Are Book Titles In Quotes Or Italics

Let s clear up the mystery.

Are book titles in quotes or italics. What you may not know however is when to use which one. 2 for any work that stands on its own you should use italics or underline. For example you may be instructed to write according to the apa style mla or chicago manual of style.

As a writer you know that titles are distinguished from surrounding text with italics and quotation marks. If we didn t know this we might guess from the capitalization but most style guides also recommend using distinct formatting for titles. If a novel a long poem or a play is collected in an anthology we italicize any reference to the title if the work was originally published as a separate entity.

But depending on the format you re meant to adhere by the rules may vary. One reason we find these guidelines difficult to remember is that many newspapers enclose book and movie titles in quotation marks. According to the chicago manual of style and the modern language association titles of books and other complete works such as newspapers and magazines should be italicized.

Stories or chapters from within a book are considered parts. So if abiding by either of those guides you d italicize stephen king s the shining just as you would vanity fair and the miami herald and appetite for destruction if your protagonist is a guns n roses fan. Do not use quotation marks underline or italics together.

Longer works italics titles of longer works such as books or tv shows are usually italicized. Do you italicize book titles. This usually means italicizing the title or placing it in quote marks.

The general rule of thumb is to use italics for long works and quotations for short work. Titles of large stand alone works such as books plays newspapers magazines movies and epic poems are italicized.