Literature 8 – Mrs. Munnier

When to use

quotation marks,

when to underline,

when to italicize…

Use quotation marks with

titles of poems. Example: One of my

favorite poems is “The Road

Not Taken” by Robert Frost.

Use quotation marks with titles

of short stories and titles of

essays. Example:

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is

a favorite short story among 8th grade students.

“I Feel Bad About My Neck” by Nora Ephron is a laugh-out-

loud essay from the author’s most recent

collection.

“Dream a Little Dream of Me” is the name of an

episode from the fifth season of

Grey’s Anatomy. Titles of individual

episodes of TV and radio shows

belong within quotation marks.

(The shows themselves are

underlined or italicized.)

Titles of songs belong within

quotation marks.

Example: “Dirt Road” is a

famous song from Jason

Aldean’s album entitled My

Kinda Party. Titles of albums

must be italicized or underlined.

Patrick Henry famously

declared, “Give me liberty, or

give me death.” Direct quotes

ALWAYS belong within

quotation marks.

Foreign words within English texts must be underlined or

italicized. Example:

Mike and his wife bid us au

revoir at the end of a long

evening.

Underline or italicize words used for

extreme emphasis. (Use this technique

sparingly.) Example:

Bob bellowed: “Really? Did you

think I wouldn’t mind if you went out with my girl

friend?”

Underline or italicize titles

of books. Example: The

Giver by Lois Lowry was

first published in 1993.

Underline or italicize titles

of plays. Example:

We enjoyed seeing The

Little Mermaid last week at the old high

school auditorium.

Underline or italicize names

of ships, spacecraft,

and airplanes.

Example: The Titanic sank in

1912.

Underline or italicize titles of

newspapers and magazines. Example: Our

family subscribes to the Princeton Daily Clarion.

Underline or italicize names of operas, albums, or other

audio recordings. Example: Our music

appreciation class went to see The

Marriage of Figaro at the Sydney Opera

House in 1982.

Underline or italicize titles of

works of art. Example:

Piet Mondrian created

Broadway Boogie Woogie,

an oil on canvas, in 1943.

Underline titles of book-length poems.

Example:

PCHS freshmen read

the Odyssey, an epic poem.