When writing a book title, it is important to know whether you should italicize, underline, or use quotation marks. The general rule is that book titles should be italicized. This is true for any titles—books, newspapers, films, and songs.
When you write a title of a book in text, you should italicize it. This is true for titles within the text itself and for titles of works cited in your paper. Italicizing a title of a book essentially serves to tell the reader that the emphasized word or phrase is the title. Here's an example:
I just finished reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
In this sentence, the title of the book (Jane Eyre) is italicized.
Italicizing book titles is important because it helps the reader quickly identify and refer to it. This is especially helpful when writing research papers or essays, as readers will be quickly reminded of the book being discussed.
You should not use quotation marks or underline when writing a title in your paper. Quotation marks and underlines are used for shorter works like poems, articles, and short stories.
If you are writing by hand, an acceptable alternative is to underline book titles. While this is not the convention anymore, it is still seen as an acceptable option.
One last thing to remember is that all major words in a title should be capitalized, regardless of whether you are using italics or underlining.
I hope this helps clear up any confusion around how to write book titles in text. If you still have questions, you can always check out more information on italicizing book titles here.
