Introduction

In-Text Citation

Books

Dictionaries/
Encyclopedias

Selections from Books

Periodicals

Online Sources

Other

Notes on Capitalization of Titles in MLA Style

The general rule for capitalization is to capitalize the first, last, and all major words in the title.  

The following parts of speech and sentence components are NOT capitalized:

Component

Examples

Articles

 Both definite (the) and indefinite articles (a, an).
Prepositions Click here for a list of common prepositions 
Coordinating Conjunctions and, but, for, yet, so, or, nor
to when used in infinitives (to go, to see)

Several examples of capitalization of titles are given on the citation examples pages for each individual type of source.  

(Dodds 262-263)

This page is best viewed using Internet Explorer 5.0 or greater. Please send questions, comments, and suggestions to ia@juniata.edu.  
Created: 06/27/2000
Last Modified: 09/25/2002