To our knowledge, the MLA style does not distinguish between titles for articles as a whole and dissertations. As such, we have based this style guide on the requirements for titles set out by the MLA style guide, 7th edition. The main considerations when writing your dissertation title from a style perspective are: (a) capitalisation in titles and subtitles; (b) when not to capitalise in titles and subtitles; (c) italics; (d) quotation marks; and (e) hyphenated compounds. Each of these considerations is present below with associated examples:
Capitalisation in titles and subtitles
The first letter of a title and subtitle should be capitalised. A subtitle should be separated using a colon or hyphen and then a single space (i.e., Title: Subtitle OR Title — Subtitle). If a subtitle follows a title that ends with a question mark, a colon should not follow the colon (i.e., Title? Subtitle NOT Title?: Subtitle). Also, the last word of the title and subtitle should be capitalised [examples in bold below]
Modernisms and Medievalisms, Old and New
Blue Order: Wallace Stevens's Jazz Experiments
Reading Renunciation: Laura Riding and the End of Poetry
Private Worlds, Public Minds: Woolf, Russell and Photographic Vision
Subordinating conjunctions (e.g., after, although, because, before, until, when, where) [bold below]:
The Eight Animals in Shakespeare; or, Before the Human
All adjectives, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, and verbs should be capitalized, in addition to all words that have four letters or more.
When not to capitalise in titles and subtitles
Do not capitalise articles (i.e., a, an, the) unless they are the first letter of a title or subtitle [bold below]:
"Vertebrae on Which a Seraph Might Make Music"
Rich Woman, Poor Woman: Toward an Anthropology of the Nineteenth-Century Marriage Plot
Reading Renunciation: Laura Riding and the End of Poetry
Do not capitalise prepositions (e.g., as, at, by, in, of, off, on, to, up) [bold below]:
Eliot's Last Laugh: The Dissolution of Satire in The Waste Land
The Enfreakment of America's Jeune Fille � Marier: Lily Bart to Carrie Bradshaw
"Vertebrae on Which a Seraph Might Make Music"
Do not capitalise coordinating conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, for, nor) [bold below]:
Modernisms and Medievalisms, Old and New
Math for Math's Sake: Non-Euclidean Geometry, Aestheticism, and Flatland
Do not capitalise the word to in infinitives (e.g., to Interpret, to Provide)
Italics
Italics should be used for names of books, poems that are published as books, journals, magazines, newspapers, operas, paintings, plays, sculptures, and Web sites (for a complete list, refer to 3.6.2 (p.88) of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition) [bold below]:
On Homelands and Home-Making: Rebecca Goldstein's Mazel
Stumbling into Crossfire: William Carlos Williams, Partisan Review, and the Left in the 1930s
Trauma and Cure in Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier
Quotation marks
Quotation marks should be used for the titles of articles (i.e. articles of encyclopaedias, journals, and magazines), chapters and essays in books, lectures, poems, radio and television episodes, songs, stories, and Web pages. Quotations marks should be double (i.e., "..."), not single (i.e., '...') [bold below]:
"A Few Cool Years after These": Midlife at Midcentury in Niedecker's Lyrics
Bottomless Surfaces: Saul Bellow's "Refreshed Phrenology"
Hyphenated compounds
When hyphenated compounds capitalised in titles, both words should be capitalised (e.g., Time-Based, Self-Regulation, Short-Term).
If the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition, is not in your university library, it can be purchased on Amazon for around £15/US$12/CDN$26. It is a comprehensive guide to the MLA style.
Clements, J. (2009) Bottomless Surfaces: Saul Bellow's "Refreshed Phrenology", Journal of Modern Literature, 33(1): 75-91
Cohen, M.A. (2009) Stumbling into Crossfire: William Carlos Williams, Partisan Review, and the Left in the 1930s, Journal of Modern Literature, 32(2): 143-158.
Fisher, T. (2010) Reading Renunciation: Laura Riding and the End of Poetry, Journal of Modern Literature, 33(3): 1-19.
Savage, E. (2010) "A Few Cool Years after These": Midlife at Midcentury in Niedecker's Lyrics, Journal of Modern Literature, 33(3): 20-37.
DiCicco, L. (2010) The Enfreakment of America's Jeune Fille à Marier: Lily Bart to Carrie Bradshaw, Journal of Modern Literature, 33(3): 78-98.
Henderson, A. (2010) Math for Math's Sake: Non-Euclidean Geometry, Aestheticism, and Flatland, PMLA, 124(2): 455-471.
Hoffman, K.A. (2010) ?Vertebrae on Which a Seraph Might Make Music?, PMLA, 125(1): 152-160.
Keane, D. (2009) Modernisms and Medievalisms, Old and New, Journal of Modern Literature, 32(2): 185-192.
Lehman, R.S. (2009) Eliot's Last Laugh: The Dissolution of Satire in The Waste Land, Journal of Modern Literature, 32(2): 65-79.
Mackin, T. (2010) Private Worlds, Public Minds: Woolf, Russell and Photographic Vision, Journal of Modern Literature, 33(3): 112-130.
Meyers, H. (2010) On Homelands and Home-Making: Rebecca Goldstein's Mazel, Journal of Modern Literature, 33(3): 131-141.
Michie, E.B. (2009) Rich Woman, Poor Woman: Toward an Anthropology of the Nineteenth-Century Marriage Plot, PMLA, 124(2): 421-436.
Pinkerton, S. (2008) Trauma and Cure in Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier, Journal of Modern Literature, 32(1): 1-12.
Shannon, L. (2009) The Eight Animals in Shakespeare; or, Before the Human, PMLA, 124(2): 472-479.
Taylor, C.M. (2009) Blue Order: Wallace Stevens's Jazz Experiments, Journal of Modern Literature, 32(2): 100-117.