If you are writing for a particular type of publication or are preparing a document for a specific audience, it’s important to know when to italicizse or use quotation marks. This can be a confusing task since there are a variety of style guides that have different rules. However, knowing the most common styles and figuring out when to italicizse or not can help you avoid confusion and provide clarity for your readers.
Italics Are Used for Longer Works (Books, Journals, and Others)
In most cases, you will italicizse the titles of books, journals, and other major works because these are considered long, complete works that deserve special attention. For shorter works like poems or articles, you will typically use quotation marks. This is because shorter works don’t stand alone, and the use of quotes helps them to feel separate from the longer work they are a part of.
Italics are also used for titles of shorter works that are not part of a longer work like the title of a song in a musical album or an article from a magazine. In these cases, you will usually write the titles in double quotation marks and then place a colon between the two sets of quotes.
The Chicago Manual of Style explains that the titles of pamphlets, corporate reports, brochures, and other freestanding publications are often italicized as they are treated as books. In addition, titles of legal cases are often italicized to distinguish them from other titles within the same work.
Titles of television series are also italicized by most style guides, although AP does not always use italics for these titles. APA, CMOS, and MLA style guides generally use quotation marks for these titles as well.
Italicizse the Name of the Publisher
When you are citing a newspaper or other type of news outlet, it’s important to italicizse their names in your reference list because they will be linked to the actual article. This is a good idea for both readability and style because the names of newspapers are commonly displayed in the newsroom or on the front page.
It is not necessary to italicizse the name of a book or a magazine when you are quoting them in your reference list, but it is still a good idea to do so. This will make it easier for your readers to find the cited information and keep track of what they’ve read.
Italics are also used to indicate when a word is emphasized, e.g., when a word or phrase is new to the reader or when the writer is using it to express their ideas. This is a good technique to use when writing for a newspaper or other media, but it’s not a necessary convention for your academic writing. If the publisher or a scholarly journal has a specific format for italics, it’s best to follow it.
