Italicization

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Italicize the following (or underline if writing by hand or using a typewriter):

• The titles of books, plays, book-length poems, magazines, and newspapers:

• The titles of movies and radio and television programs:

• The titles of works of art, including paintings, sculptures, and major musical compositions:
  Mona Lisa (painting)
  The Thinker (sculpture)
  Swan Lake (ballet)
  Porgy and Bess (opera)

Do not italicize musical compositions named by number or key: Symphony No. 4; Quartet in E minor.

• Words, letters, and numbers used as such:
  How do you spell ache?
  Does your name end with a c or a k?
  The 6 looked like a 0.
• Foreign words and phrases that have not been assimilated into English:
  Alex's Weltanschauung was gloomy.
  Ed made a tarte au citron for dessert.
• Words and phrases that are being emphasized:
  Paris was the place to be in the '20s.
• The names of the plaintiff and defendant in legal citations: Johnson v. Smith.
• The names of ships, aircraft, and space vehicles:
  USS Maine
  The Spirit of St. Louis
  space shuttle Challenger
• The New Latin names of genera, species, subspecies, and varieties in botanical and zoological nomenclature: Quercus alba; Homo sapiens.