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When to Use Italics in Your Writing

6-minute read

• 24th November 2019

Of all the typographic styles, italicisation may look the most dynamic. Perhaps it’s the way the words slant to the right, as if striding confidently to a business meeting. Or perhaps we’re overthinking this. The point is that italics are a useful, versatile part of writing. But when should you use them?

Key occasions for using italics include:

• To emphasise something.
• For titles of standalone works, such as books and films.
• For vehicle names, such as ships.
• To show that a word is borrowed from another language.
• For the Latin ‘scientific’ names of plant and animal species.

Let’s take a look at each of these to see how they work in practice.

Italics for Emphasis

Like bold fonts or underlining, italics are often used for emphasis . This means we can use italics to stress or draw attention to a particular word or phrase:

Italicisation is the best way to emphasise something.

Here, italicising best shows that we feel strongly about italics.

Generally, italics are the standard form of emphasis in academic writing. This is because they look more formal than bold formatting . However, always check your style guide if your university or employer has one, since some organisations have different rules about emphasising text.

Italics in Place of Quote Marks

It would be unusual to italicise a full quote rather than placing it in inverted commas. However, some people do use italics to set single words apart in the same way you might with quote marks. For example:

Quote Marks: The word ‘italic’ comes from a Greek word meaning ‘Italy’.

Italics: The word italic comes from a Greek word meaning Italy .

As with emphasis, if you are using a style guide, you may want to check whether it allows this. Otherwise, though, italics can be helpful if using too many quote marks makes your writing look cluttered.

When to Use Italics for Titles

Another common use of italicisation is for titles. Not your own headings – you can italicise these, but that’s a matter of stylistic preference – but the titles of published works, such as books. For instance, if we mentioned a work by Charles Dickens in an essay, we would write it like this:

Queen Victoria read The Old Curiosity Shop in 1841.

By using italics, we set the title text apart from the rest of the sentence.

It’s not just books that you should do this for. Typically, the same applies for any self-contained media product or publication (i.e. something published by itself rather than as part of a collection). This includes the titles of:

• Books and book-length poems
• Academic journals (i.e. the journal title itself, not individual article titles)
• Magazines and newspapers
• Films, radio programmes, and TV shows
• Plays and other stage shows
• Music albums and other published audio recordings
• Paintings, statues, and other works of art

Titles of shorter works, by comparison, are often placed in quotation marks . However, the rules for presenting titles do vary between style guides.

Italicising Vehicle Names

You can use italics for the names of individual vehicles, such as a ship or space rocket. For instance, we would italicise the following vehicle names:

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The sailors boarded the HMS Belfast in silence.

The Titanic sank during her maiden voyage.

Here, we italicise Belfast and Titanic because they’re the proper names of specific ships. We do not italicise the initials preceding names of ships (e.g. HMS, RMS, USS). In addition, you should only italicise the names of individual vehicles. If you’re writing the name of a brand or make of a vehicle (e.g. Ford Escort or Boeing 747), by comparison, you don’t need italics.

Italicising Non-English Words

Make sure to italicise any non-English words you use in English-language writing. This shows the reader that the word was borrowed from another language. For instance, we could say:

In Germany, this feeling is known as Waldeinsamkeit .

The exact rules for when to italicise foreign words may vary depending on the style guide you check. For instance, most style guides make exceptions for words that are now fairly common in English even if they are still loanwords, so you would not usually need to italicise terms like ‘raison d’être’.

If in doubt, though, you can always check a good dictionary (e.g. the OED or Webster’s). Assuming you can find the word in the dictionary, it should be widely used enough in English to write without italics.

Italicising Species Names

Binomial nomenclature (i.e. the Latin names given to plant and animal species) is usually italicised. For example, we could say:

Nobody wants Amorphophallus titanum growing in their garden.

As above, you should also capitalise the first word (i.e. the genus) in scientific plant and animal names, but not the second term (i.e. the species).

Other Uses for Italics

There are occasions when you may want to use italics not covered above. In fact, italics are useful for most situations where you need to make some part of a text distinct. One example comes from creative writing, where some people use italics to indicate an unspoken thought. For instance, we could use italics to show a character’s inner monologue:

Jeff sat silently in the doctor’s office. It wasn’t his usual doctor, so he was already nervous before the needle appeared.

‘Don’t worry,’ said the doctor. ‘It won’t hurt.’

Easy for you to say, Jeff thought. It’s not you at the sharp end of that thing. But he kept this to himself, instead uttering a meek ‘OK’.

However you use italics, though, there are two main rules to follow:

• Try not to use italics for too many different reasons in a single document. For instance, if you are writing something with a lot of titles and foreign words, you may want to find a different way of formatting emphasis.
• If you use italicised text for any part of a document, apply it consistently. So, for instance, if you’re using italics for loanwords in one part of an essay, you’ll want to do the same throughout the document.

And if you need anyone to check your use of italics in a document, our editors are here to help. Just submit your work for proofreading today.

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When to Use Italics: The Complete Guide

by Liz Bureman and Sue Weems | 0 comments

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We've covered italicization in song titles and album titles already , but let's look at a complete guide of when to use italics. 

What is italicization?

Italicization is the use of italics , a typeface that mimics cursive and leans or slants to the right.

Why use italics?

Italics are used to distinguish certain text from the rest for emphasis or sometimes contrast. As with all grammar and formatting conventions, italics should be used to make a message clearer to the audience.

When to use italics

In the English language, italics are usually used to set apart titles and names of specific kinds of objects or works.

Use italics for book titles and play titles

Titles of books are italicized, but you probably already knew that. Example: Gone Girl is still probably one of my favorite books that I read in 2014.

Other examples: The Crucible by Arthur Miller Sula by Toni Morrison

Use italics for magazine, newspaper, and periodical titles

All titles of newspapers, magazines, periodicals, and academic journals are italicized. Examples:

Magazine: The Atlantic Newspaper: The New York Times Professional periodicals: Publishers Weekly ; Library Journal Academic Journal: Journal of the American Medical Association , Harvard Business Review

Note: magazines, newspapers, professional periodicals, and academic journals all contain individual articles by different writers. Those article titles are indicated by the use of quotation marks .

Use italics for website titles

Website titles are italicized, and individual posts on websites are put in quotation marks, like articles.

For example: The Write Practice ran a series on writing short stories and the master article is called “ How to Write a Short Story ” by Sarah Gribble.

Other examples: Facebook Wikipedia

Use italics for television show titles

The names of TV shows are italicized, while the titles of each individual episode of a show are put in quotations.

Example: While all of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is amazing, my favorite episode is probably “Kimmy Goes to School!”

The Wire Game of Thrones

Use italics for movie titles

Movie titles are always italicized.

Examples: I saw Top Gun: Maverick last month for nostalgia's sake.

Everything Everywhere All at Once , starring Michelle Yeoh

Use italics for album titles

Album titles are always italicized. For example, while I will openly admit to loving Journey’s power ballad “Faithfully,” I think pretty much every song on their Greatest Hits album should be sung at karaoke nights across the country.

Other examples: Renaissance by Beyonce Harry's House by Harry Styles

Note: individual song titles are noted by quotation marks.

Use italics for works of art

All artwork titles use italics, from paintings to sculpture. Examples:

Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes Black Iris by Georgia O'Keefe David by Michelangelo

Use italics for radio or podcast program titles

Radio and podcast programs take italics, while their individual episodes take quotation marks. Examples:

This American Life Fresh Air, National Public Radio On Being with Krista Tippett

Use italics for named vessels: ships, spacecraft, aircraft

Any named craft used for transportation will take italics.

Examples: USS America, Challenger, Pequod

Use italics for technical terms (sometimes)

In some academic texts, technical or new terms are often marked by italics the first time they are used in the paper. Check your assigned style guide (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc) to see how to indicate new terms.

Use italics for foreign words (sometimes)

Some style manuals (notably APA and Chicago) suggest using italics the first time an unfamiliar non-English word is used in a paper. This practice can vary depending on the publisher and the audience, so pay attention to any requirements.

It's okay to need to look up the rules for italicization. That's why we've published this handy guide!

How do you feel about your italicization skills? Do you always remember what titles to italicize and which to leave alone? Let us know in the comments section .

Put your italicization skills to the test. For fifteen minutes, write about one of the following:

• A serial killer who calls himself “The Reviewer” who murders his favorite actors, writers, and musicians.
• A detective hunting a serial killer who calls himself “The Reviewer.”

When you’re finished, share your work in the Pro Practice Workshop.   Not a member yet? Join us !

Liz Bureman

Liz Bureman has a more-than-healthy interest in proper grammatical structure, accurate spelling, and the underappreciated semicolon. When she's not diagramming sentences and reading blogs about how terribly written the Twilight series is, she edits for the Write Practice, causes trouble in Denver, and plays guitar very slowly and poorly. You can follow her on Twitter (@epbure), where she tweets more about music of the mid-90s than writing.

Sue Weems is a writer, teacher, and traveler with an advanced degree in (mostly fictional) revenge. When she’s not rationalizing her love for parentheses (and dramatic asides), she follows a sailor around the globe with their four children, two dogs, and an impossibly tall stack of books to read. You can read more of her writing tips on her website .

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When to Use Italics

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Learn how to properly use italics and emphasis

Have you ever found yourself questioning your use of italics in a term paper or essay? Does using italicized print worry you to the extent you just avoid italics altogether? When is the right time to use italics? This article will explain when to use those slanted letters and when it is best to leave them upright.

Seven instances when italics are appropriate in an essay

There are approximately seven instances when it is appropriate to use italics in academic writing . Italics will likely appear in papers ranging from the arts to the sciences and will serve many functions. To simplify things, we have defined when to use italics in Arts and Humanities papers (four instances) and when to use them in the Sciences (three instances).

Italics in the Arts  

There are many instances when humanities students find themselves unsure whether something they have just written deserves emphasis. If your situation doesn't fall under one of the following categories, use standard font.

When including a title that can stand alone, it should be italicized in almost every instance. This could be the title of a book, a story, a newspaper, or even your favorite television show. Here is an example of a properly written title:

Adam and I watched an episode of Family Guy yesterday; the whole thing was a parody of The Da V inci Code !

It is important to remember that if a punctuation mark (an exclamation or question mark) is included in the title, you must italicize it as well.

Titles that should not be italicized are those of religious texts. The Bible is not italicized, nor are the titles of the books within it. Shorter titles, such as short stories from an anthology, journal articles, and episodes of television shows, cannot stand alone and thus should not be italicized.

When italicizing titles in footnotes, citations, and bibliographies, remember to reference the style guide required by your professor.

When you really need to emphasize a word in writing, italics are the best way to do it. Italics can be used to ensure readers recognize the word requires emphasis. The effective use of italics in this manner can add flare to writing and indicate more poignant text:

Susan yelled, "I hate microeconomics!"

In this example, the italics serve to illustrate Susan's loathing of microeconomics. Without the emphasis, this sentence may not have stressed how much she truly despises the subject. A word of warning from the professionals at our essay editing service: Always use discretion when italicizing words for the purpose of emphasis in an academic essay. Professors are often annoyed by the overuse of emphasis.

Sounds reproduced as words

If you've ever tried to write a children's book, you may have come across this italics-worthy situation. If a bear growls and you want to present this auditory occurrence in a more immersive way, Grrrrrr! may find its way into your writing. Make sure the distinction between the name of the sound and the sound itself is clear. Meow is the sound a cat makes, but the word makes no attempt at reproducing the sound. On the other hand, should you write " Meeeeeooooowww went the grey barn cat," make sure the reproduced sound gets italicized.

Names of vehicles

When mentioning any vehicle in your academic writing, whether it's the Titanic or Apollo 13 , remember to italicize its name. The exception to this rule is the brand name of vehicles. So, if you're writing a paper that requires commentary concerning the Rolls-Royce that kills Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby , leave the italics off.

Italics in the Sciences

There are instances in scientific and technical writing where italics are necessary. These instances may cross over into the realm of Arts writing, but most often they will be seen within the context of technical writing. There are three common instances where italics should be used.

Words in a foreign language

When you are writing a lab report or scientific paper and must include a term written in a foreign language, italics are key. This is often seen in legal or medical papers in the form of Latin words. They appear quite often, and should be italicized to show readers they are in another language. Here is an example from a medical document:

"Three pills are to be administered to the patient ante cibum. "

While most people would not write "before meals" in Latin, this term is appropriate in a medical context and thus must be written in Latin, as well as be italicized.

Introducing a term

When a new term is introduced in a scientific essay, it is common practice to write the word in italics upon first use. When readers see a term in italics, they automatically know this is the first time the word has been used and should therefore pay attention to its meaning.

Physical quantities and mathematical constants

When measures of quantity or a mathematical constant are written, they should be placed in italics. A mathematical constant is the letter used to represent a particular static mathematical standard such as:

"When we measured the particle velocity, v , recorded in the experiment…"

The "v" represents the constant in a mathematical equation and thus must be written in italics.

When in doubt, ask for help

Should a time arise when you aren't sure whether to use italics, simply refer to this article to see if your situation falls into any of the categories listed above. If it does, use italics; if it doesn't, it's probably best to use standard font. If you're still unsure, feel free to submit your document to our essay editors for a professional review.

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Using Italics To Add Emphasis To Your Writing

If you’re thinking of using italics to emphasize words, keep in mind that the type of writing you do—and what style guide you follow—will determine how you use italics.

Italics are typically used to show emphasis (For example: “I don’t care what he thinks. I do what I want!”) or to indicate titles of stand-alone works ( Black Panther , Lost in Translation ).

Different style guides have different rules about what to italicize. But here are some good general guidelines—the most important thing is to stay consistent within your work.

How do I use italics for emphasis?

Italics can emphasize a single word or phrase. For example: “Are you going to eat that ?” or “I never said I wanted to go. I said I would consider it.”

It’s best to use italics for emphasis sparingly so that they retain their impact. In academic writing, using italics for emphasis is not recommended. But if you’re writing that Great American Novel or funny emails to your friends, go right ahead!

When you’re referring to words as nouns or objects, you should also use italics to help offset it from the rest of the sentence. For example: “The word anxious has a different connotation than the word worried .” (If you’re a dictionary, ahem, this is an important distinction.)

What about italics for titles of works?

Italics are important when writing titles of works. In most cases, you should italicize the titles of complete works, like books: The Great Gatsby , Beloved , and The Catcher in the Rye . You would also italicize the names of feature-length films, like  Rocky , Schindler’s List , and Frozen . Music albums, TV shows, and names of newspapers and magazines should also be italicized because they’re singular works.

On the other hand, shorter works (like short stories, poems, individual songs, short films, and individual TV episodes) usually use quotation marks. This shows that they’re parts of larger works. If you can’t remember whether to use italics or quotation marks , try asking yourself if you’d be able to buy the title at the store by itself. If not, then it should probably get quotation marks. For example, you could say: The first essay in David Sedaris’s bestselling book Me Talk Pretty One Day is called “Go Carolina.”

As always, there are some exceptions. Complete religious works aren’t italicized or underlined. For example, the Bible, the Qur’an, and the Torah are all capitalized, but not otherwise signified. In addition, specific books within the religious works (like the Book of Genesis) don’t receive italics, underlining, or quotation marks.

When a punctuation mark is part of the work’s title, you should italicize it. One example is Judy Blume’s book Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret . If a punctuation mark after the title isn’t part of the title, it shouldn’t be italicized. For example: “Have you ever read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ?” Here, the question mark isn’t italicized because it’s not part of the book’s title. (And we hope the answer is yes!)

How do I italicize ships and aircraft?

The proper names of ships, vessels, and aircraft should be italicized. For example, the Titanic , Apollo 11 , and the U.S.S. Hornet are all italicized. Notice that “U.S.S.” isn’t italicized, because it isn’t part of the proper name.

Are foreign words italicized?

Foreign words that haven’t fully been adopted by English tend to be italicized. For example: “Lee waved goodbye to his halmeoni from the bus window.” Foreign words that are commonly used in English, like bon voyage or alma mater , don’t automatically need italics in a sentence. For example, “She wished him bon voyage when she dropped him off at the airport.”

What about sounds?

Onomatopoeic words (or words that sound like sounds) are usually italicized, as well. For example, “The book landed on the floor with a hearty thwack! ” In this case, if an exclamation point is used, it should also be italicized.

The exact rules for using italics depend on the specific style guide you’re using. If you’re not following a style guide, these guidelines are a safe bet. Remember, the most important rule is to be consistent.

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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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You Want Italics Where? 14 Places The Chicago Manual of Style Asks for Italics

15 June, 2022

Italics are like fancy dress for words. Seeing a word in italics is like going into your local grocery store and seeing someone working there in a samurai costume. “Well,” you think, “ you’re certainly here to tell me something.”

There are quite a lot of places we want to dress up words with italics. For some of us, there are too darn many places. As The Chicago Manual of Style ( CMOS 17, 7.50) admonishes us, “Overused, italics quickly lose their force.” But if we follow a manual like CMOS , it does say that we have to use italics in quite a few places. Here’s an exhausting—but not entirely exhaustive—list of where to use (and not to use) italics.

• For emphasis. But, as CMOS 17, 7.50 admonishes, “only as an occasional adjunct to efficient sentence structure.” Some of us really like adding emphasis, but it’s a bit like laughing at your own jokes. You don’t need it if the words pack enough punch by themselves—which, generally, they should.  
• In place of underlining. But if you’re presenting transcriptions of handwritten letters, you may prefer to keep underlining as underlining—especially if there’s also double underlining, or if you want to add your own emphasis: “We wish you would come as soon as possible to retrieve your nasty little dog, which has destroyed all the rose bushes ” [italics added].  
• For titles of books, magazines, and albums (but not of short stories, songs, or poems—unless they’re book-length poems). Basically, if it’s a whole publication of its own that you can hold in your hand, it gets italics; if it’s just a part of one of those, it goes in quotes. However, if a play or novel is included in an anthology, it still gets italics. And, on the other hand, even if you’re holding in your hand the one-sided twelve-inch extended-play single of “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” by Kiss, it’s still not in italics, because it’s just one song, even if it does go on for almost eight minutes.
• Not for the periods or commas following those titles, in most instances. The following punctuation is not part of the title, after all. This is where the eagle-eyed editors really get their bragging rights. Don’t believe me? Just search “italicized period” on Twitter to find all the editors posting their wins. This principle also holds true when you’re using italics for emphasis: the punctuation is only italicized if it’s part of what’s emphasized (“Your mom is arriving tomorrow ?” “ Yup! ”).
• Not for words in those titles that would normally be in italics. Got that? Italics are like an on/off switch: if it’s already on, you have to turn it off to signify italics-within-italics, such as when a title uses a scientific name (see below about those): Winnie the Ursus arctos : A Child’s First Taxonomy Book . The exception is when a book title mentions another book’s title within it; then you use quotation marks: Fear and Loathing in Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason”.  
• For abbreviations of those titles. The Chicago Manual of Style is, for short, CMOS , not CMOS. Enough said.  
• For words taken from other languages. The counsel of CMOS 17, 7.53, is “Use italics for isolated words and phrases from another language unless they appear in Webster’s or another standard English-language dictionary.” But, they add, “If a word from another language becomes familiar through repeated use throughout a work, it need be italicized only on its first occurrence.” And on top of this, “This rule does not extend to proper nouns, which can generally appear in roman type (except for titles of books and the like).” The trick here is the question of how familiar the word is. Because the English language has stolen so much of its vocabulary from other languages, and because italics are so very self-conscious, if there’s any question whether italics are necessary, it’s safer not to use them, as the CMOS Shop Talk blog (But, per Chicago Style, we always italicize the Latin sic , as in “He said he was totally thicc [ sic ].”)  
• For words qua words. That means when you’re talking about the word itself as a word rather than using it for its meaning. For example, “Pulchritude is beauty, but the word pulchritude is rather ugly.”  
• For the names of ships. For example, “The USS Enterprise may have seemed to go where no one has gone before. However, the Ever Given tried the route never taken: a sharp right turn into the desert. It didn’t get far.”
• For certain scientific names. This includes genes ( BRCA1 ), the first three letters of enzyme names ( Bam HI), and genus and species of living things ( Cannabis sativa spontanea )—but not higher levels such as kingdom, phylum, class, order, or family (e.g., Cannabaceae). Sometimes the common name of something is also its scientific name—we seem to do this especially to things that could kill us, like Boa constrictor , Tyrannosaurus rex , and E. coli . In such cases, check your reference dictionary: if it allows a lower-case common use, you don’t need italics for that (“Have you seen my pet boa constrictor?”); otherwise, you do (“That man is an absolute E. coli ”).
• In various ways in legal citations. This includes titles of articles and chapters, certain formal legal terms, and names of cases in running text—but not in citations. If you’re working with legal citations, you should have a copy of The Bluebook . If you’re not, count your blessings.
• For certain mathematical constants and variables. You may run into a few of these in ordinary text, such as e = mc ² , or the p value of a study’s results and the n of its subjects. But, look, mathematical text doesn’t stop at italics. It veers off into a wide variety of different type faces. If you’re editing equations, you’ll know all about that already. If you’re not, keep walking, eyes forward, whistling a happy tune.
• For stage directions. If you’re editing plays, you probably know this, but if you’re editing a book that just happens to quote from, say, Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale , it behooves you to know that it’s to be set like this:

Well may I get aboard! This is the chase: I am gone for ever. Exit, pursued by a bear

• For rhyme schemes. CMOS singles these out for special mention. For instance, you would use abab to indicate a quatrain of alternating rhymes, like this:

Roses are prickly, Anthuriums are phallic; Chicago is stickly On matters italic.

An Easier Way to Check Italics

The list of rules and exceptions is daunting, and that’s just following one style manual. What if you then have to consider house styles and industry conventions or individual client preferences? And then there are all the situations where you shouldn’t use italics, such as terms that require italics only on first use and not using italics at the end of the sentence? Even for those with the sharpest eyes and memories, it’s hard to avoid tripping up.

Fortunately, there is technology out there that can help! PerfectIt for MS Word has a whole range of consistency checks, including italicization. Its regular checks include a list of common terms from Latin, French, and German that may or may not be italicized, depending on your style guide. It also has The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt built in. Turning on this feature adds to its regular italics check with hundreds of terms from Latin, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Japanese, and other languages that are likely to appear in an English-language context. They also include many representative instances where italics are required.

PerfectIt can’t reasonably check everything that’s in italics; literally everything you could italicize could be the name of some work or vessel: an epic poem titled too darn many , for instance, or a sailboat named Yup! But it covers quite a lot, and it teaches you the principles and reminds you to look for other similar instances.

Are you using PerfectIt yet? If not, download the free trial . If you are, make sure you have The Chicago Manual of Style upgrade—it’s available for all PerfectIt users with a subscription to CMOS .

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• When to Use Italics - Grammar and Writing Guide

Why do we need to use italics?

The art of using italics, do we italicize titles, do we italicize names of aircraft and ships, do we use italics to emphasize the text, do we italicize foreign words, italicize or not italicize.

Are you done with essay writing and want to ensure its proper formatting? Have no clue when you are supposed to italicize the text and where the quotation marks are necessary? If it is the case, then this guide will be of great service to you and will help you understand when to use italics and when they are not needed in the text. Follow easy rules and deliver flawless assignments instead of guessing and getting lower grades for brilliantly written papers.

Italics are typically used to emphasize titles of stand-alone works or to distinguish certain words from others within your writing. Of course, different academic formatting styles have different rules for using italics. So you need to understand that APA text formatting will not be identical to the formatting of the very same text in MLA. As a writer, you need to follow the general guidelines and stay consistent within your work.

Academic paper formatting can be a challenging task. We know it too well. Unfortunately, the cases when brilliant content brings a C or even a D to a student due to formatting mistakes are not so rare. So even if you manage to write a meaningful and comprehensive, it is highly recommended to have an extra eye on your piece to perfect its formatting. And our academic experts are ready for the challenge. They do know all the specs of academic formatting and will detect/ fix any formatting mistakes within a couple of minutes. Let’s perfect your writing together!

There are no hard grammar rules for using italics; they are a matter of a style. Technically, you can use any formatting you wish, but adhering to a particular citation format helps you to ensure that readers understand what you intended to “say.” To prevent confusion, we have developed the formatting and punctuation guidelines for different types of works so that you could ensure the clarity of your writing.

By the way, if you are working on a scientific paper, this detailed writing guide will become your source of inspiration and will make the process easier.

Yes and no. It all depends on a title type and the work it addresses. For example, books are considered complete bodies of work; therefore, book titles should be italicized. Keep in mind that italics are only used when the book title is surrounded by other text in your paper. Thus, by using italics, you make the title stand apart from the other text so that the reader could easily notice it.

At this point, it is important to differentiate between the titles of poems, short stories, newspaper articles, and episodes (for television shows). Use quotation marks for titles of these shorter pieces, with no italics being applied to the text.

There are some other types of titles that you should italicize instead of underlining in your writing:

• Titles of journals and magazines - Georgia Review, New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Crazyhorse ;
• Title of plays - Long Day's Journey Into Night, Waiting for Godot, Death of a Salesman, Long Day's Journey Into Night ;
• Titles of long musical pieces - Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana ; Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard's Castle ; Schubert’s String Quintet ; Mozart’s Requiem ; Beethoven’s Symphony No.. .;
• Titles of movies - Slingblade, Shine, The Invisible Man ;
• Titles of radio programs and TV shows - Dateline, Seinfeld, Fresh Air, Car Talk ;
• Titles of artworks - Mona Lisa, The Starry Night, The Kiss, The Last Supper ;
• Titles of long poems - Longfellow's Evangeline, Milton's Paradise Lost, Whitman's Leaves of Grass .

As an exception from the rule, we do not italicize the titles of long sacred works, such as the Koran and the Bible. Titles of sacred book chapters (Genesis, Revelation, 1 Corinthians) are not italicized either. The same rules apply to formatting of a bibliography page of your academic paper.

When writing names of vessels, aircraft, and ships in the text of your work, make sure they are italicized. Thus, every time you need to write Titanic or Apollo 11 , use italics for these and make sure they stand out from the text around.

Another use case of italics is to emphasize a single word or phrase in your writing. For example, “I don’t really care what she thinks!” Thus, by making use of this typographical technique, you make sure the one places the right accents when reading your essay.

Just like the commas , italics play a strategically important role when it comes to referring to words as nouns or objects. Thus, by utilizing some phrases, you can logically offset them from the rest of the sentence so that a reader could focus on meaningful content. For example, “The word worried has a different connotation than the word stressed .”

Foreign words that haven’t been adopted by English should be italicized. So every time you use a French word in your paper, apply italics to it. For example: “She doesn’t know how to respond when someone says bonjour .” Commonly used foreign words, like alma mater , don’t necessarily need italics in a sentence. However, it won’t be a mistake if you emphasize them in the text.

It is sometimes difficult to understand what formatting should be applied to different parts of your paper. And it sucks! The wrong use of italics can lead to misunderstanding or poor-message delivery to your reader. No matter if you are working on an academic essay or a journal publication, it is critically important to ensure that all the necessary accents are in the right places and no italics use cases are missed out. We can become your strictest editors and do all the fixes for you.

Question whether to use italics or not? The exact rules for using italics depend on the specific style guide you’re using. If you’re not adhering to a specific style guide, the above guidelines are a safe bet. The most important rule is to be consistent within your work not to confuse the reader.

Home > Blog > Tips for Online Students > Tips for Students > Knowing When To Underline Or Italicize: Your Go-To Guide

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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.

In this article

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Italics: The Dos and Don’ts

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I spend a lot of my editing hours at ProofreadingPal dealing with wayward italics, so let’s talk about times when they are used properly and when they aren’t.

Do: Some Titles

Some titles are italicized, and some are put in quotation marks. My handy rule of thumb is to think of titles in terms of being heavy and light.

A play is heavy: Waiting for Godot . An act is light: “Act 2: The Judgment.”

A magazine/journal is heavy: Fox and Hound . An article is light: “Better Oral Horse Health.”

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Movies and TV shows are heavy: The Fugitive . An episode is light: “Viking Bikers from Hell” (extra points if you can name the TV show for that one).

A series of reports is heavy: US Treasury Dept. Reports on Global Finance . A single report is light: “Iran Economics.”

Don’t: Vocal Emphasis

This is the #1 misuse of italics. Fortunately, I’ve got a whole other post on how you should use sentence structure to create emphasis, not italics, bold, all-caps, and the like.

To put it briefly, the idea is that people shouldn’t need italics to get the meaning of what you’re saying. Besides , cuing the readers over and over that they should stress this word and then this word gets irritating .

Let the words do the talking, not the font.

Do: References (MLA, APA, Chicago)

Reference styles vary greatly with MLA , APA , and Chicago , but they do tend to follow the idea that “heavy” titles get italicized.

Don’t: Comparison Emphasis

Similar to vocal emphasis, this use of italics assumes readers are too stupid to figure out the important words on their own.

It’s clear when I say that being candid is quite different from being genuine which two words are being compared. Italicizing them does nothing. See for yourself:

Being candid is quite different from being genuine .

Do: Introducing/Defining a Term

APA and increasingly Chicago call for a term to be italicized when you’re introducing/defining the term, though this should be done only once.

For example:

There are three basic types of color work in knitting. Slip stitching involves knitting with one yarn color for two rows then switching to another color for the next two rows. Fair isle knitting brings two or more colors along for the ride on all rows. Intarsia involves knitting with alternate yarns on the same row by using separate yarn skeins. Intarsia can get quite complicated compared to fair isle, which is also called stranded color work .

Don’t: Common Non-English Terms

Almost all of English comes from some other language, though some words seem more “foreign” than others. Once a French, Spanish, German, Latin, or whatever term becomes commonly used, you don’t put it in italics anymore, such as:

• Café au lait
• Fleur-de-lis

(The exception is some scientific names no matter how often they’re used.)

Do: The Written Word

This is primarily for fiction writing. When you have a character read a sign or a letter, it’s traditional for the words to be italicized.

She walked out of the door marked Private .

A happy ProofreadingPal client wrote to Julia:

Thank you so much for your great editing work. BTW, excellent shoes.

Don’t: Epigraphs

It can be fun to put little thoughts and quotes at the beginning of chapters and long passages, but don’t put them in italics.

Do: Thought-Speak

Again, this is a fiction thing. While spoken dialogue goes in quotation marks (unless you’re James Joyce ), when characters are thinking to themselves or telepathically communicating with someone else, the words get italicized.

The lights in the bedroom began to flicker. Great , Dean thought. That’s either a bad bulb or some showboating ghost .

In a related vein, dialogue that’s “off screen” goes into italics as well, such as a voice on the other end of a phone or the announcer’s voice on TV.

Don’t: Long Passages

Finally, italics are hard to read. A page full of that slanted script is severely off-putting. You need to figure out ways around that when you can. If a whole chapter is going to be a letter, have mercy on the readers’ eyes and use plain text. Bend the rules if you’re writing need to. Got a heated argument among fifteen telepaths? Figure something out.

And it’s worth repeating: don’t use italics for simple emphasis unless you really, really need to.

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Writing academically: Italics

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“Quote” Author, Book

Italics are used in the following circumstances in academic work:

Titles of things that can stand alone , such as books, journals, films, long poems, TV and radio programmes, famous speeches and artwork. Long, generic religious texts such as the Bible or the Koran (and any books within them) are not italicised unless you are referring to a specific published edition (such as in an in-text citation or reference).

In his influential 1852 discourses The Idea of University , John Henry Newton wrote that... Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech are examples of...

Titles of short poems or short stories are put in quotation marks. The larger collection they belong to is italicised:

"The Song of Myself" appears in Walt Whitman's poetry collection Leaves of Grass .

Names of vehicles and ships

Scientific and technical terms

Foreign words or phrases

Foreign words or phrases should be italicised (e.g.  ad valorem ) unless they are in  common use  in the English language (déjà vu, et al.).

Although emphasis should be used with restraint in academic writing, you add it by using italicised text*:

In academic literature, you will also see italics used to emphasize newly coined words/phrases or existing words/phrases that are being used in specific and new ways.

However, other times you will see these emphasized using inverted commas. In your own writing you can use either, but whichever you choose, use it consistently *.

*If your writing may end up being digitised and published online, accessibility guidelines suggest italics should not be used for emphasis - use bold instead if this is the case.

Words as words

In much the same way as general emphasis, if you are drawing attention to a specific word you can put it in italics:

Although this can also be achieved with inverted commas:

Again, consistent use is required**.

Italicising text that is already in italics

This occasionally happens, for example a book title may contain a word that is already in italics. When this happens the italicisation is reversed. This is also true within your reference list:

Original book title: The Story of Homo sapiens (from Ape to Modern Man).

Your text: The Story of Homo sapiens (from Ape to Modern Man) .

** Some departments may have more specific guidance so please check with them.

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Other APA Guidelines: Italics

APA has specific guidelines for the use of italics. You can find them in APA 7, Section 6.22. As a general rule, use italics sparingly.

According to the manual, italics are appropriate for:

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is… In the show Friends , Rachel and Ross… The American Journal of Psychology includes…

The term zone of proximal development means.... Adolescents labeled high risk should...

Scores ranged from 0 ( never ) to 5 ( continuously )

Equus caballus

Italics are inappropriate for:

• mere emphasis
• foreign phrases common in English (et al., a posteriori, ex post facto)
• Greek letters (α)
• nonstatistical subscripts to statistical symbols (Fcrit)
• chemical terms (OH, LSD)
• words, phrases, or letters presented as linguistic examples (note that APA 6 recommended italicizing these linguistic examples but APA 7 recommends putting the terms in quotation marks instead)

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Knowledge Check: Italics

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Encyclopedia

Writing with artificial intelligence.

Learn how and when to use Italics to draw attention to a particular part of a text

A slanting font style called italics is used when writers wish to emphasize, or give special significance to, a word or words. When writers prepare a document on a word processor, italic type is used to distinguish titles, words used as  words , and foreign words from  hyperlinks , which are usually underlined.

In digital documents, italicized words appear in place of words that would be underlined in handwritten or typed papers. As with any alteration to the appearance of text, italics should be used properly and sparingly. One should not use quotation marks or other punctuation marks to distinguish words when italics are appropriate.

What should italics be used for?

• word(s) meant to receive more attention than the surrounding words
• word(s) being given special significance
• movies, radio and television broadcasts
• DVDs, CDs, video games, audio and videocassettes, record albums
• non-English words appearing in English sentences
• scientific names in Latin
• individual letters standing alone
• numbers used as terms
• aircraft, spacecraft, watercraft names
• ship and train names
• books, journals, newspapers, magazines
• plays, book-length poems, pamphlets, comic strips
• words being defined
• words used to refer to themselves
• opera, dance performance, long musical composition names
• painting, drawing, sculpture names
• Internet site names
• online database names

Avoid misuse of italics

• Do not use italics to enclose titles and names of short works, such as chapters, articles, manuscripts, essays, short stories and poems, songs, speeches, and Web pages; use quotation marks instead.
• Do not use italics for foreign words that have been anglicized.
• Do not use italics for the names of major religious works or their subsections.
• Do not overuse italics—if used too often or used inappropriately, italic type will lose its effect.

Brevity - Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence - How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow - How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity - Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style - The DNA of Powerful Writing

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Academic Writing – How to Write for the Academic Community

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Italics and Quotation Marks

Q. I am the managing editor of a business journal. Many of the authors I edit put the word “learn” in quotation marks when it applies to AI. For example, “The algorithm can be trained to ‘learn’ how people interact.” Does CMOS approve of this usage, or does it prefer to allow AI to learn like the rest of us, free from quotation marks?

A. CMOS would approve (or rather its editors would), but only if the author needs to make a point about the nature of learning and isn’t simply trying to be clever, and provided the device isn’t overused (once is usually enough). A bit of editorial pushback along those lines might get your authors to drop the quotation marks. If that doesn’t work, you might remind them that it’s called artificial intelligence for a reason. Using so-called scare quotes around learn (or respond or any other word normally associated with living beings) would tend to belabor the obvious. (For more on scare quotes, see CMOS 7.57 .)

[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]

Q. If direct internal dialogue is set in italics, should the comma before the dialogue tag be set in italics or roman? CMOS 6.2 is very fuzzy on this. For example: “I lied, he thought, but maybe she will forgive me.” Imagine that the dialogue itself is set in italics. Should the first comma be italicized?

A. Good question! The comma after “lied” would be required both with the speaker tag (“I lied, he thought”) and without (“I lied, but maybe . . .”), so it could be said to belong to both the dialogue and the narrative. But adding quotation marks (as if the dialogue were speech) will suggest an answer:

“I lied,” he thought, “but maybe she will forgive me.”

I lied, he thought, but maybe she will forgive me.

The comma and period that are inside the closing quotation marks in the first version are in italics in the second version, whereas the comma after thought stays in roman. The difference is minuscule (without the bold for italics, would anyone notice?), and our solution is arbitrary. But it’s easy enough to understand and apply, so maybe we’ll make it a rule someday.

Q. Are reverse italics [i.e., roman text in an otherwise italic context] used when a legal case includes names of newspapers that would normally be italicized on their own? Thank you!

A. The name of a newspaper or other periodical would be italicized in the name of a court case—just like the name of any other entity. The Bluebook , a widely used citation guide that we recommend for citing court cases and the like (see CMOS 14.269 ), includes a relevant example: Seattle Times v. Univ. of Wash. (see section B10.1.1 in the 21st ed. of The Bluebook [2020]).

That Bluebook example is intended to illustrate two principles: (1) an initial The in the name of a party to a cited case can be omitted (a rule that applies to both names in the Seattle Times case), and (2) abbreviations can be used for certain terms, including state names and words like “University.”

And though that example isn’t supposed to show the use of italics for case names (which in Bluebook usage depends on context), it does suggest that a newspaper name within the name of a court case doesn’t merit any special typographic treatment. That’s probably because the name “Seattle Times” is, in this context, that of a publishing company rather than a publication (publications don’t argue cases, but their publishers do).

Q. Hello, I’m wondering how to style the name of a television program that has been assimilated into the cultural lexicon so that references to it are not truly references to the show. In particular, an author said, “When I landed at the airport, it was as if I had entered the Twilight Zone.” (He makes many references to this.) I feel it should be capitalized but not italicized, but I can’t find anything to say one way or another. Can you help? Thanks!

A. In your example, you’re right—the reference isn’t to the television show; rather, it’s to the fictional realm made famous by the show. So we agree with your treatment. Had your example been worded instead as follows, italics (and a capital T for The ) would have been correct: “When I landed at the airport, it was as if I had arrived on the set of The Twilight Zone .”

Q. Would you italicize “x” in a phrase like “x number of dollars”? It seems like a variable, but I wasn’t sure if this casual use merited italics.

A. When an ordinary expression is borrowed from a specialized discipline like math, any basic convention that would be recognized by nonspecialists can often be retained, even in casual usage. For example, Chicago style is to italicize the n in “ n th degree” (see CMOS 9.6 ); by extension, we would write “ x number of dollars” (with the letter x in italics). As you suggest, these letters act like variables, which in math are usually italicized.

Another approach that’s common in published works is to use a capital X (normally without italics): “X number of dollars.” A capital X can stand in for anything that’s unknown or mysterious in some way—as in “X factor” or “X marks the spot”—and it’s arguably easier to read than a lowercase x . But either choice should work well as long as you’re consistent.

Q. Should sounds made by animals or objects be italicized when they aren’t part of dialogue (e.g., “quack,” “choo choo,” etc.)?

A. Though not required, such italics might have their place. Italics are common in fiction for unspoken discourse (as for a narrator’s thoughts). Such italics signal to readers that the words come from somewhere other than the narrative or dialogue. Consider also the convention used by many video captioners of italicizing words spoken off-screen. Meow. (Sorry, our editorial assistant must be hungry again.) If you do end up deciding that italics would work for you, try not to overuse them.

Q. Should the common name of a species from a non-English language be treated as a foreign word and italicized, or should it be left in roman type? I’m thinking of the bird known as a po‘ouli in Hawaii, which is elsewhere called the black-faced honeycreeper. Should po‘ouli be italicized?

A. Though it’s not listed in Merriam-Webster (as of July 5, 2022), the name po‘ouli seems to be relatively well established in recent English-language publications that discuss that bird ( sadly reported extinct in 2021 ); in fact, a Google search for “black-faced honeycreeper” brings up “po‘ouli” first, suggesting it’s more common now than the common English name. So you shouldn’t need italics to refer to a po‘ouli except when using the name as a word (as in the first sentence above and the last sentence in your question).

But if you were to refer to, for example, a Deutscher Schäferhund —the German name for a German shepherd—italics would help signal that the German name would not normally be used in an English-language context (except, for example, to let readers know what that name is).

In sum, sometimes it’s necessary to go beyond the dictionary as a rough gauge of a term’s familiarity in English contexts. For the glottal stop (or ‘okina ) in po‘ouli , see CMOS 11.70 (under “Hawaiian”). For advice on capitalizing dog breeds, see this Q&A .

Q. Robots are being named and even developing personalities, not just in fiction, but in the real world. Should their names be italicized—i.e., “I told Benjamin to wait at the coffee shop,” where Benjamin is a robot with artificial intelligence?

A. Italics for robot names could be fun in fiction; however, that doesn’t seem to be the convention either in fiction or in real life. (An exception is generally made for named spacecraft and the like, including the robotic Mars rover Perseverance ; see CMOS 8.116 .) Before you decide what to do, consider asking some robots to weigh in.

Q. Should the apostrophe in an italicized word in possessive plural form be italicized? Example: If I italicize the possessive form of the word pirates , would the apostrophe also be italicized?

A. That depends. If you’re referring to the plural possessive form of the word pirates as a word, then italicize the whole thing, including the apostrophe: pirates’ . But if you’re using italics for emphasis, leave the apostrophe in regular text. For example, “It was the pirates ’ ship, not mine, that sank.”

The difference, however, between ’ and ’ will go unnoticed by most readers—even those of us who scrutinize such things for a living—so let’s switch to the singular to confirm our choices. To refer to the possessive pirate’s as a word, you’d put the whole thing in italics (as it is styled in this sentence). But for emphasis—that is, to single out the pirate ’s ship as opposed to some other ship—italics are best reserved for pirate alone (as styled in this sentence, between the dashes). Even in the singular, this is an extremely fine distinction that will go unnoticed by many. But it recognizes that the possessive ending can be considered independently of the word to which it attaches, as “belonging to” would be in “the ship belonging to the pirate .” That final period, in case you’re wondering, isn’t in italics.

For italics for emphasis, see CMOS 7.50 ; for words used as words, see CMOS 7.63 .

Q. Hello CMOS ! A book I am copyediting contains a text message inside quotation marks (as in, My friend then texted me: “Have you read XYZ?”). The text message in question contains a book title. Would you set the book title in italics, or leave it in roman, as it presumably was in the original text message? Thanks for your help!

A. For the text message to be fully believable, it needs to feel like a text message. So leave the italics out. If you’re afraid of ambiguity, use the narrative to supply the missing context (“She was referring to the book by So-and-So”). But in ordinary fictional dialogue, apply the italics to help your readers; it’s understood that people don’t speak in edited text, so you don’t have to worry about authenticity. For some additional considerations, see “Formatting Text Messages in Fiction” at CMOS Shop Talk .

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• Writing Tips

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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Are Movie Titles Italicized? (APA, AP, MLA, and Chicago)

Many people are unsure of the correct format to follow when it comes to how to quote a movie title in a piece of academic writing. Therefore, this page explains the different ways to correctly cite a movie title in an essay or formal paper and provides examples of citations in context.

Are Movie Titles Italicized?

When including a movie title in an essay or paper that follows APA, MLA, or Chicago, the title should always be in italics because it is a stand-alone piece of work. However, when citing a movie in AP Style, the title should be in quotation marks rather than italics.

When including a movie title as an in-text reference or on the reference list, you should always use italics if you are following APA, MLA, or Chicago styles.

In AP Style, italics are not used for anything; instead, you should place any movie, play, or book titles in quotation marks rather than italics.

Here are some examples of some citations for movies in the four styles:

APA/ Chicago styles

• The movie Fight Club (Fincher, 99) is a critique of the materialistic world in which we currently live.
• The Godfather (Coppola, 74) is the film that put Francis Ford Coppola on the map as a director.
• The closing scenes of the Godfather are praised for the artistic merit of the content. ( Godfather , 2:20:00 – 2:23:45)
• The movie “Fight Club” is regarded as one of Edward Norton`s finest performances.
• Fincher, D, (Director). (1999). Fight Club {Film}, Propaganda Films. “Netflix” App. https://www.netflix.com/mx-en/title/26004747
• Fight Club. Directed by David Fincher, Propaganda Films, 1999. https://www.netflix.com/mx-en/title/26004747
• Fincher, David, Director. 1999. Fight Club . Propaganda Films. 139 minutes. https://www.netflix.com/mx-en/title/26004747

Are Movie Titles Quoted?

In APA, MLA, and Chicago styles, it is not necessary to use quotation marks for movie titles, and they should instead be placed in italics. However, for AP Style, where italics are rare, it is necessary to use quotation marks around the title of the movie.

Are Movie Titles Italicized in APA Style?

When citing a movie or film in APA Style, you should use italics for in-text citations and on the reference list because a movie is a stand-alone work.

Here are some examples of how to include a movie in an APA Style document:

As an in-text citation, you just need to include the director, year, and, if relevant, the part of the movie you are referencing.

For example:

• Forrest Gump highlighted many important events in US history, such as the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement (Zemeckis, 94).

On the reference page, the listing should look like this:

• Zemeckis, R, (Director). (1994). Forrest Gump {Film}. Paramount Pictures.

Also, if you watched the film on a streaming site, you need to add that too:

• Zemeckis, R, (Director). (1994). Forrest Gump {Film}. Paramount Pictures. https://www.netflix.com/mx/title/60000724

Are Movie Titles Italicized in AP Style?

In AP Style, it is not common to use italics for anything, including movie titles. Instead of italics, movie titles should be placed inside quotation marks when citing a movie name in-text. Furthermore, AP Style documents do not usually contain a reference list, so you do not need to list the reference at the end of the paper.

Here are some examples of how a movie title looks in AP Style:

• “Apocolypse Now” is the highest-grossing movie about the Vietnam war.
• Keanu Reeves returns in the 2021 film based on the classic film trilogy “The Matrix.”

Are Movie Titles Italicized in Chicago Style?

When writing an essay in Chicago Style, it is necessary to use italics when quoting films for both in-text citations and on the reference list because films are an example of a stand-alone piece of work, similar to a book, play, or song.

Here are some examples of how to include a movie in Chicago Style formatting:

• The movie Parasite was the first film for which a foreigner won the Oscar for best director (Bong, 19).
• Bong, Joon-ho, director. Parasite . 2019, Curzon Artificial Eye. 2 hrs, 11 mins. Blu-ray Disc, 1080p HD.

(If you watched the film on a streaming site, then you should list that instead of the DVD information).

Are Movie Titles Italicized in MLA Style?

When citing a movie in an MLA piece of writing, you should always use italics for the movie title for both in-text citations and on the reference list.

For an in-text citation, it is common to just use the name of the movie with the time frame of the point you are referring to, if applicable; if not, you can simply use the movie title with no time reference.

Here are some examples of how movie references in MLA Style would look:

• The movie Parasite is Joon-ho Bong`s most successful film to date (Parasite )
• The closing scenes of Parasite left viewers in shock at the brutality portrayed by the characters ( Parasite, 2:00:00 – 2:10:00).

This is how the listing should appear on the reference list:

• Parasite . Directed by Joon-ho Bong, CJ Entertainment, 2019. https://www.netflix.com/mx-en/title/81221938

Final Thoughts

When citing a movie in an essay or piece of formal writing that follows APA, MLA, or Chicago styles, you should always use italics for the title. However, for AP Style, you should use quotation marks rather than italics for the titles of movies.

Martin holds a Master’s degree in Finance and International Business. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. Furthermore, he has teaching experience from Aarhus University. Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. Read more about Martin here .

• Are Video Game Titles Italicized? (APA, AP, and Chicago)
• Are Magazine Titles Italicized? (APA, AP, and Chicago)
• Are Podcast Titles Italicized? (APA, AP, MLA, and Chicago)
• Are TV Shows Italicized? (APA, AP, MLA, and Chicago)

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Cub Tracks’ swept away

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WELCOME to today’s episode of Cub Tracks news and notes™ , a greatest-hits collection of Chicago-style beat writers and bloggers, ground from # Cubs , # MiLB , and # MLB baseball, overheated, steeped in writers’ tears , and then cold-brewed overnight for maximum flavor. No artificial intelligences were deployed, employed, entranced, or embalmed in the commission of this missive ( apparently I might be training some though ). Cub Tracks eagerly awaits the advent of robotic umpires and has already amended the three laws . The going is weird. Cub Tracks turned pro a long time ago.

Cub Tracks . Where the great ones run away .

Jameson Taillon (8-6, 3.50) took the ball in Cleveland, trying to stave off the sweep against old enemy Alex Cobb (0-1, 6.35). Both teams scored in the fourth.

A Seiya triple and a Belli sac fly give the Cubs the lead! pic.twitter.com/MBou7UsQD5 — Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 14, 2024

Cleveland scored one more. And they didn’t stop there.

The Cubs were fighting the umpires the whole series, as well as the Guardians. I’ll just leave this here.

Ian Happ was visibly upset with this strike three call. pic.twitter.com/y3C9RQwXQm — Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) August 14, 2024

That isn’t to excuse the Cubs’ bullpen, which wasn’t especially effective. Nor were the bats, the last two games.

It’s apparent that these Cubs are not ready for ‘prime time’. We’ve known that for quite some time now. I’m just hoping for ‘entertaining’ and ‘interesting’. I want to watch some kids play. It’s too bad about Wesneski and Brown and Horton as I was wanting to see more of them. Especially the last two.

*means autoplay on , ( directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome ). {$} means paywall . {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments.

Get your hands on a game-used ball that Shota Imanaga used on one of his many strikeout victims. Repost and comment for a chance to win. No purchase necessary. 18+. Ends 9:00pm ET on 8/19. Restrictions apply; see Official Rules: https://t.co/aG6KzyYZo3 pic.twitter.com/EEQxMIBays — MLB (@MLB) August 14, 2024

Jameson Taillon talks about how he handled all the trades rumors here. In full cast he talks Cubs, Counsell, Boone and the ups and downs in his ultimately rewarding career LISTEN: Apple: https://t.co/kt39b0zGTF Spotify: https://t.co/PPIkXQvSeY WATCH: https://t.co/4W4YSlpMwT pic.twitter.com/4VGl9h572p — Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) August 15, 2024

• Andy Martinez (Marquee Sports Network*): How the Cubs bullpen developed into stabilizing force . “Bullpens are volatile,” Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins said .
• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Shutting down Ben Brown is the latest detour for the Chicago Cubs’ young pitchers . “We just weren’t making progress,” Counsell said.
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$} ): After Cade Horton’s injury setback, what are next steps for Cubs’ pitching prospect ? “To make up for lost time, the Cubs could potentially place Horton in the Arizona Fall League.” Jordan Bastian has more . Tony Andracki has Brown and orton.
• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation*): Maybe the Cubs actually have the best farm system in baseball ? “... this is still a significant achievement.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Top Chicago Cubs draft pick Cam Smith already ranks among the ten best third base prospects . “... at MLB Pipeline ...”
• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Chicago Cubs offense finally showing consistency — and prospect Brennen Davis’ season is likely over . “It’s really been encouraging to see them put more runs on the board,” Carter Hawkins said.
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): A surprising Cubs player ranks as one of the most clutch in all of baseball . “Ian Happ has delivered in the biggest moments this year, in the midst of another above-average season at the plate.”
• Tommy Birch (Des Moines Register* {$}): Chicago Cubs prospect Matt Shaw talks about being promoted to Triple-A . [VIDEO] Cubs Insider has some Shaw .
• Ryan O’Rourke (Cubbies Crib*): Much-hyped Chicago Cubs infield prospect gets the call-up to South Bend . “It took a longer adjustment period than hoped, but Cristian Hernández is slowly climbing up the Cubs minor league system.”

Food for Thought:

James Webb telescope detects signs of rust on priceless, metal-rich asteroid Psyche https://t.co/vERQjPRkH7 — Live Science (@LiveScience) August 14, 2024

Softball-Sized Tarantulas Are Crossing State Lines In Their Thousands Looking For Love https://t.co/7KldosoB0B — IFLScience (@IFLScience) August 14, 2024

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series. Thanks for reading!

Next Up In Cub Tracks

• Cub Tracks’ we can still get meatloaf
• Cub Tracks lets off steam
• Cub Tracks escapes like Eli Wallach
• Cub Tracks’ doubly good
• Cub Tracks’ son of can’t win if you don’t score

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How to cite ChatGPT

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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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