174. Quotation Marks and Italics in Titles

In writing, we use italics (slanted writing like this) to designate titles of larger pieces of writing.
Use italics for book titles, movie titles, television shows, magazine names, newspaper names.

I saw the movie Jaws.
My mother has a subscription to the magazine Reader’s Digest.
Our school gets a daily newspaper, the Chicago Tribune.
In class, we are reading the book Little Women out loud together.

Put quotation marks around the titles of smaller works of writing. Quotation marks are needed for the titles of short stories, magazine and newspaper articles, poems, songs, book chapters, and television episodes.

You should read Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.”
My favorite song is “America the Beautiful.”
The freshmen have to read the short story “The Open Window” by Saki.
The first episode of the television show Little House on the Prairie is called “A Harvest of Friends.”

Use italics to write the title of large pieces of writing – books, magazines, newspapers, movies. Put quotation marks around the titles of smaller pieces of writing – poems, short stories, book chapters, magazine and newspaper articles.

  • It’s your turn. Use italics and/or quotation marks to write the titles in this sentence. The first chapter of the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is called The Boy Who Lived. Did you use italics for the book title? Did you put quotation marks around the title of the first chapter? Good for you!