How to write tv show names in essays

How to write tv show names in essays

American Psychological Association, or APA, style establishes rules for writing and formatting social science papers, including how to format the titles of works such as books, websites and TV shows. The format of the title of a work depends on the section of your paper and whether the work stands alone or is part of a greater whole, according to the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

TV Episode Title

The title of an episode of a TV show should be placed inside quotations marks and written in title case within the body of the paper, according to the American Psychological Association. In title case, capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle; nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives; and all words at least four letters long. For example, within the body of your paper, you would write "Chasing the Bus." When you write the title of a TV episode in your reference list, do not put the title in quotation marks or italics and use sentence case. In sentence case, capitalize the first word and proper nouns, as if you were writing a sentence. For example, in your reference list, you would write "Chasing the bus."

TV Series Title

The title of a TV series stands alone, so it should be italicized in both the body of your paper and the reference list, according to the American Psychological Association. The title should be in title case within the body of your paper and in sentence case in the reference list. For example, within the body of your paper you would write "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," while the reference list would say "CSI: Crime scene investigation."

How to distinguish titles of works is a matter of style. There is no single, universally correct answer; you should adhere to the guidance of your editor, publication, or organization, or in the absence of a house style, your preferred style manual.

For example, the Chicago Manual of Style stipulates that the titles of television shows should be italicized, but that individual episode names should be demarcated with quotation marks. APA style dictates the same.

Associated Press style, on the other hand, prefers that the names of television shows should be wrapped in quotation marks, and not italicized or underlined.

Bluebook legal citation, for yet another example, wants the name of the show and episode together, separated by a colon, and both italicized, without quotation marks. Journal names and film titles, incidentally, are to be cited neither with italics nor with quotation marks, but with small caps.

The titles of certain works are indicated with quotation marks, others with italics, and yet others with regular type.

The style presented here is consistent with The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) and the MLA Handbook (8th ed.), and is appropriate for most academic and professional writing. Newspapers tend to favor quotation marks in place of italics for most titles.

The general rule is that self-contained works or collective works are italicized, whereas works that are part of a collective work are set in quotation marks. So, for example, the title of a newspaper, television show, or musical album would be set in italics. The title of an article from a newspaper, an episode of a television show, or a song from an album would be set in quotation marks.

Titles set in italics

  • blogs
  • books
  • cartoons or comic strips
  • journals
  • legal cases
  • magazines
  • movies
  • musical albums
  • musical compositions identified by name
  • newspapers
  • online databases (MLA)
  • operas
  • paintings
  • plays
  • poems (long)
  • radio shows
  • sculptures
  • streaming services (MLA)
  • television shows
  • websites (MLA)

Titles set in quotation marks

  • articles in magazines, journals, newspapers, and encyclopedias
  • blog entries
  • chapters in books
  • episodes of television shows
  • essays
  • photographs
  • poems (short)
  • short stories
  • songs
  • unpublished manuscripts, speeches, dissertations, theses, and lectures

Titles set in regular type

  • awards
  • musical compositions not identified by name
  • online databases (Chicago)
  • political documents
  • scriptural works (including the Bible)
  • sections, books, and prayers within scriptural works
  • streaming services (Chicago)
  • websites (Chicago)
  • works of antiquity

As you can see in the examples below, MLA has a much stronger preference for italics than does Chicago.

MLA

After an hour of aimless searching on Google and Wikipedia, I decided to watch “Visiting Ours,” my favorite episode of Arrested Development, on Netflix.

Chicago

After an hour of aimless searching on Google and Wikipedia, I decided to watch “Visiting Ours,” my favorite episode of Arrested Development, on Netflix.

How do you mention a TV show in an essay?

To cite an episode of a TV show in MLA style, list the episode title, the name of the show (in italics), the names and roles of any relevant contributors, the season and episode numbers, main production or distribution company, and year. In an in-text citation, cite the name of the episode in quotation marks.

Do you capitalize TV show names?

The title of the individual episode is put inside quotation marks. Punctuation for all titles applies, as all important words in the title (including the first and last, always) get capitalized.