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.
Rules on How to Write Movie Titles
- 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.
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Do I Capitalize Movie Titles in an Essay?
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.
How to Write Movie Titles in an essay with MLA Writing Style?
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.
Examples:
The Great Gatsby
The Lord of the Rings
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How to Write Movie Titles in an essay in APA Style?
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.
Examples:
Gone With the Wind
How to Write a Movie Title in an Essay with Tips
Write about the correct movie
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.
Check the words of the title
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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Be careful with words like “a” and “the”
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.
Use capital letters in the movie’s title
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.
Use Italics in movie titles
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.
Write the movie’s release year
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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Are Movie Titles Italicized?
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
Watch it fully a couple of times
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.
Consider it carefully
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.
Finish with some lessons learned
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.
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Conclusion
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.
References
- Study.com – how to write a movie title in an essay mla
- Domyessay – how to write a movie title in an essay apa
