Underlining/Italics vs. Quotation Marks

Capitalization in Titles

• Capitalize the first word
• Capitalize big and important words
• Capitalize other stuff and things

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DO NOT CAPITALIZE THE FOLLOWING:

ARTICLES: A, an, the (unless they start the title)

FANBOYS conjunctions (For, AND, NOR, BUT, OR, YET, SO)

SOME PREPOSITIONS:

Use in Timed Essays

• For most of the timed essays, you will need to name sources. For the most part, the sources are punctuated the correct way and YOU JUST NEED TO COPY THEM. If the prompt uses quotations, YOU use quotations. If the prompt italicizes a source, you underline it .

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• Don’t be indolent (lazy) about this because you will look silly if you mess it up despite having the answers right in front of you. All you need to do is double check.

Italics and Underlining

• If you are writing by hand, which you will be on the exam, you will need to underline titles.

• Italics are used when titles are typed.

Italics and underlining function in the same way.

Here’s How To Remember

Italicize/Underline the titles of complete works. Long.

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Use quotation marks around short/small pieces of things that are a part of the whole. Short.

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When do I underline/italicize?

Item

Example…

• Titles of Books
• Plays
• Magazines
• Newspapers
• Films
• Television programs
• Long poems (book)
• Name of a comic strip series
• Websites
• Album titles
• Pieces of art

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• American Psycho
• Hamlet
• Time
• The Chicago Tribune
• Resident Evil
• Naked & Afraid
• Beowulf
• Dilbert
• Barron’s Online
• The White Album
• The Mona Lisa

Underlining

When do I use quotation marks?

Item

Example…

• Essays from journals, anthologies, etc.
• Articles from magazines, newspapers, etc.
• Short stories
• Short poems
• Songs
• Television Program Episodes
• Speeches

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• “The Language of Advertising”
• “The Seven Deadly Ways to Kiss”
• “The Body”
• “The Raven”
• “Always”
• “The One Who Got Away”
• “I Have a Dream”

Students Tips On How to Remember