MLA Title Capitalization™

MLA Title Capitalization Rules & Guidelines

MLA title capitalization follows the Modern Language Association style guide (9th edition), the standard for literature, language studies, and humanities. Understanding MLA title capitalization is essential for academic papers and literary analysis.

MLA Title Capitalization Rules

• Capitalize all principal words
  Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions.
• Always capitalize first and last words
  Regardless of their length or part of speech
• Lowercase articles
  "a," "an," "the" (unless first or last word)
• Lowercase coordinating conjunctions
  "and," "but," "or," "nor," "for," "so," "yet" (unless first or last word)
• Lowercase all prepositions
  Regardless of length: "in," "on," "with," "through," "against," "between"
• Lowercase "to" in infinitives
  "How to Analyze Literary Texts"

MLA Title Capitalization Examples

• ✓ "To Kill a Mockingbird and the American Dream"
• ✓ "The Catcher in the Rye: A Study of Adolescent Alienation"
• ✓ "How to Analyze Poetry for Literary Criticism"
• ✓ "Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance"
• ✓ "Between Tradition and Modernity: Contemporary African Literature"

MLA Works Cited and Title Formatting

Important MLA formatting rules:

• Book titles: Italicize and use title case capitalization
• Article titles: Use quotation marks and title case capitalization
• Website titles: Italicize and use title case capitalization
• Example: Smith, John. "The Impact of Social Media on Modern Literature." Digital Humanities Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 3, 2023, pp. 45-67.

Common MLA Title Capitalization Mistakes

• ❌ Capitalizing prepositions: "To Kill A Mockingbird And The American Dream"
• ✓ Correct: "To Kill a Mockingbird and the American Dream"
• ❌ Not capitalizing last word: "The Catcher in the rye"
• ✓ Correct: "The Catcher in the Rye"
• ❌ Capitalizing "to" in infinitives: "How To Analyze Poetry"
• ✓ Correct: "How to Analyze Poetry"

When to Use MLA Title Capitalization

MLA title capitalization is required for:

• Literature and literary criticism papers
• Language and linguistics studies
• Humanities research papers
• Foreign language and cultural studies
• Comparative literature analyses
• English composition and rhetoric papers

MLA Style Special Guidelines

• Foreign titles: Capitalize according to the conventions of that language
• Hyphenated words: Capitalize the second part if it's a principal word
• Subtitles: Always capitalize the first word after a colon or dash
• Series and volume titles: Apply consistent capitalization throughout

MLA vs Other Humanities Styles

• MLA vs Chicago: Very similar rules, both emphasize principal words
• MLA vs APA: MLA uses title case; APA primarily uses sentence case
• MLA vs AP: MLA lowercases all prepositions; AP capitalizes prepositions of 4+ letters

MLA In-Text Citations and Titles

• Use proper title capitalization in your Works Cited page
• Maintain consistent formatting throughout your paper
• Follow MLA 9th edition guidelines for digital sources
• Use italics for longer works, quotation marks for shorter works

Quick MLA Title Capitalization Tips

• Focus on "principal words" - major parts of speech
• All prepositions are lowercase, regardless of length
• Always capitalize the first and last words
• Be consistent with formatting throughout your bibliography
• Use our free MLA title capitalization tool above for instant formatting

Need perfect MLA title capitalization?
Use our free MLA title capitalization tool to instantly format your literary titles according to Modern Language Association guidelines.

PS: We are always looking for feedback, so if you have any feature requests or suggestions, please use the Feedback link in the bottom left corner of the screen.