Underlining/Italics

UWF WRITING LAB MINI-LESSON #70

ITALICS

• If you’re using a computer or keyboard that has an italics font, use italics. Otherwise, use underlining.

• In general, underline the titles of works. • Titles to be underlined include the names

of movies, books, plays, long poems published as books, compact discs, audiocassettes, record albums, ballets, television and radio programs, and operas.

QUOTATION MARKS

• Use quotation marks for the titles of works published within larger works.

• Such titles include the names of articles, essays, short stories, short poems, chapters of books, individual episodes of television and radio programs, and songs.

ITALICS/UNDERLINING

Italics/underlining is used to identify certain titles,such as books, movies, plays, newspapers, magazines, paintings, sculptures, and aircraft.• Tom Hanks starred in a number of movies including Big,

The Terminal, and The Da Vinci Code.Italics/underlining is also used to identify foreignwords or phrases that have not become fullyanglicized/naturalized. Consult a dictionary if indoubt.• Paule Marshall’s novel Brown Girl, Brownstones is a

bildungsroman.

ITALICS/UNDERLINING

When you include both a word and its definition in a sentence, italicize the word being defined and place its definition in quotation marks.

Aesthetic is different from the word ecstatic which means “thrilled” or “elated”; aesthetic means “artistically beautiful.”

ITALICS/UNDERLINING

• Underline or italicize words used as words and not as grammatical units.

Ex. Although you is the second person plural pronoun, some Southerners insist on saying “y’all.”

The phrase a lot of is commonly used—and misspelled—in writing.