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I'm writing a critical review of two essays for a university class. Both of these essays have fairly long names. The essay begins like so...

This essay will compare The Propaganda of Saints in the Middle Ages, by Esther Cohen and What is Propaganda and How Does it Differ from Persuasion? By Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell. These essays relate in that they both discuss aspects of propaganda.

I want to add some kind of note which says something like

The Propaganda of Saints in the Middle Ages*(to be refred to as Propaganda of Saints)*

Is there an preferred way to do this in academic essays?

Edit: I also wanted to point out that it is recommended in most essay styles MLA, APA, ect. that titles are stylized, either through italicizing, underling, or quotes. Using short forms could be negative in this regard as you will end up having something like this.

This essay will compare The Propaganda of Saints in the Middle Ages(henceforth , Propaganda of Saints)

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    How about "<published name> (henceforth <shortened, recurring name>)..." ?
    – Mussri
    Commented Aug 10, 2013 at 6:19
  • What style guide is relevant for your field? For example, in APA (for psychologists) you do not refer to sources by title but by author, so your problem does not even arise.
    – user5645
    Commented Dec 14, 2013 at 12:45
  • The style used is MLA
    – Philip Kirkbride
    Commented Dec 14, 2013 at 20:19
  • In MLA you refer to the sources by author. So your problem does not even arise. See: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02 That page even explains how to abbreviate the title, if you need to quote by title because the work has no author.
    – user5645
    Commented Dec 14, 2013 at 21:08

3 Answers 3

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I don't know what will satisfy your professors, but given the lengths of the tities, I would be tempted to refer to the articles by their authors' names.

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    That's a good idea, I'll leave the first sentence as is and then just refer to the author after that. Hopefully it's not an issue for the essay that has two authors.
    – Philip Kirkbride
    Commented Aug 10, 2013 at 5:55
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    @PhilipK For two authors "as Smith and Jones stated" would still be shorter than using the full title. For more than two authors "as Smith et al. stated" could be used. I personally prefer abbreviations to just be presented in parentheses after the full name without any additional text, e.g., "The Propaganda of Saints in the Middle Ages (Propaganda of Saints)", but that might only be common practice for initialisms.
    – user5232
    Commented Aug 10, 2013 at 12:55
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    I vote for shortened titles rather than authors, because I will never ever remember the authors after I turn the page.
    – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
    Commented Aug 10, 2013 at 13:16
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I'm leaning towards using the method mentioned @Mussri. Which would result in the following

This essay will compare The Propaganda of Saints in the Middle Ages(henceforth , Propaganda of Saints)by Esther Cohen and What is Propaganda and How Does it Differ from Persuasion(henceforth Propaganda vs. Persuasion)? By Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell. These essays relate in that they both discuss aspects of propaganda. However these two essays differ on their definition of propaganda,

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You can write like this as well :

Propaganda of Saints by Esther Cohen vs. Meaning of Propaganda and how it varies from Persuasion By Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell. Both the essays are related to the in-depth discussion between the authors about the aspects of Propaganda.

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  • Your answer doesn't address the question and the edit you have made is incorrect. It implies that the authors are in discussion with each other, when they aren't.
    – Philip Kirkbride
    Commented Sep 16, 2013 at 21:35

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