movie titles in a title of an essay

How to Write a Movie Title in an Essay: Examples and Tips

August 23, 2024
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Rules on how to write movie titles, do i capitalize movie titles in an essay, how to write movie titles in an essay with mla writing style, how to write movie titles in an essay in apa style, write about the correct movie, check the words of the title, be careful with words like “a” and “the”, use capital letters in the movie’s title, use italics in movie titles, write the movie’s release year, are movie titles italicized, watch it fully a couple of times, share your personal thoughts about the movie, consider it carefully, finish with some lessons learned, we also recommend.

My university professor once gave me an essay to write about a movie. I started with so much enthusiasm until I realized I was making no progress. This brought about many questions from my end. I didn’t even know how to write the movie title in the essay. All I knew was the movie plot.

Google became my friend for the assignment. It was a long shot, but I eventually finished.

Writing essays is hard on its own, now imagine writing an essay on a movie. How you write it will determine if you’ll get an A+ or a D-. We have outlined all you need in this article.

Are movie titles italicized? Do you underline movie titles? Are movie titles placed in quotes? Are film titles italicized? These questions have been answered in this article.

Discuss the movie background first
Share your personal experience
Study the main ideas and topics, and discuss how they were portrayed in the movie
Describe what lessons it can teach
Basic grammar rules
Use the required formatting style
Write in the active voice
Structure or organize your work
Ensure smooth transitions between ideas
Make sure to use proper punctuation for titles and headings.

See also: How To Write A Song Title in an Essay: 7 Rules to Remember

A movie title must start with a capital letter

Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs.

Articles (the, a, or an), conjunctions, and prepositions must not be capitalized except; If they are long, use phrases such as still, furthermore, and additionally, or if they are the first word in the title

Proper nouns should always be capitalized.

So, now, let’s move to how to write movie titles in an essay written in different styles.

So, how do you write movie titles in an essay in MLA style? All movie names must adhere to the MLA standard for titles in papers. Essentially, there are only two main rules; Capitalize all first letters of significant words, avoiding non-essential phrases like conjunctions, articles, and prepositions (save those used at sentence openings). Secondly, Italicize every title in your essay’s body.

What exactly is MLA format? This style was created by the Modern Language Association and consists mostly of formatting and citation standards for academic writing.

The Great Gatsby

The Lord of the Rings

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Capitalize the first letter of each essential word, excluding articles, prepositions, and other characters.

Place the entire title in italics.

APA also requires you to capitalize words that include 4 letters or more (even if it’s a preposition, etc.).

Another common format for writing a movie title essay is the APA format. It was designed by the American Psychological Association and is mostly used in academic writing and research in a variety of social science subjects, including sociology, psychology, and anthropology.

Keep in mind that to write all movie titles in an essay, you must use the same title case capitalization as MLA, APA, and Chicago styles. Furthermore, italics are required for all three styles. The formatting for MLA and APA is the same.

Gone With the Wind

How to Write a Movie Title in an Essay with Tips

The titles of some movies are strikingly similar. Some have identical titles. You don’t want to confuse Broken Arrow, a Jimmy Stewart western, with Broken Arrow, a John Travolta thriller, for example, As a result, before using a title in your writing, ensure that you have the correct movie.

Many movies have multiple titles, typically because their original titles were changed to better suit viewers in different countries.

When bringing up a movie, make sure you know the proper wording for the scenario and how your audience wants you to discuss it.

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Many movie titles begin with an article that most people do not say, or do not have one at all.

It can be confusing, but before you input the title, double-check that the “a” or “the” at the beginning is truly part of it.

When writing a movie title, you will capitalize. That is, capitalize the title’s first and last words, as well as any proper nouns or key keywords.

In formal academic writing, you will use standard capitalization except in rare cases where another scheme is important for understanding. That means that if a movie uses ALL CAPS, you will not use all caps unless they are an essential part of the title.

Most major writing styles italicized movie titles. This makes the title different from other words in the essay. There are some exceptions to the rule about italicizing movie titles.

Later in the article, we will explain more about italicization.

When citing a film for the first time, it is often best to include the year of release in parenthesis next to the title.

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The APA, MLA, and Chicago Style guides require that movie names be italicized while following the case capitalization format. Television and radio show titles should be italicized, just like movie titles.

Not all movies use italicized titles. Short film titles are frequently displayed in quotation marks rather than italics. This usually applies to segments of longer films as well as short subject films that are less than 30 minutes long.

This guideline is not rigid, therefore you should consult the style guide for your preferred writing style to see whether you need to use a different punctuation mark.

News writing is another exception. When using the APA style, movie names are written in quotation marks, with italicization reserved for highly special circumstances.

Tips on How to write about a movie in an essay

Write about the background.

Tell us what you took away from the movie, how it affected you, and how you felt. Do not repeat the background and plot, instead, reflect on the people and things that most impacted you.

Evaluate the plot and themes, as well as how the filmmakers used special effects and music to leave a lasting impression, and the acting skills of the main characters, among other things.

Describe for the readers what the movie has taught you and other young people.

For instance, this movie teaches us significant life lessons such as the fact that parents are usually quite insightful, that appearances can be deceiving, that we are capable of dealing with any situation, and many more.

See also: How to Write a Grievance Letter | Step-by-Step Guide, Examples, & Free

This article has tried to be extensive in its descriptions We hope that it has answered all he questions you have as regards how to write a movie or film title in an essay.

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How to Format Movie Titles in Academic Writings

by Lesley V.
October 26, 2023

How to write a movie title in an essay?

Students, especially those in Arts, often refer to films or movie series in their papers. The formatting rules here are easy to remember. But:

They vary a bit, depending on the citation style you use.

In this post, I’ve gathered the guidelines for citing movie titles in five primary formats. Examples included, for you to compare and remember everything better.

How to Write Movie Titles in Essays

Are movie titles italicized?

It’s the most frequent question students ask when looking for this information online. Indeed, most citation formats prescribe italicizing. Other general rules include:

Uppercase for subtitles
Extra short movie names (like “It” ) may also go in quotations
When using quotation marks (AP style), put punctuation inside them

Below are the details on how to format movie titles in essays and reference lists correctly.

Writing Film Titles in Different Citation Styles

For APA style (1):

Uppercase all four-letter words and above
Uppercase the first and the last word of a movie title, even if they are short articles (a, the) or pronouns (in, at, etc.)
Italicize the entire name

For MLA format (2):

Uppercase movie titles and subtitles
Use capital letters for both parts of hyphenated words
No uppercase for articles (a, the) and short conjunctions within the movie name
Italicize the entire movie title

For Chicago style:

Uppercase all main words
Lowercase short conjunctions (below four letters) within the movie title
Uppercase prepositions, regardless of their length

For AP citation style:

Lowercase articles (a, the) and prepositions/conjunctions that are shorter than four letters
Uppercase articles and prepositions/conjunctions in the beginning/end of the title
No italics; put movie names in quotation marks

For Harvard style:

Uppercase all primary words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.)
Lowercase articles and prepositions/conjunctions (below four letters) within the movie title

How to Capitalize Movies in Papers

When writing a film name in a sentence, capitalize every word except for:

Articles (a, an, the) within the movie title
Short (below four letters) prepositions and conjunctions within the title

If a movie name begins with the above, use uppercase. Also, write long prepositions/conjunctions (moreover, although, etc.) with a capital letter. For example:

Italics vs. Quotations vs. Underlines

Most citation styles, except AP, prescribe italicization for movies and film series titles. When writing in AP, use quotation marks.

Quotes are also possible to use if you mention super short movie names like “It” or “M.” You italicize them in APA, MLA, or Chicago.

Underlines are for handwritten essays. When written by hand, you can’t italicize, huh? Use underlining instead to highlight a movie title somehow.

How to Format Punctuation in Movie Titles

If punctuation is a part of a film name, place it inside quotation marks or italicize it.

For example:

Writing Movie Titles in Reference Lists

Do you italicize movie titles.

Here they go, the rules on formatting movie titles in essays. Now that you know how to write a movie title in an essay properly, the only detail remains:

Check the formatting guidelines before writing. What citation style does an educator or editor ask you to follow? If none assigned, choose one and stick to it for consistency.

References:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/index.html
https://lib.westfield.ma.edu/c.php?g=354010&p=2388441