Should a short story title be in italics for APA?

Answer

Do not italicize short story titles.


Here is our reasoning:

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association does not address short story titles in specific. However, section 6.22 of the Manual addresses the use of italics. They specifically say that the titles of books, periodicals, reports, webpages, and other stand-alone works should be italicized.

The official APA website addresses the issue of italicizing titles: "Reference Titles in APA Style."  Unfortunately for all of us, they do not address short story titles. 

The titles of works that stand alone (such as a book or a report) are italicized in both the text and the reference list. In contrast, the titles of works that are part of a greater whole (such as an article, which is part of a journal, or a book chapter, which is part of a book) are not italicized in either place and only in the text are they put inside quotation marks. If you are having difficulty determining whether something stands alone (such as a webpage that may or may not be part of a greater website), choose not to italicize.

So, you can see that you will need to figure out whether or not your short story is part of a greater whole (like a collection of short stories, an anthology) or whether it stands alone (published independently).

For more information about what titles to italicize in the body of your paper, see our Answer here: http://rasmussen.libanswers.com/faq/32501

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  • Last Updated Jul 06, 2020
  • Views 16109
  • Answered By Kerry Louvier

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