Italics

Most editors are now capable of producing italic text by means of computer software. However, if an editor uses equipment that will not produce italics, he should indicate it by underlining the appropriate portions of the text.

The following text items should be italicized:

--titles of books, magazines, newspapers, plays, movies, works of art, long poems, and long musical compositions.

The Harmonizer
The Christian Science Monitor

the Chicago Tribune
Eliot's The Wasteland
Shakespeare's Othello
the movie High Noon
Mozart's Don Giovanni

--Names of ships, aircraft, and spacecraft

Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis
Apollo 13
U.S.S. Kitty Hawk

--Words, letters, or figures when referred to as words, letters, or figures.

The g in align is silent.
I always have trouble spelling the word trouble.
You should mind your p's and q's.
He signed the document with an X.

--Foreign words and phrases that have not been naturalized in English. This also applies to most musical terms as well.

aere perenniusque sera, sera
ich dien sans peur et sans reproche
allegretto andante
rubatoallegro con grazia
sforzando accelerando
molto cantabile         vivace

--Many foreign words and phrases have become Americanized, so they would not need to be italicized.

pasta chutzpah
ad hoc         ex officio

--Latin scientific names for botanical or zoological classes

a thick-shelled American clam (Mercenaria mercenaria)

--Legal cases, both in full and shortened form; however, the letter v for versus is not italicized in legal cases.

Jones v. Michigan
Brown
v. Topeka Board of Education
the Jones case

HR

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