Cut Title Article For Free

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available. Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles.

Ideally, the shortened title should use the first two or three words of the original title, but in some cases, these first few words may not be descriptive enough. In this instance, the shortened title should utilize key words from the title that can help readers identify the correct source on the Works Cited list.

As a rule of thumb, very long titles are shortened to 3?5 words. These can be the first 3?5 words or those substantive 3?5 words that retain the essence and meaning of the title. In other words, the shortened title needs to be meaning full so that the reader knows what the source is about.

Titles of books, plays, films, periodicals, databases, and websites are italicized. Place titles in quotation marks if the source is part of a larger work. Articles, essays, chapters, poems, webpages, songs, and speeches are placed in quotation marks. Sometimes titles will contain other titles.

Shortening titles: Shorten a book or article title that is 5 or more words in a note, but do not shorten journal titles. Acceptable ways of shortening titles: Omit the initial article (A, The). Include only key words from the title.

If the source title or organization name is longer than four words, shorten it to the first word or phrase in the in-text citation, excluding any articles (a, an, and the). The shortened title or organization name should begin with the word the source is alphabetized by in the Works Cited.

In the works-cited-list entry, add an ellipsis after the first part of the title. If a period is needed, insert the period before the ellipsis.