Sunday, February 27, 2011

How to Use Quotation Marks and Italics

     Names of certain things, such as books, articles, movies, airplanes, and ships, must be placed either in quotation marks or italics. How do you know which to use? All items that require one or the other may be divided into four groups: 
1.) intellectual property that may be copied, 
2.) means of transport, and works of art that are one of a kind, 
3.) nicknames for machines.
4.) words are numbers
     Intellectual property is any printed matter or recording, such as books, movies, and poems. Works of art that are one of a kind include paintings and sculptures.

Intellectual Property
     If it’s “big,” you put the name in italics; if it’s “small,” you put the name in quotation marks. Here are some examples:

Big 
The Swiss Family Robinson (book) 
Small
“Return to the Wreck” (chapter)
Big
Selected Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan :Poe (book) 
Small
“The Gold Bug” (short story)
Big
The Odyssey (epic poem) 
Small
“If” (poem)
Big
Roy Orbison’s Greatest Hits (record album) 
Small
“Only the Lonely” (song)
Big
Three’s Company (television series) 
Small
“Jack’s Bistro” (episode from the TV series)

Big
Taipei Times (newspaper)
 Small
“Photographer freed” (newspaper article)

     (Note: Movies that are part of a series of movies (for example, Star Wars II: The Empire Strikes Back), and short films, such as It’s Grits, must be in italics. Segments from a television miniseries—that is, a made-for-television movie that is shown in two or more parts—must be placed in quotation marks. The name of the television miniseries itself, however, must be italicized.)

Transport and Works of Art
     Regarding one-of-a-kind works of art and means of transport, it doesn’t matter whether it is big or small. It’s always italicized. Here are a few examples:

Spruce Goose ( huge airplane) Gossamer II (small plane)
Titanic (ship) Minnow (boat)
David (statue) Wolf Running (figurine, or statuette)
Last Supper (mural, or large painting) Golden Retriever (miniature painting)

Other Items or Objects
     Brand names, such as Ford or BMW are not italicized or placed in quotation marks. Personal names for things that are not ordinarily named require neither quotation marks nor italics. Some examples are personally-owned guns, such as Davy Crockett’s famous rifle Old Betsy. Common nicknames for mass produced items such as Henry Ford’s Model T Ford (called the “Tin Lizzie”) require quotation marks.
     Landmarks, even if they are considered works of art, are neither italicized nor placed in quotation marks. Three examples are the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and the Colossus of Rhodes.

Words, Letters, and Numbers
     When you use a word, a letter, or a number, not for its meaning or value, but simply as a word, letter, or number, you italicize it.  Here are some examples:
     "When you write  the letter z, try not to make it look like a 2."  (The speaker is talking about the letter z and the number 2.  He's not referring to z as having a meaning or 2 as having a value, as in "two oranges.")
     "People sometimes misspell the word misspell."  (The first time the word is used, the speaker is talking about misspelling something.  The second time it's used, the speaker is talking about the word itself.)
     You also italicize foreign words and phrases.  Here are some examples:
     "Audrey Hepburn had a certain je ne sais quoi." 
     "My favorite Chinese dish is tsongtze."

2 comments:

  1. Dear Jerry,
    Thank you for explanation and please answer one question.
    Why don't we use quotation marks with names of trade shows? AHR Expo, International Contemporary Furniture Fair, for example.

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  2. Events follow a different rule because they aren't any of the above-mentioned things. Events and names of products are capitalized.
    We capitalize World War II, and the Great Depression, for example.
    The Flora Expo is the shortened form of the name of an event. Like the longer form of the name, it's capitalized.
    I offer one precaution about capitalization: Commercial labels are sometimes capitalized for commercial reasons. For example, on a can of Lipton tea, you'll see the words, "Lipton Tea." It's stylistically incorrect though commercially reasonable. They can do it, but you shouldn't do it yourself.

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