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Knowing When To Underline Or Italicize: Your Go-To Guide

Updated: June 19, 2024

Published: May 27, 2021

Knowing when to underline or italicize can be confusing. But it doesn’t have to be! In this article, we’ll lay out all the basics, plus a few common difficulties that confuse many writers, so you’ll be an expert in no time.

At the end of the article, you’ll get the chance to practice your hand at some sample sentences, so you’ll be sure that you know the ins and outs of using italics and underlines.

Italics Vs Underline: Clarifying The Confusion

In the past (before computers and MLA handbooks), italics and underlines were used to emphasize certain words or titles within the text. It let the reader know what was important, or what was separate from the rest of the sentence. They were both used interchangeably, as long as they were consistent.

Now, with the ability to change formatting with the click of a button, italics are generally used to indicate titles, and only sometimes for emphasis. Meanwhile, underlining is mostly reserved to replace italics in handwritten papers. Manuals and guidebooks, such as the MLA handbook, are now widely used in large institutions or according to the country’s standards, so that specific writing conventions, grammar rules, and formatting styles have become uniform.

With that said, the general rule is that italics are used for titles of books, movies, TV and radio shows, magazines, works of art, and long poems. As mentioned before, underlining is a substitute for italics when writing titles by hand.

Proper formatting in an essay can be confusing for many students: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-blue-blazer-holding-white-paper-3727468/

Titles of long works.

Titles that should be italicized are longer works. These include titles of books, movies, TV and radio shows, journals and magazines, and long poems. In the next section, we’ll see how these works differ from titles of shorter works which are put in quotations instead.

• The novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, was published in 1847 under the pen name of Currer Bell.
• The movie Home Alone , released in 1990, made a worldwide total of $476,684,675 in box office revenue.

Titles Of Smaller Works

The titles of smaller works are put in “quotations” in order to differentiate them from longer works. These smaller works include titles of chapters, short stories, TV or radio show episodes, articles, and short poems.

In the examples below, note how you can recognize the difference between the shorter works and larger works just by seeing how they are emphasized in the sentence. This makes it impossible to confuse the title of a chapter with the book that it belongs to, or the episode from its TV show.

• The chapter entitled “The Castaway” in Moby Dick describes the near-death experience of a character named Pip.
• Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” was originally published in a Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine.
• The pilot episode of Friends , which was released on September 22, 1994, is called “The One Where Monica Gets A Roommate.”

Punctuation In Titles: Common Confusions

Question marks.

Confusion can come up when a title includes a question mark or an exclamation mark in the title itself. For example, the book Who Has Seen the Wind? includes a question mark in it.

The way to deal with these titles is to italicize the question mark as well, just as it is above. By doing so, you can differentiate this title from an actual question, such as writing: Have you read Gone With the Wind ?

The same idea applies to exclamation marks — for example, the movie Mamma Mia! , which includes an exclamation mark in the title. Note the italicization, and the difference between writing Mamma Mia! , the movie, and writing: I can’t believe that you never watched The Parent Trap !

Commas and periods

The confusion of commas and periods when it comes to quotations is a debate between different handbooks and countries. According to the MLA (Modern Language Association) handbook, commas and periods are placed inside of quotation marks.

• “The Seinfeld Chronicles , ” the first episode of Seinfeld , had 15.4 million viewers in America.
• Among the short stories of James Joyce included in the collection Dubliners are “Araby , ” “The Sisters , ” and “The Encounter.”

Solidify your new skills by completing practice sentences: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-wearing-black-and-white-stripe-shirt-looking-at-white-printer-papers-on-the-wall-212286/

Let’s practice.

Try your hand at your new skills! Below are five sentences without any italics or quotations. Italicize the longer works and put the shorter works in quotations. If you get stuck, check back in the article, and you’ll be an expert in no time. Be sure to pay attention to tricky commas, periods, and question marks.

• The Lazy Controller, chapter two of Thinking Fast and Slow, talks about multitasking and its effect on thinking.
• The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story by Catherine Perkins Gilman, was originally published in The New England Magazine in January 1892.
• John Lennon’s album Imagine included favorites such as Gimme Some Truth, How Do You Sleep?, and, of course, Imagine.
• The premiere episode of Family Matters is called The Mama Who Came To Dinner, and relays the drama of Carl’s mother coming to live with him.
• The short story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway was first published in a magazine called Transition, and was only later published in his book Men Without Women.

Why Is Proper Indentation Important?

College essays  .

No matter what you study in college, most students write a lot of essays during their school years. While some degrees may put more of an emphasis on writing proper essays , most teachers and professors will expect a certain level of basic grammar and formatting knowledge. Before you even step foot into college, you’ll most likely be expected to write an application essay . It’s important to put your best foot forward, and small formatting rules can go a long way in making a good first impression.

Landing your dream job  

In addition to college essays, prospective employers and job positions will require and look for basic (or advanced, depending on the position) writing skills. Whether you think your dream job requires writing skills or not, writing is a part of everyday life and work, from emails and text messages, to presentations and reports. Having good writing skills will help you make a good first impression, land your dream job, and do your best work.

Proper writing is an important skill for any job: https://www.pexels.com/photo/writing-notes-idea-class-7103/

Having a successful career.

Though different students earn a degree for different reasons, many are hoping to work toward a successful career. In order to do this, the right preparation is key. Preparation may be earning a degree, gaining specific skills, or having the right guidance along the way.

University of the People prepares our students for successful careers by providing program advising , mentorship , and an emphasis on career development . We know that these extra details, much like formatting in an essay, make a big difference for the future success of our students. University of the People is a tuition-free online university that offers degree programs in business administration, computer science, health science, and education.

Wrapping Up

Now you know when to underline or italicize, and much more. To wrap up, italics should be used for the titles of longer works such as movies, books, and TV shows, and underlining for handwritten papers.

In addition, we hope you’ve learned the more tricky rules such as question marks and commas, and that you’ve given some thought to the importance of writing for your future education and success.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Titles: when to italicize, underline, or use quotation marks.

Titles are everywhere; we need them in order to be able to refer to any of the countless stories, pictures, blogs, movies, books, songs, and other works of art being created every single day.   Since most writing is about things you’ve experienced- things you’ve read, seen, heard, or touched – chances are very high that you will be including a title of something one day in your writing.

Before that happens, though, you need to know the rules that govern how to correctly write titles.  And when I say “titles,” I’m not referring to forms of addressing people.  Although I’m sure there are specific rules of etiquette that govern when to call someone “Miss” or “Ms.,” the rules I will be describing in this post apply to works of art, like books and music.

When it comes to titles, you can either italicize them or put them in quotation marks.  The 7th edition of the MLA Handbook eliminates underlining (underlining is still acceptable when hand-writing papers). Skip to the end of this post to see a note about underlining titles .  Keeping the rules for italicizing and using quotation marks straight isn’t easy, which is why there are different techniques that make remembering when to do what easier.

Big Things and Little Things

One way of looking at titles is to determine if it belongs to something that is big or something that is little.  A big thing is something that contains little things .  For example, a CD album contains many songs.  A book contains many chapters.  An anthology contains many essays or stories.  A web site contains many web pages.  A TV series contains many episodes. You get the point. 

Once you’ve determined if the title you’re trying to punctuate belongs to a big thing or a little thing, you can punctuate it.  The titles of big things are always italicized, while the titles of little things are placed within quotation marks.  The following are some examples of properly punctuated titles:

• Words Fail Me is a book with a chapter “Are Your Eggs Ready to Hatch?”
• The first episode of first season of the British television series Black Books is called “Cooking the Books.”
• “Head Over Feet” is a song on Alanis Morissette’s third studio album Jagged Little Pill.

As nice as the “big things/little things” trick is for remembering how to punctuate titles, it stops working when it encounters more complex collections of art.  For example, how do you punctuate the titles of the plays you bought in a book called The Collected Plays of William Shakespeare ? Are they considered chapters? They are little things inside of a bigger book, after all.  What about Beowulf?  It’s a poem, which is a little thing, but the MLA Handbook says that poems which are “long” need to be italicized.  What exactly does “long” mean and how are you going to remember to include those poems in with big things?

Don’t toss the towel in yet on this whole punctuating titles business – I’ve come up with a different way to remember whether or not to italicize or put a title in quotation marks.

Can You Buy It?

If you can go out and physically buy a copy of whatever title it is you’re trying to punctuate, italicize it.  If you can’t, put it in quotation marks. 

Since you can go to Barnes and Noble and find Beowulf on the shelves, it gets italicized.  The same can be said about each one of Shakespeare’s plays; you can find them in one large collected works book OR you can find them sold individually.  What you can’t do is drop by Blockbuster and try to rent ONLY the one episode of Lost you missed .  You have to rent the DVD that has several episodes on it, one of which being the episode you missed.  Therefore, you put episode titles of television series in quotation marks. 

This idea even works for web sites and web pages.  When you buy a domain, you’re buying only up to the first .com or .org or .info (or whatever extension you chose).  So only that much of a web site gets italicized (For example, GuildWars.com or Writing Simplified ). Anything after the first extension is a sub page on the web site, and gets placed inside of quotation marks (For example, the “About Me” section of my blog or any one of the titles of my individual blog posts). 

Even this trick for remembering how to punctuate titles breaks down, though.  You can buy singles of songs and there are entire works of fiction put online for free all the time.  Taken in conjunction with the “big things/little things” technique, the “Can you buy it?” trick should help you get through punctuating at least 98% of every title you’ll encounter successfully. 

For the other 2% of titles you encounter and don’t know what to do with, well, that’s what I’m here for.  Use your professor! Don’t feel embarrassed about asking when you’re unsure about how to do something.  Chances are, your teacher won’t know the answer off the top of his/her head either and will learn something in the process of looking it up for you. 

Names of Forms, Games, Restaurants, Etc.

Style guides like those published by the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA) are great sources to turn to when you need to know how to punctuate something properly for a paper. But if you’re not writing an academic paper or your writing includes topics that aren’t typically found in professional publications, they won’t provide you with the answers you need. For those issues, you have to rely on your own judgment in applying the rules because an official standard hasn’t been set.

• Names of Forms : It’s rare for someone to cite a blank document (i.e., an unfilled-out form) so examples of this in published peer-reviewed literature are scarce. However, webpages and print documents refer to form titles when indicating that such and such a form needs to be filled out, or explaining the purpose of certain forms. Every single instance that I've seen so far simply capitalizes the first letter of each word in the form title. For example: "Fill out the Motor Vehicle Records Form to request information about a particular vehicle involved in an accident," "If you are employed in the US, you must fill out a W-4 Form," and "Make sure to fill out all shaded areas in Form I-765." Also notice that the word “Form” is in every name.
• Names of Restaurants: I still remember when it was natural to go to a bookstore to pick up a restaurant guide.  Nowadays, you turn to the Internet for restaurant reviews and suggestions, so finding a print standard for how to punctuate the title is difficult.  As far as the online standard goes, you have the choice to either 1) capitalize the first letter of each word in the restaurant’s name or 2) italicize (or underline!) the restaurant’s name.  You would never put the name in quotation marks, though. As the restaurant is the “big” thing that includes “smaller” things like menu choices, you would put the names of dishes in quotation marks, unless it’s a general food item that’s well known. For example, “Have you been to Chili’s ? I love their chicken parmesan,” or “I’ll see you at Hula Hut. Don’t forget to order me the ‘Funky Dunky Onion Strings’.” Both examples show acceptable ways to punctuate.
• Names of Games: Since the games themselves are the "big" thing that include smaller components, I would italicize their titles.  For example, Magic: the Gathering is a card game similar in playing style to Pokemon Trading Card Game .  I did run a quick search through a research database to see how peer-reviewed journal articles treat game titles as games are a popular topic of education-related journals. The articles I found only capitalized the first letter of each word in the game's name without italicizing or underlining it.  However, no article ever placed the game's name inside quotation marks.  With that evidence, I'd say it's a matter of personal preference whether to italicize the name or leave it unembellished.  I personally prefer the italics since it's what the rule would call for.
• Etc.: Use your personal judgment in applying the rules or drop me a line (in a comment or an e-mail). I’ll update this list with more troublesome title issues as I’m made aware of them.

A Note About Underlining Titles

Before the advent of computers and word-processing programs, there were only two options available to you when punctuating a title: underlining or quotation marks. When computers starting to become more commonplace, a third option - italicization - was added as an alternative to underlining.

Underlining titles was viewed as necessary only when handwriting titles because it is difficult to italicize one's own handwriting - especially if you're writing in cursive. Many style manuals now omit underlining as an option, stating that computers are accessible to the majority of people living in today's society and underlining is no longer needed.

However, there ARE a couple of situations that still exist where italics is either not supported or redundant:

• Social Media : Some social applications online (e.g., Facebook) do not support embedded HTML code, which means when adding comments you do not have the option of italicizing your font.
• Italicized Fonts : If you enjoy using fonts other than the default Times New Roman or Calibri, you may run across lovely fonts that mimic cursive handwriting. Although it is possible to italicize those fonts even more, the difference between regular and italicized versions of the font is often imperceptible and could confuse your reader.

When you find yourself in a situation where italicizing your font is simply not an option, surround the words you want underlined with underline dashes (Shift + the dash key).  For example, I am reworking my father’s book _Dan, A Man Without Youth_ while concurrently working on my own book, tentatively titled _Online Tools for Writers_.

Good luck with your writing endeavors! If you have any questions about how to go about punctuating titles or getting around the character limitations of online programs, send them my way and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Photo credit: Lutrus

21 comments:

Thank you!! I'm working on a book and the titles of CDs, movies, books, TV shows etc were giving me fits. I saw quite a few things online but your explanation is by far the most lucid (and fun to read). Great stuff!

Aww! Thanks for the kind words, Jackie! I'm glad my post helped someone :).

Thanks for the info...we started a few blogs recently and this was helpful. I am the editor (but using that term very loosely!)

What do you do about book titles that you can buy, but can't italicize- as on Facebook posts? What do you do then? Quotation marks?

Hi Anonymous! Sorry it took a while to publish your comment; Blogger wasn't cooperating these past few days. To answer your question, you would surround the title with underline dashes (press Shift + the dash key). For example, I like to watch the tv show _The Office_ and I just finished ordering the book _The Antithesis_ on Amazon.com. The reason you would use underline dashes instead of quotation marks is when italicizing titles is not an option, you revert back to the rules of our pre-word processor days. The option to italicize only became available when computers became a writing tool. Before the advent of computers, the only way a person could italicize his handwriting was to switch to cursive - but that was only an option if he were not already writing in cursive. When handwriting, the rule is to underline titles that require italicization. Most style guides mention the rule in passing, although the more common computers become, the fewer books bother to call attention to the option to underline. I can understand why as it might confuse students to know that they had THREE options when punctuating titles: underline, italicize, or enclose in quotation marks. It's even more confusing when you try and tell students that TWO of those options denote the same idea. I hope this helps!

As a teacher who needs to explain these rules often, I'm delighted by the simple clarity of the "big things"/"little things" explanation. I'm envious! Why didn't I think of this? Thanks so much!

What about the title of a form? Would you put quotes around it?

Unfortunately, forms are not addressed in any of the style guides as it's very rare for a person to what to cite something that is blank (i.e., not filled out with information) so I don't have an "official" position to refer you to when it comes to writing their titles. what I _can_ tell you is that I've been looking at how webpages and print documents refer to form titles when indicating that such and such a form needs to be filled out, or explaining the purpose of certain forms and every single instance that I've seen so far simply capitalizes the first letter of each word in the form title. For example: "Fill out the Motor Vehicle Records Form to request information about a particular vehicle involved in an accident," "If you are employed in the US, you must fill out a W-4 Form," and "Make sure to fill out all shaded areas in Form I-765." Also, I noticed that almost every form had the word "Form" somewhere in its name. Hope this helps you!

When citing a historical document, you would italicize, correct?

Hey Anonymous! You're right; you would italicize famous stand-alone historical documents (e.g., _The Articles of Confederation_, _US Constitution_, _Emancipation Proclamation_, etc. - individual articles and amendments get placed inside quotation marks) when you reference them in your text. As of the newest MLA edition, you no longer have to include well known historical documents in your list of Works Cited.

This is a wonderful site.  But here's one I don't know what to do with:  Games.  How do I refer to the game Magic that my son and his friends play?  Italicize it or put it in quotes?  I suppose the same question would arise about Monopoly and Clue and many others.  

 Hi Gary! That's a great question. Since the games themselves are the "big" thing that include smaller components, I would italicize their titles.  For example, _Magic: the Gathering_ is a card game similar in playing style to _Pokemon Trading Card Game_.  I did run a quick search through a research database to see how peer-reviewed journal articles treat game titles and the articles I found only capitalized the first letter of each word in the game's name without italicizing or underlining it.  However, no article ever placed the game's name inside quotation marks.  With that evidence, I'd say it's a matter of personal preference whether to italicize the name or leave it unembellished.  I personally prefer the italics since it's what the "rule" would call for. If you were to write about individual cards in the game, I would definitely place them in quotation marks. For example: If your opponent is drawing mana from many forest cards, I would deploy "Acid Rain" to destroy them.

Would you italicize Second Life, which is proprietary, free, open source software where people can interact with one another as avatars?

 Hi, journaleditor! Yes, I would absolutely italicize _Second Life_ as it's the official title of the entire world/gaming platform.  Don't be surprised if you see the name written as is without any extra punctuation or font effects, though, as few people conform to the rule when writing about things online.

You should do something about your double spaces after each sentence.  http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html

 Hey Curt! Actually, double-spacing after periods is a convention carried over from pre-computer times when typesetters manually set and inked type for printing purposes. With the advent of proportional font faces and word-processors, double-spacing the beginning of sentences has become a matter of personal taste, not necessity. 

Is a section of a magazine titled or used in italics?

 Hi, Miriam! I would say a section of a magazine would be written inside quotation marks while the magazine title itself would be italicized. For example: I saw a great recipe I have to make for Thanksgiving in the "Food Finds" section of _Greater Living_.

i can make better websites than this trash

I'm writing a piece of fiction. Is this written correctly? John ran his finger across the names of four kings: ' The King of Great Armies,' ' The King of the Castle,' and ' The King of Nobles.' Sorry about spacing, but I'm typing this on phone. Anyway, the above are fictional Titles within a list within a piece of fiction.

Great article! Thank you. What about the name of a musical group or a popular festival/event?

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When to Punctuate Titles in Italics or Quotes

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You may have wondered in the middle of typing up a research project : Do I italicize  a song title? What about a painting?​ Even the most experienced writers have a problem remembering the proper punctuation for certain types of titles. Books are italicized (or underlined) and articles are put in quotation marks. That's about as far as many people can remember.​

Many teachers require students to use Modern Language Association style for research papers and essays covering language arts, cultural studies, and the humanities . There is a trick to remembering how to treat titles in MLA style, and it works well enough that you can commit most types of titles to memory. It's the big and little trick.

Big Things vs. Little Things

Big things and things that can stand on their own, like books, are italicized. Little things that are dependent or that come as part of a group, like chapters, are put into quotation marks. Think of a CD or an album as a major (big) work that can be divided into smaller parts, or songs. The individual song names (small part) are punctuated with quotation marks .

For example:

• The Sweet Escape , by Gwen Stefani, includes the song "Wind It Up."

While this is not a perfect rule, it can be helpful for determining whether to italicize or surround an item in quotation marks when you have no resources at hand.

Furthermore, italicize or underline any published collection, like a book of poetry. Put the individual entry, like a poem, in quotation marks. However: a long, epic poem that is often published on its own would be treated like a book. The Odyssey is one example.

Punctuating Titles of Works of Art

Creating a work of art is an enormous task. For that reason, you can think of art as a big accomplishment. That might sound a bit corny, but it will help you remember. Individual works of art, like paintings and sculptures, are underlined or italicized:

• Michelangelo 's David
• The Last Supper

Note that a photograph—although not any less significant or important—is often much smaller than a work of created art, and is placed in quotation marks. Following are guidelines for punctuating titles according to MLA standards.

Titles and Names to Italicize

Works to put in italics include:

• A sculpture or statue
• A TV Series
• A cartoon series
• An encyclopedia
• A newspaper

Titles to Put Into Quotation Marks

When deciding how to handle smaller works, put quotation marks around:

• A short story
• A commercial
• An individual episode in a TV series (like "The Soup Nazi" on Seinfeld)
• A cartoon episode, like "Trouble With Dogs"
• A newspaper story

More Tips on Punctuating Titles

Some titles are merely capitalized and not given additional punctuation. These include:

• Religious works, like the Bible or the Koran
• MLA Sample Pages
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Titles in Essays (Italics or Quote Marks?)

• 4-minute read
• 26th February 2018

Formatting your own essay title is easy (just bung a Heading style on it). Unfortunately, the rules about formatting the titles of existing published works (e.g. a textbook or an article from a journal) are more complicated. Usually, though, it comes down to one question: italics or quote marks?

But most students will need to name a book, journal or website in an essay at some point, so it’s important to know how this works. To help you out, we’ve prepared this guide on when to use italics and when to use quote marks for titles.

When to Use Italics

Titles of longer works are usually italicised. A ‘longer work’ in this case is something presented as a standalone publication. Charles Dickens’ famous novel, for example, would be written as Great Expectations if it were named in an essay.

Other examples of longer works that should be italicised include:

• Books and book-length poems (e.g. ‘An analysis of The Wasteland shows…’)
• Journals, newspapers and magazines (e.g. ‘According to The Guardian …’)
• Websites and blogs (e.g. ‘The project was funded via Unbound …’)
• Films (e.g. ‘ Jaws broke several box-office records…’)
• TV series (e.g. ‘Many fans of The X-Files claim…’)
• Plays and other stage shows (e.g. ‘This production of Swan Lake is…’)
• Paintings and works of art (e.g. ‘The Mona Lisa is currently housed…’)
• Music albums (e.g. ‘The album Sticky Fingers was released in…’)

The key factor is that all of these are standalone products, not part of a greater whole. The main exceptions to this rule are holy texts, such as the Bible, which are not typically italicised.

Italics are also used for the names of particular vehicles in some cases, especially ships and spacecraft. For example, we might write about the space shuttle Enterprise or the HMS Beagle (note that the ‘HMS’ is not italicised, since this is an abbreviation).

When to Use Quote Marks

Quote marks , meanwhile, are usually saved for shorter works. These are often part of a larger publication, such as an article in a newspaper or a chapter in an edited book. For example, if we were to name a book and a chapter in one place we’d write:

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Hugh Wilder’s ‘Interpretive Cognitive Ethology’ was first published in Readings in Animal Cognition , edited by Marc Bekoff and Dale Jamieson.

As indicated by the italics, the book here is called Readings in Animal Cognition . ‘Interpretive Cognitive Ethology’, meanwhile, is an essay from the book, so we use quote marks for this title.

Cases where quotation marks are used for titles include:

• Chapters from books
• Articles in newspapers, magazines and journals
• Particular pages or articles from a website
• Individual poems and short stories
• Episodes from a TV show

It is also common to use quote marks for unpublished writing regardless of length. For example, if you were referring to an unfinished manuscript or a PhD dissertation, you would put the title in quote marks; but if these same documents were published, you would use italics.

Look Out for Exceptions!

The guidelines above will apply in most cases, but there are exceptions. The APA style guide, for example, recommends italicising book titles in the main text of an essay, but not in the reference list. As such, it is wise to check your style guide to see if it has specific advice on formatting titles.

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Module 13, Punctuation: Quotation Marks, Lesson 4:

Quotation marks vs. italics in titles, module {moduleid}, {moduletitle}.

When referring to a title, use italics (or underlining in handwriting) for longer works and quotation marks for shorter works. Don't use either one for the title on a document you are writing yourself, such as an essay. You only need to use italics or quotation marks when you are referring to a work.

Practice What You've Learned

Quotation Marks or Italics In Titles?

| Candace Osmond

| Punctuation

Candace Osmond

Candace Osmond studied Advanced Writing & Editing Essentials at MHC. She’s been an International and USA TODAY Bestselling Author for over a decade. And she’s worked as an Editor for several mid-sized publications. Candace has a keen eye for content editing and a high degree of expertise in Fiction.

You’ve probably asked yourself while writing an essay: Should I italicize a play title or enclose it in quotation marks? What about a song title?

Don’t feel guilty for not knowing the rules for quotation marks or italics in titles . Even the most experienced writers have the same problem.

I’ll show you the basic rules for choosing between quotation marks and italics in titles. This guide features the guidelines of Chicago, MLA, and APA.

Using Italics or Quotation Marks in Titles

Using italics vs. quotation marks in titles depends on your style guide. But the general rule is to italicize long titles, such as titles of books, movie titles, or album titles.

Meanwhile, you must write titles in quotation marks for shorter pieces like musical titles, magazines, TV series, and articles. Note that the AP style does not put magazines, newspaper style, or journals in quotation marks.

• “How You Feel About Gender Roles Will Tell Us How You’ll Vote” is an article worth the read.
• My favorite song is “If I could Fly.”
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation is for readers who want to escape their stressful lives.

Works That Require Italics

Use Italics for titles such as the following:

• Pieces with sections, such as a collection or anthology.
• Some scientific names.
• Computers and video games.
• Titles of newspapers and titles of articles from newspapers.
• Play titles.
• Works of art.
• Court cases.
• Television and radio shows.
• Episode titles.
• Book titles.
• Magazine articles.
• Album titles.
• Names of Ships.
• Operas, musical titles, and other musical works.

Here are some examples of italicized works:

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
• Michelangelo’s David.
• When Harry Met Sally.
• Do you have a copy of Wag the Dog by award-winning author Larry Beinhart?
• My favorite mystery book is In the Woods by the bestselling author Tana French .

The source’s title is usually italicized in a bibliography or reference list entries. But it can also depend on the source type. If you’re citing a journal article, every citation style italicizes the journal title instead of the article.

• Asher, J. (2017). Thirteen reasons why . Penguin Books.
• (2011). When Harry met Sally . Santa Monica, Calif: MGM Studio distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Works That Require Quotation Marks

Use double quotes for the following types of work.

• Comic strips.
• Article title.
• Generic titles.
• Short works like essays
• Short story titles.
• Song titles.

Remember that quotation marks come in pairs, so add both opening and closing quotation marks. Here are some examples where we use friendly quotation marks in titles:

• “Cul de Sac” is a darkly humorous comic.
• “Cinderella” is my favorite chapter title from the Big Blue Book .

Big Things vs. Little Things

“Big things” include a collection of novels or book series, movies, cartoon series, and other works that can stand independently. We can also consider them as complete bodies of work.

Meanwhile, the “little things” depend on other groups, so we put them in quotes.

Think of a “single” in an album title or a “book chapter” in a book title. Another good example includes “manuscripts” in collections.

Remember that this isn’t a perfect rule. But it helps writers determine whether they should quote or italicize the title of a work.

Italics vs. Quotation Marks in Style Guides

The grammar rules on italicizing or quoting titles are usually a matter of style. Take a look at the title formats’ differences among style guides.

In the Modern Language Association style guide, a quick rule is to italicize titles that are longer. Experienced writers state that these “longer works” include books, journals, court cases, etc. Ship names and other notable names are also in italics.

But for shorter works like articles and poems, MLA Style Guide recommends you format titles with double quotation marks.

Chicago Style

The Chicago Manual of Style goes by the same basic rules as MLA. Titles of major works, such as books, and special names like a ship should be in italics. But place the item in quotation marks for subsections of larger bodies like journal articles, blogs, and book chapters.

According to the APA Style 7th edition , you should use italics for titles like journals, magazines, and newspapers. Books, artworks, webpages, and any other larger body of work also use italics.

However, writers who follow APA use the regular type of format for shorter works. These include essays or works in journal articles and lectures.

When to Not Use Italics or Quotation Marks

There’s a specific type of title that all major style guides have no recommendations for. The following do not use italics or quotation marks for titles:

• Commercial products.
• Political documents.
• Legal documents.
• Major religious books or scriptures.
• Name of artifacts.
• Names of buildings.
• Constitutional documents.
• Traditional game.

If you are formatting titles on a website, there’s no need to follow the rules on italics vs. quotation marks. You can go with any more visually appealing style since online web pages are less formal than print materials.

Prioritize the font type, size, and headings when formatting websites and web pages. Make decisions based on what will attract visitors.

When to Underline Instead of Quote or Italicize

If you write using pen and paper, italicizing works can be challenging. Many style manuals recommend underlining the source instead. It’s easier, more practical, and keeps your handwriting legible.

Final Word on Italics vs. Quotes in Titles

An easy way to remember is that most types of titles are almost always in italics. APA, MLA, and Chicago manuals of style recommend italics for longer works.

I hope this guide on using quotation marks and italics in titles helps you become a better writer. 

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Italics and Quotes for Titles: A Guide

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We’ve all been there. We’re writing along, solidly in the groove, when the Formatting Wall appears around a seemingly safe corner. Abruptly halting, you wonder: How the heck am I supposed to format this title?

Titles come in many shapes and sizes, but they all have rules for formatting that you master with just a little work. Italics, quotes, even plain text: they all apply in certain situations. How do you know which is which?

Use italics to set apart the title of a standalone work or a “container work”—that is, a work that has other, smaller works within it. Examples of titles that should be italicized include:

• Academic journals
• Music albums
• Large musical compositions such as symphonies and operas
• Anthologies of poems
• Art exhibitions

For example:

My brother insists that Fists of Fury is the best movie ever made.

Have you read the latest issue of Scottish Archaeology Journal ? It’s riveting!

I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I think La Boheme, by Giacomo Puccini, is an overrated opera.

I can’t believe the TV show Supernatural is in its fourteenth season.

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Use quotation marks to set apart the title of a subsidiary work or a work that is part of a bigger piece (one where the title of that bigger piece would be italicized). Examples of when to use quotes include:

• Book chapters
• Articles (published in a journal)
• Short stories
• Song titles
• TV episodes
• Works of art (including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and performance art)

Why do I have to read Hemingway’s “ A Clean, Well-Lighted Place ” in every English class?

I can’t get the tune to “Amazing Grace” out of my head.

Every time I think of William Carlos Williams, I get irritated. “ This Is Just to Say ” is a beautiful poem, but it reminds me of my terrible roommate.

And so you can easily demonstrate which is the work “inside” the other work with proper punctuation:

My favorite episode of Doctor Who is “Blink,” without a doubt.

I love everything by the Beatles, but I think “I Should Have Known Better” from A Hard Day’s Night is an underrated classic.

Modern Construction Envelopes is a very useful reference in general, but chapter 12, “Fabric Roofs,” is groundbreaking.

The highlight of the recent exhibition, Pin-Ups: Toulouse-Lautrec and the Art of Celebrity, had to be Steinlen’s “ Cabaret du Chat Noir .” It was fascinating to see in person what I’ve seen on a wall in every undergraduate dorm across the country.

There are, of course, exceptions. A few types of publications and creative works stand a little apart from the general categories of “standalone/wrapper work” and “subsidiary work.”

For example, dissertations are typically standalone documents, but their titles go in quotation marks.

The best dissertation ever written is “The False Optic: Poisoned Fictional Objects in Renaissance Revenge Tragedies.”

I’m always moved to tears by Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor , “From the New World .”

How to Remember

A relatively easy way to remember these rules involves whether a work is “big” or “little.” If it’s a grand, sweeping thing that might contain other bits within it, like a book or journal, then use italics. If it’s a smaller thing that might itself be contained within something else, like a newspaper article or work of art in an exhibition, then it goes in quotes.

Oh, and don’t forget to capitalize those titles correctly , in addition to formatting them right.

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MLA Titles | How to Format & Capitalize Source Titles

Published on April 2, 2019 by Courtney Gahan . Revised on March 5, 2024.

In MLA style , source titles appear either in italics or in quotation marks:

• Italicize the title of a self-contained whole (e.g. a book, film, journal, or website).
• Use  quotation marks around the title if it is part of a larger work (e.g. a chapter of a book, an article in a journal, or a page on a website).

All major words in a title are capitalized . The same format is used in the Works Cited list and in the text itself.

When you use the Scribbr MLA Citation Generator , the correct formatting and capitalization are automatically applied to titles.

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Table of contents

Capitalization in mla titles, punctuation in mla titles, titles within titles, exceptions to mla title formatting, sources with no title, abbreviating titles, titles in foreign languages, frequently asked questions about mla titles.

In all titles and subtitles, capitalize the first and last words, as well as any other principal words.

What to capitalize

What not to capitalize

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Use the same punctuation as appears in the source title. However, if there is a subtitle, separate it from the main title with a colon and a space, even if different (or no) punctuation is used in the source.

Example of a work with a subtitle

The exception is when the title ends in a question mark, exclamation point or dash, in which case you keep the original punctuation:

Sometimes a title contains another title—for example, the title of an article about a novel might contain that novel’s title.

For titles within titles, in general, maintain the same formatting as you would if the title stood on its own.

Titles and names that fall into the following categories are not italicized or enclosed in quotation marks:

• Scripture (e.g. the Bible, the Koran, the Gospel)
• Laws, acts and related documents (e.g. the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution , the Paris Agreement)
• Musical compositions identified by form, number and key (e.g. Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67)
• Conferences, seminars, workshops and courses (e.g. MLA Annual Convention)

Sections of a work

Words that indicate a particular section of a work are not italicized or placed within quotation marks. They are also not capitalized when mentioned in the text.

Examples of such sections include:

• introduction
• list of works cited
• bibliography

Introductions, prefaces, forewords and afterwords

Descriptive terms such as “introduction”, “preface”, “foreword” and “afterword” are capitalized if mentioned in an MLA in-text citation or in the Works Cited list, but not when mentioned in the text itself.

Example of descriptive term capitalization

In-text citation: (Brontë, Preface )

In text: In her preface to the work, added in a later edition, Brontë debates the morality of creating characters such as those featured in Wuthering Heights .

If there is a unique title for the introduction, preface, foreword or afterword, include that title in quotation marks instead of the generic section name when referencing the source in the Works Cited list or an in-text citation.

For sources with no title, a brief description of the source acts as the title.

Example of a source reference with no title

Follow these rules for capitalization:

• Capitalize the first word
• Capitalize proper nouns
• Ignore other MLA rules for capitalization

There are some exceptions to this general format: descriptions including titles of other works, such as comments on articles or reviews of movies; untitled short messages, like tweets; email messages; and untitled poems.

Exceptions to general format for sources with no title

If you need to mention the name of a work in the text itself, state the full title, but omit the subtitle.

If you need to refer to the work multiple times, you may shorten the title to something familiar or obvious to the reader. For example, Huckleberry Finn for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . If in doubt, prefer the noun phrase.

If the standalone abbreviation may not be clear, you can introduce it in parentheses, following the standard guidelines for abbreviations. For example, The Merchant of Venice ( MV ) . For Shakespeare and the Bible , there are well-established abbreviations you can use.

When you abbreviate a title, make sure you keep the formatting consistent. Even if the abbreviation consists only of letters, as in the MV example, it must be italicized or placed within quotation marks in the same way as it would be when written in full.

Abbreviating very long titles in the Works Cited list

Titles should normally be given in full in the Works Cited list, but if any of your sources has a particularly long title (often the case with older works), you can use an ellipsis to shorten it here. This is only necessary with extremely long titles such as the example below.

In the Works Cited list, if you are listing a work with a title in a language other than English, you can add the translated title in square brackets.

Example of a reference with a translated title

If you are using the foreign-language title in the text itself, you can also include the translation in parenthesis. For example, O Alquimista ( The Alchemist ) .

You don’t need to include a translation in your reference list or in the text if you expect your readers to be familiar with the original language. For example, you wouldn’t translate the title of a  French novel you were writing about in the context of a French degree.

Non-Latin script languages

For works in a language that does not use the Latin alphabet, such as Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, or Russian, be consistent with how you mention the source titles and also quotations from within them.

For example, if you choose to write a Russian title in the Cyrillic form, do that throughout the document. If you choose to use the Romanized form, stick with that. Do not alternate between the two.

Yes. MLA style uses title case, which means that all principal words (nouns, pronouns , verbs, adjectives , adverbs , and some conjunctions ) are capitalized.

This applies to titles of sources as well as the title of, and subheadings in, your paper. Use MLA capitalization style even when the original source title uses different capitalization .

In MLA style , book titles appear in italics, with all major words capitalized. If there is a subtitle, separate it from the main title with a colon and a space (even if no colon appears in the source). For example:

The format is the same in the Works Cited list and in the text itself. However, when you mention the book title in the text, you don’t have to include the subtitle.

The title of a part of a book—such as a chapter, or a short story or poem in a collection—is not italicized, but instead placed in quotation marks.

When a book’s chapters are written by different authors, you should cite the specific chapter you are referring to.

When all the chapters are written by the same author (or group of authors), you should usually cite the entire book, but some styles include exceptions to this.

• In APA Style , single-author books should always be cited as a whole, even if you only quote or paraphrase from one chapter.
• In MLA Style , if a single-author book is a collection of stand-alone works (e.g. short stories ), you should cite the individual work.
• In Chicago Style , you may choose to cite a single chapter of a single-author book if you feel it is more appropriate than citing the whole book.

The title of an article is not italicized in MLA style , but placed in quotation marks. This applies to articles from journals , newspapers , websites , or any other publication. Use italics for the title of the source where the article was published. For example:

Use the same formatting in the Works Cited entry and when referring to the article in the text itself.

The MLA Handbook is currently in its 9th edition , published in 2021.

This quick guide to MLA style  explains the latest guidelines for citing sources and formatting papers according to MLA.

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Gahan, C. (2024, March 05). MLA Titles | How to Format & Capitalize Source Titles. Scribbr. Retrieved August 5, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/mla/titles/

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Marking Text—Choosing Between Italics and Quotation Marks

An error in the use of italics or quotation marks—using one rather than the other or not using either when their use is required—is not likely a problem that will have an agent or publisher turning down your manuscript, especially if your manuscript isn’t bulging with other errors. Yet knowing when to use both italics and quotation marks is useful and important for writers. The cleaner the manuscript, the fewer problems it will be perceived to have. And when rules are followed, the manuscript will have consistency; if you don’t know the rules, it’s likely that you won’t make the same choices consistently throughout a story. And if you self-publish, when you’re the one doing the editing, you’ll definitely want to know how and when to use both italics and quotation marks and know how to choose between them.

To start off, I will point out that there is no need to underline anything in a novel manuscript . Writers used to underline text where they intended italics, but because it’s now so easy to see and find and identify italics, underlining is no longer necessary, not for fiction manuscripts.

Note: Underlining may be required for school or college writing projects or other purposes. I’m strictly addressing fiction manuscripts here.

Without underlining, the choices are italics, quotation marks, and unmarked or plain text.

Let’s start with the last option—plain text—first.

________________________

Not all text that seems to require italics or quotation marks actually does. Most words in your manuscript will be roman text—unchanged by italics—and, apart from dialogue, will not be enclosed by quotation marks. Yet sometimes writers are confused about italics and quotation marks, especially when dealing with named entities. A quick rule: Simple names need only be capitalized—no other marks are necessary.

This is one writing question that’s easy to overthink once you begin editing, but a name usually only needs to be capitalized; it typically doesn’t require italics or quotation marks. (There are exceptions, of course.)

Capitalize names of people, places, and things . This means that Bob, Mr. Smith, Grandma Elliott, and Fido are capitalized but not italicized or put in quotation marks. The same is true for Disney World, the Grand Canyon, Edie’s Bistro, and the World Series. When a person’s title is paired with a name—Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Reverend Thomas—both name and title are capitalized. But when a title is not used as a name—the president is young, the pastor can sing—no capitalization is required.

Nouns are typically the words that you’ll capitalize, but not all nouns are capitalized. Capitalize named nouns . So Fido is capitalized, but dog is not; Aunt Margaret (used as a name) is capitalized, but my aunt is not; my aunt Margaret gets a mix of capitalization.

Brand names and trademarks are typically capitalized, but some have unusual capitalizations (iPad, eBay, TaylorMade, adidas). Refer to dictionaries and to company guidelines or Internet sources for correct capitalization and spelling. Note that home pages of websites may feature decorative text; look at pages with corporate details for correct information.

You may make a style decision and capitalize such words according to established rules, and that would be a valid decision. Yet a name is a name, and spelling or capitalizing it the way its creators intended may well be the better choice.

That’s it for most named people or things or places—most are capitalized but do not require italics or quotation marks. A quick rule:  Names  (of people, places, and things) need to be capitalized, but titles  (of things) need both capitalization and either quotation marks or italics.

Items in the following categories need neither italics nor quotation marks (unless italics or quotation marks are an intrinsic part of the title). This is only a very short list, but most named nouns are treated similarly.

car manufacturers General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota car brands or divisions: Buick, Chevrolet car names: Riviera, Touareg, Camry restaurants: Chili’s, Sally’s Place, Chuck’s Rib House scriptures and revered religious books: the Bible, Koran, the Book of Common Prayer books of the Bible: Genesis, Acts, the Gospel according to Matthew wars and battles: Korean War, Russian Revolution, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Hastings companies: Coca-Cola, Amazon, Barclays, Nokia product names: Coke, Kleenex, Oreo shops: Dolly’s Delights, Macy’s, Coffee House museums, schools and colleges: the High Museum, the Hermitage, Orchard Elementary School, the University of Notre Dame houses of worship: First Baptist Church of Abbieville, the Cathedral of St. Philip, Temple Sinai, City Center Community Masjid Note : There is much more to capitalization, yet that topic requires an article (or five) of its own. Look for such an article in the future.  The Chicago Manual of Style has an in-depth chapter on capitalization; I recommend you search it for specifics.

Quotation Marks and Italics

Beyond capitalization, some  nouns are also distinguished by italics or quotation marks. Think in terms of titles here, but typically titles of things and not people.

So we’re talking book, movie, song, and TV show titles; titles of newspapers and magazines and titles of articles in those newspapers and magazines; titles of artwork and poems.

One odd category included here is vehicles.  Not brand names of vehicles but names of individual craft: spaceships, airships, ships, and trains.

But which titles get quotation marks and which get italics?

The general rule is that titles of works that are made up of smaller/shorter divisions are italicized, and the smaller divisions are put in quotation marks . This means a book title is italicized, and chapter titles (but not chapter numbers) are in quotation marks. A TV show title is italicized, but episode titles are in quotation marks. An album or CD title is put in italics, but the song titles are in quotation marks.

Note :  This rule for chapter titles in books is not referring to chapter titles of a manuscript itself, which are not put in quotation marks within the manuscript . Use quotation marks in your text if a character or narrator is thinking about or speaking a chapter title, not for your own chapter titles.

Quotation marks and italics are both also used for other purposes in fiction. For example, we typically use italics when we use a word as a word.

My stylist always says rebound when he means rebond .

I counted only half a dozen um s in the chairman’s speech. (Note that the s making um plural is not italicized.)

Since a list is quick and easy to read, let’s simply list categories for both italics and quotation marks.

Barring exceptions, items from the categories should be italicized or put in quotation marks, as indicated, in your stories.

Use Italics For

Titles : Titles of specific types of works are italicized. This is true for both narration and dialogue.

books TV shows radio shows movies plays operas and ballets long poems long musical pieces (such as symphonies) newspapers magazines journals works of art (paintings, sculptures, photographs) pamphlets reports podcasts blogs (but not websites in general, which are only capitalized)

Odds and Ends: Titles of cartoons and comic strips ( Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Pearls Before Swine ) are italicized. Exhibitions at small venues (such as a museum) are italicized ( BODIES . . . The Exhibition ) but fairs and other major exhibitions (the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition) are only capitalized.

Examples : To Kill a Mockingbird (book), Citizen Kane (movie), A Prairie Home Companion (radio show), La bohème  (opera), Paradise Lost (long poem), Rhapsody in Blue (long musical piece),  Washington Post (newspaper), Car and Driver (magazine), Starry Night (painting), The Age of Reason (pamphlet), This American Life (podcast), The Editor’s Blog (blog)

Exception : Generic titles of musical works are not italicized. This includes those named by number (op. 3 or no. 5) or by key (Nocturne in B Major) and those simply named for the musical form (Requiem or Overture). If names and generic titles are combined, italicize only the name, not the generic title.

Exception : Titles of artwork dating from antiquity whose creators are unknown are not italicized. (the Venus de Milo or the Seated Scribe)

Ship names :  names of ships on water, in space, in the air

Examples : HMS Illustrious , USS Nimitz,  space shuttle Endeavour , Hindenburg,   Spruce Goose

Notes: 1. The abbreviations for Her Majesty’s ship (HMS) and United States ship (USS) are not italicized.

2. The current recommendation of The Chicago Manual of Style is to not italicize train names. CMOS may be differentiating between physical ships with individual names and railroad route names, which is typically what is named when we think of trains; the specific grouping of train cars may not be named and may actually change from one trip to another. Locomotives, however, may have names. If they do, you would be safe to italicize that name.

While I understand this reasoning, I see no problem with italicizing a train’s (or a train route’s) commonly known name— Trans-Siberian Express , Royal Scotsman , California Zephyr —as writers have done in the past. This is strictly a personal opinion.

3. The definite article is unnecessary with ship names—they are names and not titles. So Yorktown rather than the Yorktown . It’s likely that characters with military backgrounds would follow this rule, but many civilians may not. If your character would say the Yorktown , then include the article.

Words as words:  As already noted, words used as words are usually italicized. This helps forestall confusion when these words are not used in the usual manner.

Examples : The word haberdashery has gone out of style.

Edith wasn’t sure what lugubrious meant, but it sounded slimy to her.

Letters as letters : Letters referred to as letters are italicized.

Examples : The i in my name is silent.

On the faded treasure map, an X actually did mark the spot.

All the men in his hometown have at least three s’ s in their names.

Notes: 1. Only the letter itself is italicized for plurals. So we have  s ’s, capital L s, and a dozen m’ s. (The apostrophe and concluding s are not italicized.)

2. An apostrophe is used for the plurals (lowercase letters only) to prevent confusion or the misreading of letters as words; a’ s rather than  a s and  i’ s rather than i s.

3. Familiar phrases including p’s and q’s and dot your i’s and cross your t’s do not require italics. (They are italicized here because I’m using them as words, not for their meaning.)

4. Letters for school grades are not italicized, though they are capitalized.

Sound words : Italicize words that stand in for sounds or reproduce sounds that characters and readers hear.

Examples : The whomp-whomp of helicopter blades drowned out her frail voice.

An annoying bzzz woke him.

C-r-rack ! Something heavy—some one  heavy—fell through the rotted floorboards.

Foreign words : Uncommon or unfamiliar foreign words are italicized the first time they are used in a story. After that, roman type is sufficient. Foreign-language words familiar to most readers do not need italics. Proper names and places in foreign languages are never italicized.

Examples : The words amigo , mucho ,  coup d’état, risqué, nyet, and others like them are common enough that you wouldn’t need to italicize them in fiction. (I italicized them because in my example they are words used as words.)

“Use caution, my dear. That pretty flower you like so much is velenoso. It slows the heart.”

It was something my grandmother always said to me.  Sie sind mein kostbares kleines Mädchen .

Building sites on the Potsdamer Platz went for a lot of money once the Berlin Wall came down.

Emphasis : Use italics to emphasize a word or part of a word. Yet don’t overdo. A character who emphasizes words all the time may sound odd. And the italics may annoy your readers.

Examples : I wanted a new dress, but I needed new shoes.

She quickly said, “It’s not what you think.”

“Sal invited everyone to the party at his uncle’s beach house. And I mean every single student  from his school.”

Something—some one —shattered all the street lights.

Character thoughts : Character thoughts can be expressed in multiple ways; italics is one of those ways. (But it isn’t the only way and may not be the best way. See “ How to Punctuate Character Thoughts ” for details.)

Example : I expected more from her , he thought. But he shouldn’t have.

You can find many more tips and suggestions for cleaning up your text in The Magic of Fiction .

Use Quotation Marks For

Titles :  As is done with titles and italics, titles of specific types of works are put inside quotation marks. This is true for both narration and dialogue.

book chapters (named, not numbered, chapters) TV show episodes radio show episodes songs short stories short poems (most poems) newspaper, magazine, and journal articles blog articles podcast episodes unpublished works (dissertations, manuscripts in collections)

Odds and Ends: Signs (and other notices) are typically not put in quotation marks or italicized, though they are capitalized—The back lot was marked with No Parking signs. They don’t even require hyphens for compounds—The gardener was putting up Do Not Walk on the Grass signs. However, long signs (think sentence length or longer)  are  put in quotation marks and not capitalized. Consider them as quotations—Did you see the handwritten sign? “Take your shoes off, line them up at the door, and walk without speaking to the second door on the left.”

The same rule applies for mottoes and maxims . An example: To Protect and Serve was the department’s old motto. Now it’s “Cover your tracks, lie if you get caught, blame your behavior on drugs, and vilify the victim.”

Examples : They read through “The Laurence Boy” in one sitting. (chapter three of Little Women )

He said he thought it was “The One With Phoebe’s Cookies.” (an episode of Friends )

My mother suggested we both read “The Gift of the Magi.” (short story)

“ The Princess Bride—Storytelling Done Right ” was written in two hours. (blog article)

Exception : Titles of regular columns in newspapers and magazines are not put in quotation marks (Dear Abby, At Wit’s End).

Dialogue : Enclose the spoken words of direct dialogue (not the dialogue tags or action beats) between opening and closing quotation marks. Do not use quotation marks for indirect dialogue.

Exception : When dialogue continues into a new paragraph, do not include a closing quotation mark at the end of the first paragraph; use the closing quotation mark only at the end of the spoken words. (If dialogue continues uninterrupted for several paragraphs, you will have a number of opening quotation marks but only one closing quotation mark.)

Examples : “I told you I loved you. You never believed me.”

“I told you I was there,” he said. But I never believed him.

“He tried,” I said, waving my fingers, “but he failed.”

“My dog ate the first page”—Billy pointed at Dexter Blue—“but I saved the rest.”

Exception Example : “I needed to do it, but I just couldn’t. And then you know what happened—Bing threw his knife and I ducked and he hit the minister’s wife. And then pandemonium broke out, everyone running every which way. It was madness.

“And after that, we raced out before the cops could get there.”

Notes: 1. American English (AmE) always uses double quotation marks for dialogue. If you have a quotation within dialogue, the inner quotation gets single quotation marks.

2. British English (BrE) allows for either single or double quotation marks, with the reverse for quotes inside other quotes or dialogue.

Words used in a nonstandard manner or as sarcasm, irony, or mockery : Use quotation marks to point out irony or words used in an unusual way, perhaps as slang or mockery. Most slang wouldn’t need to be put in quotation marks, but words unfamiliar to a character could be put in quotation marks. Always use double quotation marks for AmE and typically use singles for BrE (doubles are acceptable).

Example : Yeah, I guess he was on time. If three hours late is “on time” in his book.

Andy said his brother “skived off” two days this week. I didn’t tell him I had to check the Internet to figure out what he meant.

Made-up words or new words : Use quotation marks for the first use of made-up words. After that, no special punctuation is necessary.

Example : He’s a “rattlescallion,” a cross between a rapscallion and a snake.

Words as words : We often use italics for words used as words, but we can also use quotation marks.

Example: He used “I” all the time, as if his opinion carried more weight than anyone else’s.

 ________________________

When you’re deciding between italics and quotation marks, always remember the rules of clarity and consistency: make it clear for the reader and be consistent throughout the story. If you have to make a choice that doesn’t fit a rule or you choose to flout a rule, do so on purpose and do so each time the circumstances are the same. Include unusual words or special treatment of words in your style sheet  so everyone dealing with your manuscript works from the same foundation.

Rewrite any wording that is likely to confuse the reader or that can be read multiple ways. There’s always a way to clear up confusing phrasing, often more than one way. Reduce distracting punctuation and italics when you can, but use both quotation marks and italics when necessary.

Put writing rules to work for your stories.

This article is a long one, but I hope it proves useful. Let me know if I omitted a category you wondered about.

Related posts:

• Single Quotation Marks—A Reader’s Question
• Quotes Within Quotes
• Capitalizing on the Holidays—A Reader’s Question

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[…] In addition to dialogue, we use quotation marks for titles of many kinds, including songs, TV episodes, and newspaper and magazine articles. For the full list of titles we put in quotation marks, see Marking Text: Choosing Between Italics and Quotation Marks. […]

[…] Reblogged from The Editor’s Blog […]

[…] I knew there were some formatting issues in the text, such as how to show, inner thoughts, texts, quotes from other people, quotes from films or books, labels, signs, looks etc and I did some research to get some guidance. This link provided a lot of help.  https://theeditorsblog.net/2014/05/12/marking-text-choosing-between-italics-and-quotation-marks/ […]

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The general rule is to use italics on book titles, album titles and publication names for a web document or when you are using a word processing tool. If it is something handwritten you should underline it instead of using italics.

Longer works are italicized while shorter works like song titles or an article from a magazine are put in quotes and are not italicized.

Here are some italics examples:

Costco Plans to Sell Books Only From September to December

Karlie Kloss to Relaunch Life Magazine at Bedford Media

NBF Expands National Book Awards Eligibility Criteria

Striking Writers and Actors March Together on Hollywood Streets

Vice Media Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

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Quotes or Italics? Citing Titles of Books, Movies & TV Shows

When citing titles of songs, books, movies or tv shows, should you place them in italics or quotation marks? The answer is, ‘It depends.’

There are certain things you need to know if you’re writing about your favorite song, novel, film or television series. Some people insist that when citing titles, you should use italics. Others get bent out of shape and insist that’s wrong and that you should put quotes around them instead. There’s an easy way to know which to use when you cite book, movie and TV show titles.

But the fact that there’s an easy way doesn’t mean it’s one you’ll like.

In fact, it all boils down to the style guide you use. If you’re in school, there’s almost certainly a style guide your school prefers. Professionally, you don’t necessarily have to be a journalist to face the quirks of a style guide.

Unfortunately, different style guides offer different rules. So here’s a sampling of how a few of them differ.

I’m going to start with the Associated Press Style Book because that’s the one I use in my professional job. It’s also the one I mostly rely on for this blog, although here I may deviate occasionally.

AP makes everything simple when it comes to citing such titles. But you may not agree with their simplicity.

Don’t feel bad: A lot of us who use AP Style don’t always agree with everything they come up with. I could make a list.

The Perdue Writing Lab says you use quotation marks in AP Style. You’ll note in that last sentence I listed that source in bold. That’s not AP Style, but I think for a blog, it’s nice when you make bold a source that you’re actually hyperlinking to. So if you follow AP Style and can’t deviate, don’t use bold, either.

AP Style dictates that you should put quotation marks around books, songs, television shows, computer games, articles, poems, lectures, speeches and works of art. Don’t put quotation marks around titles of magazines, newspapers, books that are catalogs of reference materials or the Bible.

AP’s dislike of italics dates back to the old printing presses. It was impractical to stock more letters for italics. I doubt that any newspapers still rely on old-fashioned linotype machines. In this computer age, why can’t we just italicize?

Hey, that’s not up to me. So until AP changes that rule, stick with quotes: forget you even have the option of italics… if AP Style is your style guide.

If you’re in academia, you probably rely on the Modern Language Association’s style guide, which you’ve probably only ever heard of as “MLA Style.”

Like most guides other than AP, MLA mixes it up a bit. Northern Arizona University sums it up nicely in their MLA resource page.

But let me give you a snapshot: Book, movie and TV show titles go in italics. Individual episodes of TV shows go in quotation marks:

• My favorite episode of The Andy Griffith Show is “Man in a Hurry.”

Newspaper and magazine names go in italics. But names of broadcast networks are merely capitalized.

Albums and musicals are set in italics. Individual song titles go in quotes.

The one I find most curious is the style guide of the American Psychological Association. Since I doubt most of you have to deal with this one, which is more often used in academic medical papers, I won’t spend a lot of time on this one.

If you do use APA Style, I appreciate you. You make me realize that my gripes with AP Style may not be so bad after all.

What bothers me about APA Style is its rule of using sentence case for show titles in citations . AP Style would call Rod Serling’s famous program “The Twilight Zone.” MLA would style it as The Twilight Zone . But in citations, APA styles it as The twilight zone . Only the first word is capitalized.

Your mileage (and style guide) may vary.

The best advice I can give you here is to check the style guide that you use.

If you don’t use a style guide, the one that makes the most sense to me in the 21st century would be MLA, in which you italicize book, newspaper, magazine, album, movie and TV shows and put episode and song titles in quotes.

That practice, I think, makes the most sense to most readers without being distracting. I don’t think AP’s rule about putting everything in quotes confuses anyone, but I think italics look better.

As for APA, well, if the sentence case TV show titles rule makes sense to you, more power to you. I can’t see that as anything but a mistake!

But again, you should either consult the style guide you’re required to use or codify your own policy for such instances. That way, you remain consistent whenever you write.

That’s always a good thing.

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Let’s Clear This Up: Should You Underline Or Italicize Book Titles? 

If your teachers taught you to underline book titles , it probably didn’t make sense to argue. 

Plus, underlining is just easier when you’re writing things out by hand. 

Not so with texting — or when you’re writing a book of your own.

When you reference your sources, do you underline or italicize book titles?

Are novels italicized or underlined?

And does it matter whether a novel or novelette is part of an anthology ? 

What are the rules worth remembering? 

The Basics: Do You Underline or Italicize Book Titles?

Some exceptions to the rule: should you underline or italicize book titles, punctuating book titles, book title italics or quotes .

• Do You Italicize Books Like The Lord of the Rings? 

Do You Italicize the Titles of Sacred Books?

What does the ap stylebook recommend.

If your main question is “Do I underline book titles or italicize them?” most style guides recommend the following guidelines: 

• If you have italics as an option, use it. 
• If not, underline. 
• If underlining isn’t an option, use asterisks or under-slashes to set off titles. 

That last one is the way to go when you include a book title in a text message or social media post or comment, where you can’t apply any kind of text formatting. 

Underlining can be problematic with digital text (websites, digital apps, and ebooks) since we now associate it with hyperlinks, even if the font color matches the text around it. 

Probably the most common scenario, when you can underline but not effectively italicize, is when you’re writing something by hand. While you could switch to cursive mid-sentence, underlining is less likely to be dismissed as a random quirk. 

Plus, underlining is easier than cursive. 

We’ve already mentioned one exception to the rule favoring italics. Handwriting makes underlining easier and more obvious. 

Another exception is when you’re submitting text through a web form, which doesn’t allow text formatting (much like texting and social media posts). 

A third exception involves chunks of italicized text that include a book title. In this case, you’ll want to keep the title unitalicized to make it stand out. 

Keep these exceptions in mind when someone asks you, “Do you italicize book titles?” Because they do matter. 

There’s one final exception, which we’ll revisit at the end of this post, and that has to do with the particular style guide you may be using. 

So, what do you do if you’re italicizing a book title and you have to add punctuation — like an apostrophe to show possession — that isn’t part of the title? Do you treat that differently from the punctuation that the author included? 

For the sake of clarity, we keep any added punctuation (apostrophes, dashes , ellipses, etc.) — anything not native to the original title — in regular, non-italicized text. 

Examples: 

• “Looking at the books stacked nearby, I saw that Blink ’s cover was slightly creased from its days in my purse.”  (The apostrophe-s ending is not italicized because it’s not part of the title.)
• “She just finished reading Salem’s Lot , and she’d rather not talk about it. Give her time.” (In this case, the apostrophe-s at the end of Salem is part of the title and is italicized.) 

So, are all book titles italicized? And what about titles for smaller works like short stories, magazine articles, and blog posts? 

To keep the rule as simple as possible, ask yourself whether the title in question is for a published container — like a blog, a website, a magazine or scholarly journal, or a complete book — or for something that would be contained. 

Would you find this title on the cover of a finished whole (an album, the cover image for a podcast, etc.) or in a table of contents or a list of songs, poems, or podcast episodes? 

Larger works get the italics treatment, as you’ll see in the following examples:

• Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• Back in Black (album) by AC/DC
• Live Bold and Bloom (blog)
• Authority Self Publishing: Marketing, Writing, and Kindle Publishing Tips (podcast)

Smaller works that a larger work could contain get quotation marks. It’s not about which one is more important; it’s about making it easier for readers to tell them apart. 

When you see a story title in quotation marks, you’re more likely to think, “Oh, that must be a short story?” Find a book of short stories and check out the table of contents, and you’ll find quotes around each story’s title. 

Each is a smaller part of the whole collection, which bears an italicized title of its own.  

Do You Italicize Titles of Novels and Books Included in Anthologies? 

So, what about Reader’s Digest Condensed Books (1950-1997) — or Reader’s Digest Select Editions (since 1997)? 

Each of the works included are abridged versions of completed books and novels. 

If you’re looking up some options on Amazon, you’ll see quotation marks around the titles of the books and novels included in each hardcover edition. 

It’s tempting to think the abridgment of the title is the reason for this. But collections like Reader’s Digest editions aren’t the only ones that do this—even when the titles in the collection are unabridged originals. 

Read on for another well-known example.

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Do You Italicize Books Like The Lord of the Rings ? 

Books like LOTR bring together separate books that are all part of a complete series. In LOTR’s case, the complete set is a trilogy with the following titles: 

• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Two Towers
• The Return of the King

If the book you’re referencing in your own writing is a separate title with its own cover, you’ll italicize the title in-text citations and in your bibliography. 

But if you’re using the complete LOTR trilogy under one cover, you’ll set off any of the enclosed titles with quotation marks — as if they were separate parts of a larger book. 

The same rule applies to other books that include all the titles in a specific series. 

While we do italicize specific editions of sacred books (e.g., The New King James Bible ), we do not generally italicize or underline the generic titles of sacred religious texts: 

• The Bible (and individual books in the Bible)
• The Koran / Qur’an and The Hadiths
• The Vedas and the Upanishads
• The Tanakh and the Talmud
• The Tipitaka (Buddhism)

As for the specific books inside the Christian Bible, if you’re referencing a specific verse, you’ll include the name of the book (or an abbreviation), along with the chapter and verse, and text formatted the same as the text around it (e.g., Matt 3:5 or 2 Corinthians 4:16). 

Not all style guides recommend italicizing book titles; the AP Stylebook uses quotation marks instead, maybe just to simplify things.  

That said, publications like Writers Digest use the AP Stylebook but choose to italicize their book titles in deference to their own house rules. 

Whether you go that route will likely depend on what you or your client wants. 

If you’re thoroughly confused right now, the main thing to remember is that in most cases, the rules described above will help you correctly format any book titles you reference in your own writing. 

• If it’s a container (book, album, podcast, TV series, etc.), use italics.
• If it’s contained by a container (poem, TV episode, song, etc.), use quotation marks.

When in doubt, check your style guide.  And if you’re writing for someone else, ask them what they prefer or consult their chosen style guide. 

Whatever rules you go with, be consistent. 

Now that you know how to answer the question, “Do you underline book titles or italicize them?” which points stood out for you as most helpful? And what have you learned that you want to remember? 

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How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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The Fentanyl Trade Is Killing Americans. We Have the Means to Combat It.

By Scott Gottlieb

Dr. Gottlieb is a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

More than 80,000 Americans each year are dying from fentanyl as the opioid epidemic has morphed into a grimmer, more sinister threat. What began as a crisis fueled by the reckless prescribing of painkillers has now become a deadly illicit trade in counterfeit OxyContin or Vicodin pills containing fentanyl at wildly inconsistent dosages. Depending on the amount of fentanyl used, even a single pill can be lethal.

China remains the primary source of fentanyl entering the United States. Historically, this has been in the form of finished pills shipped to consumers through international mail and express consignment carriers. But increasingly, chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl — referred to as precursor chemicals — are being sent to cartels in Mexico, where they are formulated into pills and trafficked across the border. As China cracks down on its illicit manufacturing sites, more of this illegal commerce is shifting to the precursor chemicals, and production routed through Mexico.

We must put an end to the illegal trade and production of this dangerously powerful opioid through sensible and overdue policies we can start putting in place today.

This starts with tightly regulating all the precursor chemicals, many of which escape existing restrictions, or evade oversight through constant remodification. As a recent Reuters investigation found, when part of illegal trade, the chemicals arrive as powders that are shipped by air, and the quantities needed to make huge numbers of fentanyl pills can fit in a jar or even a baggie. Sent in these small volumes, the illicit shipments can be hard to spot at interdiction sites or to be recognized if customs agents inspect them. Criminals often ship the chemicals into the United States rather than directly to Mexico, since it is easier to hide them among the large volume of packages that America receives. The chemicals are smuggled into Mexico, where turning them into fentanyl at drug cartel labs is a simple exercise — then trafficked back into the United States.

Despite these challenges, we can do more to disrupt the illicit trade of these chemicals.

In recent years, countries have imposed new restrictions on the chemicals used to make fentanyl. But so far, the measures have mostly focused on how the chemicals are being used, rather than controlling their transit at every point. Under American pressure, China has tightened the screws on illicit fentanyl manufacturing within its borders, placing all forms of fentanyl on its controlled substances list in 2019, and subjecting these drugs to stricter oversight. But the Chinese government has paid far less scrutiny to the booming trade in precursor chemicals. The United States needs to again demand that China zero in on these chemicals as part of its broader crackdown on fentanyl.

At the same time, the United States working with like-minded countries can institute more stringent global regulations based on international drug control agreements. Such regulations must also target new “pre-precursor” chemicals (more basic formulations of existing chemicals) that cartels use to evade scrutiny.

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