In Name Only

Since we constantly refer to the titles of books, magazines, newspapers, and more by name, keeping track of whether to put them in quotation marks or to italicize them can be a chore. Well, chore no more! Put these in quotation marks: Books: “Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy,” best-selling children’s book by Jane O’Connor (an exception is the Bible, which is capitalized but not enclosed in quotation marks) Computer games: “The Sims” Movies: “Superbad” Operas: Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Holländer” Plays: “Spring Awakening,” “August: Osage County” Poems: “Late September,” by U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic Songs: "If You Want Me to Stay," Sly & The Family Stone TV shows: "Big Love," “So You Think You Can Dance” Italicize these: Newspapers: The New York Times (when a location is needed that’s not part of the official name, use parentheses: De Queen (Ark.) Bee (that’s a real newspaper) Magazines: Vogue magazine, The New York Times Magazine (notice that "magazine" is only uppercase and italicized if it's an official part of the magazine title) Reference books: Webster’s New College Dictionary Skip the quotation marks; don’t italicize: Internet sites: slate.com Software: WordPerfect

Note: The rule about books noted here is based on AP style. I prefer putting book titles in italics without quotations marks (The House of Mirth). I'm funny that way.

Comments

[Mike]

One omission from your list: articles in magazines or newspapers, which, unless I'm mistaken, should be in quotation marks.

Also, about italicizing: I've always been of the impression that you should always go with quotes rather than italicizing or, if you're really old-school, underlining. The logic is that when some text is converted from, say, Microsoft Word format to plain text (like news releases over a wire service), the formatting is lost.

[Jane Howitt]

Yup, I'm with you for the book titles. I far prefer italics and no quotes.

I suppose people might get into a spin about using italics when it's going to be read on a screen (feeble reason for a short title). Or, as Mike says, formatting could be lost converting to plain text (slightly less feeble, but still not a big deal). But I still prefer italics.

Obviously, I'm funny that way, too!

[JP]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the name of the popular news magazine is just "Time" -- not "Time Magazine." The only way I've ever seen it written is Time magazine.

Also, I can't tell you how much I despise the use of quotation marks instead of italics when italics are the correct way to write titles. This AP style rule is based on the belief that some newspapers lack the technology to reproduce italics. I for one can hardly believe that in this day and age. In any case, I'll grudgingly use quotation marks in releases and communications produced directly for the media, but for internal and corporate communications, I go with italics all the way.

[Dan Santow]

JP, thank you for the correction regarding Time magazine. I've changed it in the post (in this "comment" area Typepad does not allow italicizing, which is pretty annoying!).

Mike, yes, article titles should be in quotation marks, too.

[Ragdoll]

So I should quote computer games, but not computer software, which computer games are.

Certainly these rules aren't completely arbitrary. Certainly not.

What about board games?

[Shelly]

I was schooled in MLA style in college and titles of books and long works, like poetry collections, movies, etc, were italicized or underlined, and quotes are used around things like poems, chapter titles, magazine articles, or TV episodes. In other words, quotes are used around things that are parts of a larger work, the larger work, then, is italicized. That's how I learned it anyway, and how the grammar books I used when teaching high school English did it. Language is a fluid thing, though and changes are made with each edition of style books.

[Hilary]

I actually have a question. If I'm writing a resume, and I've worked for a magazine or newspaper, do I need to italicize or underline the name then? Or is it only when you're using the magazine or newspaper as a reference? Thanks!

[Dan Santow]

Hilary, there really aren't strict rules for resumes but I think italicizing magazine and newspaper names still looks right.

[Hilary]

Thanks Mr. Santow!

[DAve]

Hi What about if you refer to a website name like Facebook in a sentence? Italicize? Thanks