experts, with multiple years of experience, have developed this guide for you. Today, we will be discussing the ins and outs of book titles in essays, how to make one, etc. By the time you end this blog, all of you will be pros in writing essays and their titles. Without further ado, let’s get going!

Table of Contents

What is a Book Title in Essay?

A book title is a name you give to your assignment or a write-up. It’s typically short and composed of five to eight words. In some instances, it can be lengthy, up to twenty to thirty words. Here is an example of a book title that might be considered too long for academic work still it justifies the need. J.R.R. Tolkien’s book, which later turned into a movie grossed multi-million dollar business around the world, had a lengthy name.

“Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” 

A book title can be as short as required and as lengthy as necessary to justify the needs. It’s the choice of an author to pick a title that relates to the story but also encapsulates a riddle in it. This way, you’ll be successful in creating interest for your readers.

How to Write the Title of a Book in an Essay?

Many students wonder how to write book titles in essays. It seems like the curse of Sisyphus where even after learning all the things, they reach back to square one. Here, we will discuss all the steps that will guide students in the right direction.

Write Titles in Essays After Thoroughly Studying Prompt

The first rule for writing an essay title for a book is to understand the requirements mentioned in the essay prompt. Without reading the instructions it’s impossible to write a title appropriately or the one that suits your book precisely.

Every educational institution has a different set of rules that dictates the format or style of book titles in essays. These rules include styling formats such as MLA (Modern Language Association), APA (American Psychological Association), Chicago / Turabian, AMA ( American Medical Association), CSE (Council of Scientific Editors) format, etc.

Each of these formats serves a different purpose and set of rules that differentiate them from others. Before writing a book title, it’s essential for students to know what will be the style they are required to use. Many academic disciplines prefer APA (American Psychological Association) and MLA (Modern Language Association) formats. Although these formats cater only to specific subjects, they can still be used interchangeably. Let’s look at what style suits your academic subjects:

MLA (Modern Language Association):

Modern language association or MLA in short is a paper styling guide that’s predominantly used for the subjects of arts and humanities. MLA is also used for essays related to history, performing arts such as drama, music, dance and literature, etc. Majority of disciplines follow this style for making papers, assignments and final projects. There are few similarities in MLA and APA format, still they maintain the individual identity when compared head to head.

APA (American Psychological Association):

American psychological association is a citation style used for many scientific researches. APA format is primarily used for papers related to psychology, social sciences, earth sciences such as archeology, geology, geophysics, marine biology, etc. This format is used widely across the globe. It’s also thought of as a basic standard for formatting and styling different types of papers.

There are many differences between MLA and APA especially when you go through in-text citation, bibliography and title page. These nuances are hard to detect at first by students but with a thorough understanding they can be identified rather easily.

Chicago / Turabian:

If you’re a journalism student then Chicago / Turabian style is the one you’d go for. All the newspapers, editorials and blog sections use this format regularly. This styling format is journalists favorite one and used as a standard worldwide.

Scholarly writing, biography, autobiography and all the authors use this in their write up for citing sources.

AMA (American Medical Association):

For medical science students AMA format offers appropriate citations guidelines. This format is approved for use in all medical colleges such as ACP (American College of Physicians), Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins Medical University, Perelman School of Medicine, etc.

Medical students from all disciplines completing their MD, or Fellowship in Medicine, Surgery, Cardiology must use this format style for their final project, thesis, and term papers.

CSE (Council of Scientific Editors):

CSE styling format is not widely used because of its relevance to scientific papers only. These styling guidelines offer students scholarly formats that are followed by prominent scientists and engineers. Even with a limited use, this format is still used as standard for the papers written on new technological advancements related to science and technology, etc.

Connect the Title With Essay’s Context

The second step that’s mostly overlooked is writing a title that doesn’t justify its connection or relevance with the essay. While writing an essay’s title it’s important to know that the title must justify the context of the assignment. This way, you can meet your reader’s expectations and provide them accurate information that satisfies their curiosity.

Your book title is your hook that grabs your audience’s attention and persuades them to read your essay. Without a book title, even your professor that has a moral obligation to read your assignment and pass their remarks, won’t be interested in gazing his eyes on the first paragraph.

Additionally, students can change their strategy in writing a title by first completing their essay, then starting its title. When you write the entire essay, you’ll have plenty of information on the context, research and its implications. This helps you in curating the best and suitable words for your book title that intrigues your readers and provides a sneak peek of the essay as well.

Hence, when you start writing the book title in an essay, always compose it in the end. Additionally, going through your essay allows you to search and pick a useful title that suits your assignment.

These two steps are a must for every student who wants to complete their book title for an essay writing assignment. These actions not only enhance their understanding but also sharpen their creativity and analytical skills.

General Rules to Write the Title of a Book in an Essay With Examples

There are many rules that a student must follow in order to find the best title of books in an essay. These rules start from grammar, punctuations, quotation marks and using capital and small case words and sentences. Our professionals will guide you comprehensively on these actions that you just take. So, let’s go through them one by one.

Capitalize the first letter of all nouns, verbs, and adjectives

The general rule starts with using capital letters for all proper nouns such as names of people, things, places. Secondly you will need to capitalize verbs and adjectives as well. This will enhance the readability and make your title prominent for readers. For example:

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”

Avoid Capitalizing Articles, Prepositions, or Coordinating Conjunctions

The second rule on how to put a book title in an essay starts with avoiding small mistakes. These errors or mistakes start with avoiding capitalizing the articles, prepositions and conjunctions. Although finding these words might be a handful for new students, here we will let you know which words need this attention. It concludes the following list:

“A, an, the, above, across, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, by, down, from, in, into, near, of, off, on, to, toward, under, upon, with and within.” 

When we talk about conjunctions they include FANBOYS such as “for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so”

When you write the title for your book essay, use the above mentioned words but in small letters. By doing this, you can make it more appealing and eye-catching. Have a look at the example below:

“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”

Include Punctuation in the italics if it’s Part of the Title

The third rule to write a book title in an essay is adding punctuation marks in italics. Although it’s not necessary that your title will contain one, still if you use it, ensure to change its font style to italic. Here is an example of how you’ll be able to do that:

“Look ,  that’s How it’s Done ! ”

Use Quotation Marks

If the essay you’re writing is an anthology then there’s no need to italicize its title, you can use quotation marks. Since anthology consists of a collection of essays, short stories, or poems. So, it’s best practice to use quotation marks to highlight the importance or significance of a book title. For example:

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon”

The rules we mention here must be adhered to when making titles of books in essays. They are not only requirements of a college or university, but they also improve writing and professionalism of students.

MLA Style: Book Title in Essay

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is a famous formatting style for books. This style is used in a variety of books related to humanities, history, art, literature, biography, auto-biography, etc. Modern language association is widely used by students of humanities discipline and thus by far the easiest and recognizable format in the world.

Typically, book citations in MLA style doesn’t require students to add a title page because there is no need for it. A page header is more than enough to contain the information that’s needed. On the other hand, it’s solely your professor’s discretion to ask for a title page because it might be important in their opinion.

Secondly, you might be needing a title page if you are engaging in a group research project. These group research requires a book title page to demonstrate the student’s investigational work. If you’re writing an essay that requires a MLA style book title then you can make it by following these steps:

Italicize the Book Title:

The first thing students must do is to italicize the book title. If your professor has asked to use quotation marks then there’s no need to use italic style. You can either bold the title and its content when using quotation marks. For example, a book title of an essay related to any subject or discipline may look like this:

Italic Style:  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Quotation Marks MLA Style Book Title:

“The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”

Mention your Name:

The second thing you must mention on your essay title page is the name of the author(s). The golden rule of thumb is to mention the full name of the first writer, followed by the last name of other contributing authors, etc. Here is a mock example of list of writers in an essay title:

Student name: John Wick, Charon, Winston, Tarasov, Bowery

College / University/ Institute Name:

Thirdly, you have to mention your college, university or any educational, vocational institute’s name. This might be the most important step in your book title, because your essay might be asked to be provided to an outside audience. For such instances, institute name is a must to mention. Student may follow the below example:

School/College Name: Allied School of Nursing and Patient Care

Instructor Name

Your teacher’s name might be worth mentioning if you are writing in MLA (Modern Language Association) style. The book title pape may look like this when you mention the instructor or teacher name.

Instructor / Teacher Name: Christian Grey

Submission Date:

The submission date shows the stipulated time when the paper or an essay was submitted for review. Student must mention in on their title page below other details such as paper title, instructor name, school / college details, etc. here’s an example:

Date / Submission Date: 07/17/2017

APA Style: Book Title in Essay

American Psychological Association or APA in short provides styling guides for essays or college papers related to some prominent disciplines. The subjects that use APA style book title format include psychology, social sciences, nursing, economics, business administration, biology, chemistry, archeology, computer science, etc.

Unlike MLA, APA offers simplicity in writing the page title with ease. If you have problems with book citations in APA style, follow these simple steps below:

Capitalize Every Word That’s More Than Four Words Long

The first thing on how to write a book title in an essay APA is capitalizing the first word of the sentence. Although it’s a basic rule that governs English writing, the same is followed in American Psychological Association’s format.

Additionally, students must understand that there’s no need to capitalize every word in the title, just the first word. Common and proper nouns must be capitalized in the title. The words that are joined by hyphens must also be capitalized like “Time-Consuming”, etc.

Similarly, if your essay title has colons the principle will be the same, so students must use title case when writing a book title.

Punctuations Should be in Italic

If you’re using quotations or any punctuation marks, change them in italic style.

Chicago Style: Book Title in Essay

Chicago style is a widely used styling format for papers. It’s a holy grail for journalism students and used for literary work, editorials, blog posts, investigative journalism, etc. Chicago style book titles for an essay or research paper can be written by following the example below. Our experts have carefully formulated this to help you understand the complexities of book citations in Chicago style .

Italic Quotation Form:

“ Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix ”  by  J. K. Rowling

Italic Book Title Form:

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix  by  J. K. Rowling

Chicago Style Title with Exclamation Mark Form:

Oh ,  the Places You’ll Go !   By  Dr.Seuss

Chicago style offers the same guidelines throughout the content. Whether students want to use styling format for book or essay title or bibliography. They must use an italic font and when content is written in quotations, only the marks are changed in italics and the rest of the content remains unchanged.

This blog answers the most searched question that perplexed the students for many years. A title of an essay is the gateway to evaluate your literary comprehension and analytical skills. The more you know, the more you’ll be able to communicate better and demonstrate your capabilities.

Our experts have extracted all the information from the prominent textbooks to provide you first hand experience on this critical topic. By reading this, students can easily compose book titles in essays in a styling format as required by their professor or college. Understanding the intricacies involved in accurately styling your essay title enhances your reader’s interest and piques their curiosity.

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English Program

Essay Writing Essentials

• FORMAT: Type papers with a 12 pt. font, double-space, number pages, and proofread carefully; correctness counts.
• While you are encouraged to use your natural voice, avoid highly colloquial usage , such as "The ending blew my mind" or "Her awesome sense of humorâ?¦" Avoid passive construction, such as "irony can be seen inâ?¦" or "a definite freedom was evidenced inâ?¦," which makes writing feel stiff and pompous. Instead, write, "the reference to her brother's saintliness is ironic" or "the seemingly random association of images suggests freedom."
• The convention in writing about literature is to discuss actions from a work in present tense, as if they were happening right now: "Joyce creates a melancholic mood with images of night and isolation." Or, "When Marlow first sees Kurtz, heâ?¦."
• Use transitional words or phrases to connect parts of your argument (e.g., therefore, furthermore, nevertheless, consequently, however, similarly, by contrast, rather, instead, as a result, on the other hand, for example, etc.). These are SIGNPOSTS that help the reader follow the thread of your argument. Remember, these words can begin a sentence or can connect two independent clauses using the following punctuation: "Woolf's writing can be highly sarcastic and playful; however, in To The Lighthouse , the tone is somber and elegiac." Instead of "So" or "Also," use more formal phrases: "It is clear, then, that Marlow lies to himself on at least one occasion"; "This passage confirms that Marlow isn't honest with himself."
• Introduce the text you're writing about in the beginning of your essay by mentioning the author's full name and the complete title of the work. Titles of books should be underlined or put in italics . (Titles of stories, essays and poems are in "quotation marks.") Refer to the text specifically as a novel, story, essay, memoir, or poem, depending on what it is.
• In subsequent references to the author, use his or her last name. If the title is very long and you are making numerous references to it, you can refer to it by a shortened version. i.e., "A Perfect Day For Banana Fish" can become "Banana Fish."
• Don't begin by quoting the assignment sheet or indicating which topic you're writing about. Your essay should stand alone, quite independent of the assignment sheet.
• Don't begin with vast generalizations like "Within every human being there are unique thoughts and feelings that no other person has ever experienced before." Or, "Color symbolism is found in all great pieces of literature." These "from the dawn of time" statements point to a lack of focus or (public enemy number one) a vague thesis.
• In most cases, it's best to state your main idea - your thesis - in the first or second paragraph, so that your reader knows right away what it is that you're going to argue.
• Don't evaluate the quality of the writing ("Faulkner's use of symbolism, narration, word choice, and characterization made this a powerful novel."); analyze and interpret instead. You're not writing a review, where evaluation is appropriate; you're writing criticism (which isn't necessarily critical, but analytic). Avoid comments such as "I likedâ?¦" or "I was confused byâ?¦." Don't refer to your own process of investigation. Instead of writing "I couldn't find a beginning, climax, end in â??The Mark On The Wall,'" (which tells your readers about you instead of the text), you might write "'The Mark On The Wall' dispenses with the traditional beginning-climax-end story structure."
• Avoid plot summary at all costs !! It's sometimes hard to resist the desire to rehash a novel's plot. However, remember, in academic writing it is assumed that your audience is familiar with the text. Make sure you're writing an argument, not simply a plot summary.
• Evidence. Evidence. Evidence . It's fine to make a point, such as "the first memoir seems rambling and aimless, while the second is tightly structured." But then you must provide examples that support your points. Continue on with, "For example, in â??Reminiscences', Woolf discusses her mother in several places, sometimes repeating herself, sometimes contradicting her previous statements. Twice Woolf tells us that her motherâ?¦.."
• Determine what the text says. Don't read your own assumptions into the text, as in: "The speaker must be a man because women wouldn't act so insensitively." Instead, you might say, "The speaker seems to be male because the cursing and the news of the war was more likely the province of men during the early 20 th Century." Instead of a statement such as, "The author shows the pride Americans feel in their freedom," you can more accurately say, "The author is writing about Americans who are proud of their freedom."
• style – is it formal? journalistic? colloquial, stream of consciousness, etc.?
• voice – written in first, second or third person (and why)
• imagery – what metaphors and similes are used?
• tone – humorous, intimate, sarcastic, conversational, etc.?
• mood – melancholic, ecstatic, hyper, suspenseful?
• language – poetic? lyrical? scientific? pseudo-scientific?
• structure – is it loose and rambling? Tightly structured? Is there a climax and denouement? How are the parts of the story connected?
• plot and character development – what do we know of the "story" and of the characters?
• symbolism – sometimes a cigar is only a cigar, and sometimes not.
• point of view – how do different characters see things? What's the author's view?
• setting – is place important? How is it described? What role does it play?
• Use quotations to support your argument or interpretation. (Note that writers make statements , not quotes ; something isn't a "quote" until you've copied it out, so you never say, "The author quotes." Instead you say, "The author says..." or "the author writesâ?¦"
• Don't expect quotations to make your point for you. Rather, use your own language to make your argument; use the quote as evidence that will support what you have to say. Before or after the quote, connect it to your argument using your own words: eg., As Gilbert and Gubar argue in The Madwoman in the Attic .
• Don't incorporate the page number of a quotation as part of your sentence: "On page 116 the author makes reference..." because you don't want the page number to be the emphasis of the sentence. Write, rather, "The author makes reference to..."
• If everyone is writing on the same text, cite the passage you want to quote by giving the page number in parentheses after it: "She told Christmas about the graves" (248). Note where the period is.
• If you use more than three exact words from your source, you must put them in quotation marks.
• If, within those quotation marks, you must use other quotation marks to indicate direct speech, the author's own quoting, or to refer to the title of the story, use single quotation marks: "For example, in â??Reminiscences', Woolf discusses her mother in several places."
• If you add words to a quotation, put brackets around them; if you omit words, use ellipses to indicate them. Example: Brunvand states: "some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning everyâ?¦tale" (78).
• Periods and commas go inside quotation marks; semicolons and colons go outside.

The faithful drudging child the child at the oak desk whose penmanship, hard work, style will win her prizes becomes a woman with a mission, not to win prizes but to change the laws of history. (23)

• If you're using several texts, then footnote the quotation, providing the name of the author, title of the book, publishing information, and page number.
• In APA style, provide the author's last name, the year of publication and page (line in case of verse) numbers in the text, parenthetically, and include a complete reference in the WORKS CITED list at the end. Punctuation comes after the citation. Example: "Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes, 1999, 184)?
• CONCLUSIONS: Conclusions should stress the importance of the thesis, give the essay a sense of completeness, and leave a final impression on the reader. An effective conclusion might answer the question "So what?" It might synthesize (not summarize) the points. Or it might echo the introduction, underscoring the larger significance of your thesis (now that we understand its complexity).

Most important: If you know all this, great. If it seems overwhelming, don't despair. You don't have to write papers alone. The Writing Center is open from morning to evening with tutors trained to help you compose and edit. (x-8409) Bell Tower 1512.

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Comprehensive Guide on How to Write an Essay About a Book

Essays are very common in middle school, high school, and college. Even after graduating college, you may need to write essays in the business world in the form of reports. However, writing an essay about a book takes a slightly different turn. It usually involves writing a detailed summary of the plot of a book or a simple book review.

This writing process may seem as simple as sitting down at the computer and beginning to type for some. But a lot more planning goes into writing a book essay successfully. If you have never written one before or struggle with talking about a book in an essay, you should read on.

In this article, we’ll provide a comprehensive guide on how to write essays on books and give you some important steps in the essay writing process.

How to start an essay about a book

A book essay involves closely studying a text, interpreting its themes, and exploring why the author makes certain choices. It can be applied to novels, plays, short stories, poems, or any other form of literary writing.

Book essays aren’t merely book summaries. They can be a form of argumentative essay where you need to analyse the text’s perspective, language, and structure. They also explain how an author uses literary terms and elements to create emotional effects and convey ideas.

Before starting a book essay, it’s vital to carefully read the book and develop a thesis statement to keep your essay focused. As you write, you should follow the standard structure of a professional essay. Seeking professional guidance for your college application? Consider enlisting expert assistance to Write You College Essay and increase your chances of admission success.

It should take this structure:

• An introduction that gives the reader an idea of what your essay will focus on.
• The main body, which is divided into paragraphs that develop an argument using the text’s ideas.
• A conclusion that summarises the main ideas you have given with your analysis.

Mentioning a book in an essay

Writing a book essay is not as easy as it may seem, especially when you are not sure how to write a book title in an essay. Some of the questions that most students ask include; Can I use quotation marks? Should I underline the book title? Will I use italics? Does the format depend on the referencing of the paper?

Every question highlighted is essential in learning how to mention a book in an essay. However, it is important to know that different writing styles have varying writing standards.

The style used to write a title of a book in an essay varies based on the formatting style of the paper. There are the APA, MLA, and Chicago writing styles.

Let’s take the example of an APA format.

The rules that apply to an APA format are different from those used in MLA and Chicago writing formats. Here are some of them:

• Capitalise the first word and every word with more than four letters
• For two-part hyphenated words, capitalization of both words is necessary
• Words after dash or colon should also be capitalised
• Use quotation marks instead of italics for reference material such as dictionaries.
• Use italics for titles of Books, Films, Videos, journals, magazines, newspapers, and TV shows.

Learning the different book title writing styles for each paper format is very important, especially when writing a college essay about a book.

How to write an essay about a book

Writing a book essay can be tricky, so here are the steps that will guide you:

• Read the book and locate literary devices

The first step is to read the book and take notes carefully. As you read, pay attention to the main points of the story. For instance, you can take note of things that are intriguing, surprising, or even confusing in writing. These usually form the basis of your analysis.

To begin your analysis, there are many key areas that you can focus on. As you analyse each element of the text, try to think about how they all connect.

• Generate a thesis

Your thesis in a book essay is the point you want to make about the text. It’s usually the main argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from being a collection of random observations about a book. If you’re given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must directly relate to the prompt.

• Write a title and introduction

To start your book essay, you’ll need a good title and an introduction.

The title should indicate what your analysis will focus on. It generally contains the author’s name and the book you’re analysing. Keep it as brief and interesting as you can.

Your essay introduction should provide a brief outlook of where your argument is going. It should contain your thesis statement and an outline of the essay’s structure.

• Write the body

Each paragraph in the main body should focus on one topic or argument of your book essay. Don’t try to add everything you can think about the text, but only key analysis that fuels your argument.

• Write your conclusion

The conclusion of your analysis should wrap up the essay and summarise your key points while emphasising their significance to the reader. To achieve this, briefly summarise your key arguments, and locate the conclusion they’ve led you to.

Unlike regular essays, writing a book essay requires adherence to more rules and writing formats. You should always comprehensively read the book you want to write an essay about and follow a given writing style.

The Cowardice of Guernica

The literary magazine Guernica ’s decision to retract an essay about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reveals much about how the war is hardening human sentiment.

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In the days after October 7, the writer and translator Joanna Chen spoke with a neighbor in Israel whose children were frightened by the constant sound of warplanes. “I tell them these are good booms,” the neighbor said to Chen with a grimace. “I understood the subtext,” Chen wrote later in an essay published in Guernica magazine on March 4, titled “From the Edges of a Broken World.” The booms were, of course, the Israeli army bombing Gaza, part of a campaign that has left at least 30,000 civilians and combatants dead so far.

The moment is just one observation in a much longer meditative piece of writing in which Chen weighs her principles—for years she has volunteered at a charity providing transportation for Palestinian children needing medical care, and works on Arabic and Hebrew translations to bridge cultural divides—against the more turbulent feelings of fear, inadequacy, and split allegiances that have cropped up for her after October 7, when 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage in Hamas’s assault on Israel. But the conversation with the neighbor is a sharp, novelistic, and telling moment. The mother, aware of the perversity of recasting bombs killing children mere miles away as “good booms,” does so anyway because she is a mother, and her children are frightened. The act, at once callous and caring, will stay with me.

Not with the readers of Guernica , though. The magazine , once a prominent publication for fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction, with a focus on global art and politics, quickly found itself imploding as its all-volunteer staff revolted over the essay. One of the magazine’s nonfiction editors posted on social media that she was leaving over Chen’s publication. “Parts of the essay felt particularly harmful and disorienting to read, such as the line where a person is quoted saying ‘I tell them these are good booms.’” Soon a poetry editor resigned as well, calling Chen’s essay a “horrific settler normalization essay”— settler here seeming to refer to all Israelis, because Chen does not live in the occupied territories. More staff members followed, including the senior nonfiction editor and one of the co-publishers (who criticized the essay as “a hand-wringing apologia for Zionism”). Amid this flurry of cascading outrage, on March 10 Guernica pulled the essay from its website, with the note: “ Guernica regrets having published this piece, and has retracted it. A more fulsome explanation will follow.” As of today, this explanation is still pending, and my request for comment from the editor in chief, Jina Moore Ngarambe, has gone unanswered.

Read: Beware the language that erases reality

Blowups at literary journals are not the most pressing news of the day, but the incident at Guernica reveals the extent to which elite American literary outlets may now be beholden to the narrowest polemical and moralistic approaches to literature. After the publication of Chen’s essay, a parade of mutual incomprehension occurred across social media, with pro-Palestine writers announcing what they declared to be the self-evident awfulness of the essay (publishing the essay made Guernica “a pillar of eugenicist white colonialism masquerading as goodness,” wrote one of the now-former editors), while reader after reader who came to it because of the controversy—an archived version can still be accessed—commented that they didn’t understand what was objectionable. One reader seemed to have mistakenly assumed that Guernica had pulled the essay in response to pressure from pro-Israel critics. “Oh buddy you can’t have your civilian population empathizing with the people you’re ethnically cleansing,” he wrote, with obvious sarcasm. When another reader pointed out that he had it backwards, he responded, “This chain of events is bizarre.”

Some people saw anti-Semitism in the decision. James Palmer, a deputy editor of Foreign Policy , noted how absurd it was to suggest that the author approved of the “good bombs” sentiment, and wrote that the outcry was “one step toward trying to exclude Jews from discourse altogether.” And it is hard not to see some anti-Semitism at play. One of the resigning editors claimed that the essay “includes random untrue fantasies about Hamas and centers the suffering of oppressors” (Chen briefly mentions the well-documented atrocities of October 7; caring for an Israeli family that lost a daughter, son-in-law, and nephew; and her worries about the fate of Palestinians she knows who have links to Israel).

Madhuri Sastry, one of the co-publishers, notes in her resignation post that she’d earlier successfully insisted on barring a previous essay of Chen’s from the magazine’s Voices on Palestine compilation. In that same compilation, Guernica chose to include an interview with Alice Walker, the author of a poem that asks “Are Goyim (us) meant to be slaves of Jews,” and who once recommended to readers of The New York Times a book that claims that “a small Jewish clique” helped plan the Russian Revolution, World Wars I and II, and “coldly calculated” the Holocaust. No one at Guernica publicly resigned over the magazine’s association with Walker.

However, to merely dismiss all of the critics out of hand as insane or intolerant or anti-Semitic would ironically run counter to the spirit of Chen’s essay itself. She writes of her desire to reach out to those on the other side of the conflict, people she’s worked with or known and who would be angered or horrified by some of the other experiences she relates in the essay, such as the conversation about the “good booms.” Given the realities of the conflict, she knows this attempt to connect is just a first step, and an often-frustrating one. Writing to a Palestinian she’d once worked with as a reporter, she laments her failure to come up with something meaningful to say: “I also felt stupid—this was war, and whether I liked it or not, Nuha and I were standing at opposite ends of the very bridge I hoped to cross. I had been naive … I was inadequate.” In another scene, she notes how even before October 7, when groups of Palestinians and Israelis joined together to share their stories, their goodwill failed “to straddle the chasm that divided us.”

Read: Why activism leads to so much bad writing

After the publication of Chen’s essay, one writer after another pulled their work from the magazine. One wrote, “I will not allow my work to be curated alongside settler angst,” while another, the Texas-based Palestinian American poet Fady Joudah, wrote that Chen’s essay “is humiliating to Palestinians in any time let alone during a genocide. An essay as if a dispatch from a colonial century ago. Oh how good you are to the natives.” I find it hard to read the essay that way, but it would be a mistake, as Chen herself suggests, to ignore such sentiments. For those who more naturally sympathize with the Israeli mother than the Gazan hiding from the bombs, these responses exist across that chasm Chen describes, one that empathy alone is incapable of bridging.

That doesn’t mean empathy isn’t a start, though. Which is why the retraction of the article is more than an act of cowardice and a betrayal of a writer whose work the magazine shepherded to publication. It’s a betrayal of the task of literature, which cannot end wars but can help us see why people wage them, oppose them, or become complicit in them.

Empathy here does not justify or condemn. Empathy is just a tool. The writer needs it to accurately depict their subject; the peacemaker needs it to be able to trace the possibilities for negotiation; even the soldier needs it to understand his adversary. Before we act, we must see war’s human terrain in all its complexity, no matter how disorienting and painful that might be. Which means seeing Israelis as well as Palestinians—and not simply the mother comforting her children as the bombs fall and the essayist reaching out across the divide, but far harsher and more unsettling perspectives. Peace is not made between angels and demons but between human beings, and the real hell of life, as Jean Renoir once noted, is that everybody has their reasons. If your journal can’t publish work that deals with such messy realities, then your editors might as well resign, because you’ve turned your back on literature.

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• Knowledge Base
• How to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples

How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on February 4, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A good introduction paragraph is an essential part of any academic essay . It sets up your argument and tells the reader what to expect.

The main goals of an introduction are to:

• Catch your reader’s attention.
• Give background on your topic.
• Present your thesis statement —the central point of your essay.

This introduction example is taken from our interactive essay example on the history of Braille.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

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Table of contents

Step 1: hook your reader, step 2: give background information, step 3: present your thesis statement, step 4: map your essay’s structure, step 5: check and revise, more examples of essay introductions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.

Your first sentence sets the tone for the whole essay, so spend some time on writing an effective hook.

Avoid long, dense sentences—start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

The hook should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of the topic you’re writing about and why it’s interesting. Avoid overly broad claims or plain statements of fact.

Examples: Writing a good hook

Take a look at these examples of weak hooks and learn how to improve them.

• Braille was an extremely important invention.
• The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

The first sentence is a dry fact; the second sentence is more interesting, making a bold claim about exactly  why the topic is important.

• The internet is defined as “a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities.”
• The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education.

Avoid using a dictionary definition as your hook, especially if it’s an obvious term that everyone knows. The improved example here is still broad, but it gives us a much clearer sense of what the essay will be about.

• Mary Shelley’s  Frankenstein is a famous book from the nineteenth century.
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement.

Instead of just stating a fact that the reader already knows, the improved hook here tells us about the mainstream interpretation of the book, implying that this essay will offer a different interpretation.

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Next, give your reader the context they need to understand your topic and argument. Depending on the subject of your essay, this might include:

• Historical, geographical, or social context
• An outline of the debate you’re addressing
• A summary of relevant theories or research about the topic
• Definitions of key terms

The information here should be broad but clearly focused and relevant to your argument. Don’t give too much detail—you can mention points that you will return to later, but save your evidence and interpretation for the main body of the essay.

How much space you need for background depends on your topic and the scope of your essay. In our Braille example, we take a few sentences to introduce the topic and sketch the social context that the essay will address:

Now it’s time to narrow your focus and show exactly what you want to say about the topic. This is your thesis statement —a sentence or two that sums up your overall argument.

This is the most important part of your introduction. A  good thesis isn’t just a statement of fact, but a claim that requires evidence and explanation.

The goal is to clearly convey your own position in a debate or your central point about a topic.

Particularly in longer essays, it’s helpful to end the introduction by signposting what will be covered in each part. Keep it concise and give your reader a clear sense of the direction your argument will take.

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As you research and write, your argument might change focus or direction as you learn more.

For this reason, it’s often a good idea to wait until later in the writing process before you write the introduction paragraph—it can even be the very last thing you write.

When you’ve finished writing the essay body and conclusion , you should return to the introduction and check that it matches the content of the essay.

It’s especially important to make sure your thesis statement accurately represents what you do in the essay. If your argument has gone in a different direction than planned, tweak your thesis statement to match what you actually say.

To polish your writing, you can use something like a paraphrasing tool .

You can use the checklist below to make sure your introduction does everything it’s supposed to.

Checklist: Essay introduction

My first sentence is engaging and relevant.

I have introduced the topic with necessary background information.

I have defined any important terms.

My thesis statement clearly presents my main point or argument.

Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.

You have a strong introduction - now make sure the rest of your essay is just as good.

• Argumentative
• Literary analysis

This introduction to an argumentative essay sets up the debate about the internet and education, and then clearly states the position the essay will argue for.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

This introduction to a short expository essay leads into the topic (the invention of the printing press) and states the main point the essay will explain (the effect of this invention on European society).

In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.

This introduction to a literary analysis essay , about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , starts by describing a simplistic popular view of the story, and then states how the author will give a more complex analysis of the text’s literary devices.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale. Arguably the first science fiction novel, its plot can be read as a warning about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, and in popular culture representations of the character as a “mad scientist”, Victor Frankenstein represents the callous, arrogant ambition of modern science. However, far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to gradually transform our impression of Frankenstein, portraying him in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

College essays

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• Write a College Essay
• Write a Diversity Essay
• College Essay Format & Structure
• Comparing and Contrasting in an Essay

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Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.

To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Cite this Scribbr article

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Rebel Wilson Details Mistreatment Allegations From Set of ‘The Brothers Grimsby'; Sacha Baron Cohen Denies Claims

Days after Rebel Wilson spoke out about Sacha Baron Cohen being an "asshole" who threatened her for mentioning his alleged mistreatment in her upcoming memoir Rebel Rising , People magazine shared an excerpt from the book with the pertaining chapter.

The Pitch Perfect star wrote that she and Baron Cohen first met at a dinner party in 2013. He then asked her to appear as his character's girlfriend, Dawn Grobham, in the 2016 comedy The Brothers Grimsby , which besides starring in, Baron Cohen also co-wrote and produced.

"It felt like every time I'd speak to SBC, he'd mention that he wanted me to go naked in a future scene, I was like, ‘Ha, I don't do nudity, Sacha,'" recalled Wilson from her time on set with the multi-hyphenate.

Wilson wrote that while filming at a soccer stadium in Cape Town, Baron Cohen had a production assistant tell the actress she was needed to film an additional scene. When they were filming it, he allegedly "pulls his pants down…SBC says very matter-of-factly: ‘Okay, now I want you to stick your finger up my ass.' And I'm like, ‘What??…No!!'"

"I was now scared. I wanted to get out of there, so I finally compromised: I slapped him on the ass and improvised a few lines as the character," added Wilson.

Wilson additionally mentioned that she called her agent and spoke to a lawyer following the scene. "I was encouraged to ‘be professional and finish the film,'" she wrote.

She also claimed that she was asked to do reshoots, including for a sex scene, which made her feel uncomfortable on set. "I filmed the scene, after demanding rewrites. But I still had to simulate having sex with this guy. I still had to kiss him repeatedly," noted Wilson. She then told producers she would not be doing any promotion for the film.

Wilson additionally wrote, "The movie bombed, which to me was karma enough. I'm not about canceling anybody and that's not my motivation for sharing this story. I'm sharing my story now because the more women talk about things like this, hopefully the less it happens."

Baron Cohen denied the actress' account of their time working together through a statement shared by his rep with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this week, shortly after her Instagram Story went up. It read, "While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby ."

His team also shared nine anonymous statements with People in support of Baron Cohen. Five of the people, who were identified as being involved in the film and witnessing the Cape Town scene, disputed Wilson's account.

"As per the script, which Rebel had read and approved in advance, her character was attempting to put a finger in Sacha's character's butt. At no point did Sacha actually ask her to put a finger in his butt," said a producer.

A writer-producer added, "This was a scheduled, scripted scene."

THR has reached out to reps for Baron Cohen for the statements.

However, Wilson's sister Liberty and a friend (who remained anonymous) told the magazine that Wilson told them her experience shortly after filming the scene.

On March 23, Wilson had shared in a deleted Instagram Story, "I wrote about an asshole in my book. Now, said asshole is trying to threaten me. He's hired a crisis PR manager and lawyers. He is trying to stop press coming out about my book. But the book WILL come out, and you will all know the truth."

A day later, she wrote another Instagram Story, exposing Baron Cohen: "I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers. The "asshole" that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is: Sacha Baron Cohen."

More from The Hollywood Reporter

• Rebel Wilson Says Sacha Baron Cohen Is the "A**hole" That Allegedly Tried to Stop Her Writing About Him in Memoir
• Sacha Baron Cohen Slams TikTok: "Creating Biggest Antisemitic Movement Since the Nazis"

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Guest Essay

The One Idea That Could Save American Democracy

By Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix

Ms. Taylor and Ms. Hunt-Hendrix are political organizers and the authors of the book “Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea.”

These days, we often hear that democracy is on the ballot. And there’s a truth to that: Winning elections is critical, especially as liberal and progressive forces try to fend off radical right-wing movements. But the democratic crisis that our society faces will not be solved by voting alone. We need to do more than defeat Donald Trump and his allies — we need to make cultivating solidarity a national priority.

For years, solidarity’s strongest associations have been with the left and the labor movement — a term invoked at protests and on picket lines. But its roots are much deeper, and its potential implications far more profound, than we typically assume. Though we rarely speak about it as such, solidarity is a concept as fundamental to democracy as its better-known cousins: equality, freedom and justice. Solidarity is simultaneously a bond that holds society together and a force that propels it forward. After all, when people feel connected, they are more willing to work together, to share resources and to have one another’s backs. Solidarity weaves us into a larger and more resilient “we” through the precious and powerful sense that even though we are different, our lives and our fates are connected.

We have both spent years working as organizers and activists . If our experience has taught us anything, it is that a sense of connection and mutualism is rarely spontaneous. It must be nurtured and sustained. Without robust and effective organizations and institutions to cultivate and maintain solidarity, it weakens and democracy falters. We become more atomized and isolated, suspicious and susceptible to misinformation, more disengaged and cynical, and easily pitted against one another.

Democracy’s opponents know this. That’s why they invest huge amounts of energy and resources to sabotage transformative, democratic solidarity and to nurture exclusionary and reactionary forms of group identity. Enraged at a decade of social movements and the long-overdue revival of organized labor, right-wing strategists and their corporate backers have redoubled their efforts to divide and conquer the American public, inflaming group resentments in order to restore traditional social hierarchies and ensure that plutocrats maintain their hold on wealth and power. In white papers, stump speeches and podcasts, conservative ideologues have laid out their vision for capturing the state and using it as a tool to remake our country in their image.

If we do not prioritize solidarity, this dangerous and anti-democratic project will succeed. Far more than just a slogan or hashtag, solidarity can orient us toward a future worth fighting for, providing the basis of a credible and galvanizing plan for democratic renewal. Instead of the 20th-century ideal of a welfare state, we should try to imagine a solidarity state.

We urgently need a countervision of what government can and should be, and how public resources and infrastructure can be deployed to foster social connection and repair the social fabric so that democracy can have a chance not just to limp along, but to flourish. Solidarity, here, is both a goal worth reaching toward and the method of building the power to achieve it. It is both means and ends, the forging of social bonds so that we can become strong enough to shift policy together.

Historically, the question of solidarity has been raised during volatile junctures like the one we are living through. Contemporary conceptions of solidarity first took form after the democratic revolutions of the 18th century and over the course of the Industrial Revolution. As kings were deposed and the church’s role as a moral authority waned, philosophers and citizens wondered how society could cohere without a monarch or god. What could bind people in a secular, pluralistic age?

The 19th-century thinkers who began seriously contemplating and writing about the idea of solidarity often used the image of the human body, where different parts work in tandem. Most famously, the French sociologist Émile Durkheim put solidarity at the center of his inquiry, arguing that as society increased in complexity, social bonds between people would strengthen, each person playing a specialized role while connected to a larger whole. Solidarity and social cohesion, he argued, would be the natural result of increasing social and economic interdependence. But as Durkheim himself would eventually recognize, the industrial economy that he initially imagined would generate solidarity would actually serve to weaken its fragile ties, fostering what he called anomie, the corrosive hopelessness that accompanied growing inequality.

In the United States, solidarity never achieved the same intellectual cachet as in Europe. Since this nation’s founding, the concept has generally been neglected, and the practice actively suppressed and even criminalized. Attempts to forge cross-racial solidarity have met with violent suppression time and again, and labor organizing, effectively outlawed until the New Deal era, still occupies hostile legal ground. Decades of market-friendly policies, promoted by Republicans and Democrats alike, have undermined solidarity in ways both subtle and overt, from encouraging us to see ourselves as individual consumers rather than citizens to fostering individualism and competition over collectivity and cooperation.

As our profit-driven economy has made us more insecure and atomized — and more susceptible to authoritarian appeals — the far right has seized its opportunity. A furious backlash now rises to cut down the shoots of solidarity that sprung up as a result of recent movements pushing for economic, racial, environmental and gender justice. In response, programs that encourage diversity and inclusion are being targeted by billionaire investors, while small acts of solidarity — like helping someone get an abortion or bailing protesters out of jail — have been criminalized.

Awaiting the return of Mr. Trump, the Heritage Foundation has mapped out a plan to remake government and society, using the full power of the state to roll back what it calls “the Great Awokening” and restore a Judeo-Christian, capitalist “culture of life” and “blessedness.” “Woke” has been turned into a pejorative so that the word can be wielded to tarnish and break the solidarity that people have only just begun to experience.

Our vision of a solidarity state offers a pointed rejoinder to this project. Social democrats and socialists have been right to emphasize the need for redistribution and robust public investment in goods and services. We must restructure our economy so that it works for the many and not the few. But unlike conservatives — think, for example, of Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister of Britain who in 1981 said, “Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul” — liberals and leftists have tended to downplay the role of policy in shaping public sensibilities. This is a mistake.

Laws and social programs not only shape material outcomes; they also shape us, informing public perceptions and preferences, and generating what scholars call policy feedback loops. There is no neutral state to aspire to. Policies can either foster solidarity and help repair the divides that separate us or deepen the fissures.

Today, the American welfare state too often does the latter. As sociologists including Suzanne Mettler and Matthew Desmond have detailed, lower-income people tend to be stigmatized for needing assistance, while more-affluent citizens reap a range of benefits that are comparatively invisible, mainly through tax credits and tax breaks. Both arrangements — the highly visible and stigmatized aid to the poor and the more invisible and socially acceptable aid to the affluent — serve to foster resentment and obscure how we are all dependent on the state in various ways.

Instead of treating citizens as passive and isolated recipients of services delivered from on high, a solidarity state would experiment with creative ways of fostering connection and participation at every opportunity for more Americans. What if we had basic guarantees that were universal rather than means-tested programs that distinguish between the deserving and undeserving, stigmatizing some and setting groups apart? What if, following the model of a widely admired program in Canada, the government aided groups of private citizens who want to sponsor and subsidize migrants and refugees? What if public schools, post offices, transit systems, parks, public utilities and jobs programs were explicitly designed to facilitate social connection and solidarity in addition to providing essential support and services?

We’ll get there only if we take up the challenge of building solidarity from wherever we happen to sit. Both means and end, solidarity can be a source of power, built through the day-to-day work of organizing, and our shared purpose. Solidarity is the essential and too often missing ingredient of today’s most important political project: not just saving democracy but creating an egalitarian, multiracial society that can guarantee each of us a dignified life.

Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix are political organizers and the authors of the book “Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea.”

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StarTribune

St. paul's popular (and still free) lowertown sounds concert series announces 2024 lineup.

With concert ticket prices rising along with the cost of just about everything — and some cities not even paying local bands anything to perform in their parks — organizers of St. Paul's Lowertown Sounds music series are especially thrilled to unveil their lineup of free Twin Cities bands for 2024.

"The hill keeps getting steeper," admitted Clint Roberts, founder and director of the annual series formerly known as Music in Mears.

Performers lined up for the Thursday night series in Mears Park include: regular favorites the New Standards, Flamin' Oh's and Salsa del Soul; rootsy Americana music mainstays Molly Maher, Erik Koskinen, Becky Kapell and the High 48s; and buzzing newcomers such as Laamar, Aby Wolf's Champagne Confetti, Keep for Cheap, Favourite Girl and Colin Bracewell.

The latter two acts will share the stage on the June 6 kickoff night with Dan Israel, who's one of several reputable singer/songwriters also on the 12-show schedule alongside Mary Bue, Chris Koza (playing with his band Rogue Valley), Dan Rodriguez and the Scarlet Goodbye's Dan Murphy and Jeff Arundel.

Organizers promise the usual mix of food trucks and local beer and wine makers at the shows, which will again run from 6-9:30 p.m. nearly every week through Aug. 29.

Roberts praised Blaze Credit Union and other 2024 sponsors while noting he's still looking for more support. The series also relies on grant money from the city.

Rising costs like those have forced other festival-style events around the Twin Cities to go on hiatus in recent years, such as Rock the Garden , Twin Cities Summer Jam and the Basilica Block Party — the latter of which is returning in August , but with higher ticket prices and one less stage. Similar financial challenges were cited by Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Board members after they received blowback this winter for not paying musicians to perform in their Music in the Parks series.

Roberts said he considered downscaling the amount and/or level of entertainment, but he said, "I didn't want to cut back on the quality of music people have come to expect." More than 25 acts received slots in this year's series.

"That's one of the problems: We've been around a while now and are known for putting on popular shows, so everyone thinks we're doing great," Roberts said. "There's a risk of being taken for granted."

Here's the full 2024 schedule with the rich lineup local music lovers have come to expect every summer in St. Paul:

• June 6: Dan Israel, Favourite Girl, Colin Bracewell
• June 13: Molly Maher and her Disbelievers, Erik Koskinen
• June 20: The New Standards, Laamar
• June 27: The Scarlet Goodbye, Cole Allen Band
• July 11: Mary Bue, the High 48s
• July 18: The Orange Goodness; Tom, Dick & Harry
• July 25: Rogue Valley, Maygen & the Birdwatcher
• Aug. 1: Annie and the Bang Bang, Keep for Cheap
• Aug. 8: Champagne Confetti, Barlow
• Aug. 15: Flamin' Oh's, Pullstring
• Aug. 22: Salsa del Soul, Tropical Zone Orchestra
• Aug. 29: Dan Rodriguez, Becky Kapell, Lonesome Dan Kase

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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