Normally, the title of a what is written in italics

The title of a piece of writing is always written in italics, and often underlined.

To be more specific it is a novel or full work of writing, or a movie, or an album, it can also be underlined. However smaller writings like an essay, or a chapter from a book or a song from an album would be simply put in quotations, as only long or complete writings would actually have the italics or underlining.