Getting Fancy: Italics and Underlining
What's the difference between underlining and italics? None. As a reader, you understand the same code when you see italics or underlining. With the use of computers, clicking a button and italicizing a word is just as easy as underlining it. But sometimes (if you're writing longhand or using a typewriter), the option to italicize isn't available. Just remember to consistently use either underlining or italicizing throughout your document. A good idea is to ask if your instructor or company has a policy regarding a preference for italicizing or underlining. (Just so you know, the standard is normally to italicize, rather than to underline.)
So when is italicizing or underlining used? The most common use is in titles, but only titles of long works, such as books. For titles of short works — such as short stories, short poems, and essays — use quotation marks. In the following example, the left-hand column shows the format for the name of a book; the right-hand column shows the name of a short story within that book:
or
Titles of sacred books don't require any punctuation, nor do books of the Bible.
Here's a more complete list of works that should be italicized (underlined):
book-length poems and collections of poems:
Leaves of Grass plays:
A Raisin in the Sun operas:
Carmen movies:
Casablanca pamphlets:
What To Do Before You See the Doctor television programs (the title of an episode from a program uses quotation marks):
The X-Files works of art:
Mona Lisa long musical works (a CD would be italicized or underlined; a song from the CD uses quotation marks):
Greatest Love Songs of the New Century magazines and newspapers (an article title from the magazine or newspaper would have quotation marks around it):
Time ships, aircraft, spacecraft, trains:
Titanic , U.S.S.Cole (don't italicize the U.S.S.);Spirit of St. Louis; Endeavor ; Orient Express
In the Internet world, another common use for italics and underlining is in citing a URL, or Internet address; some style guides, however, require that angle brackets be used instead:
Keep in mind that articles (
I read Sharyn McCrumb's book
I spent time aboard the
Take Two: Emphasis — Another Use of Italics (Underlining)
Look at the following sentences and see if you can tell the difference:
Can you see that the only difference in the five sentences is the words that are italicized? This illustrates another use of italics. In this case, the use of italics tells readers where emphasis should be placed. This helps the writer let readers know the speech patterns being used, and it also helps readers understand those patterns.
Be careful not to overuse italics for emphasis. If you use italics or underlining too frequently, you lose the emphasis you want to communicate, and — even worse — your reader soon loses interest. Look at this sentence and you'll see that the device is overdone:
“Chief, the
With so many words italicized, the emphasis has lost its effectiveness.
Remember that you never use two end marks of punctuation at the end of the sentence.
Take Three: Unusual Usage
Read the following sentence and see if it makes sense to you:
The angry editor said to the reporter, “You imbecile! You used robbery when you should have used burglary.”
Say what? Is the editor telling the reporter that he or she committed the wrong crime? No, and if the writer had used the correct punctuation marks, then the sentence would make sense.
The rule is that when words, numbers, or letters are used outside of their normal context, they should be italicized (underlined). So the sentence really should be written this way:
The angry editor said to the reporter, “You imbecile! You used
Written this way, readers understand that the reporter used the words
Some style guides also mandate that you apply this rule if you're reproducing a sound through a word (if you're using a form of onomatopoeia), as in
Brrr!
or
The Final Take: Foreign Terms
The last use of italics is related to the previous one. This rule says you should italicize or underline a foreign word or phrase.
I was wavering about whether to go to the festival with my friends, but I decided
If a foreign word or phrase has become so widely used in English that readers wouldn't question its meaning (like per diem or summa cum laude), don't italicize it.
Try the interactive quiz on italics or underlining at this Web site:
Be careful to apply italics only to punctuation (commas, periods, question marks, exclamation marks, and the like) if that punctuation is part of the title.
May screamed, “There's never been a better mystery than
The title of the book
May screamed, “There's never been a better mystery than
The exclamation point and the ending quotation mark aren't italicized, since they aren't part of the title of the book.
