Attention grammar Nazis!

[Baruch Menachem]

Which is the correct way to present a book, story or movie title in text? I have seen both italic and underlined. A few times both. There seems to be no consistency.

So is it War and Peace, War and Peace or War and Peace?

 

[syrenn]

Which is the correct way to present a book, story or movie title in text? I have seen both italic and underlined. A few times both. There seems to be no consistency.

So is it War and Peace, War and Peace or War and Peace?

In my opinion:


War and Peace

 

[Grace]

Any ol way you wanna do it, in my opinion.

 

[Mr.Owl]

I think its just italics if your typing and underline if your writing

 

[Luissa]

Probably just in italics, I believe it is all you do when referencing a book when citing a source.

I really should know this. LOL I took a work shop on it last year while in school.

 

[Warrior102]

Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters

Capitalize an article - the, a, an - or words of fewer than four letters if it is the first or last word in a title

Put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the Bibe and books that are primarily catalogs or reference material

Examples: "The Star-Spangled Banner," "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," "Gone With the Wind," "Of Mice and Men," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Time After Time," the NBC-TV "Today" program, the "CBS Evening News," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
There's more in my handy dandy AP Styleguide if you need further assistance...

 

[Si modo]

Which is the correct way to present a book, story or movie title in text? I have seen both italic and underlined. A few times both. There seems to be no consistency.

So is it War and Peace, War and Peace or War and Peace?

The book is underlined or in italics. Each is proper, but now that all of us have easy access to italic font (typing we could only underline), italics are more common. The movie is in italics, too. And, journals/magazine/papers are also in italics.

That's my understanding.

I think the theory around that is that individual chapters in a book, scenes in a movie, and article titles are then in quotes. Not sure, though.

 

[Modbert]

Italics only seems to be the way to go.

 

[Warrior102]

I'm not seeing anything about italics in the 2010 version of AP Stylebook - unless something has changed in the 2011 version...

 

[Warrior102]

"At some point in my life I was taught three different "rules" concerning capitalization of titles of books and such. "Such" being chapters of books, games, movies, operas, poems, songs, television programs, articles, art works, lectures, speeches, documents, plays, workshops, reference materials, classes, magazines, events, and probably other things I am leaving out.
1.Elementary school: Capitalize the first, last, and important words in a title.
2.In eighth grade I started learning Associated Press style because I took journalism classes. AP style is:
◦Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters.
◦Capitalize an article ("the", "a" and "an") or a word of fewer than four letters if it is the first or last word of the title. (In other words, the first and last words of a title are always capitalized.)
3.Later in life, I needed to use CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE's rules. In general, they include the two points above covered by AP, plus:
◦Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions (if, because, as, that, etc.)
◦Articles (a an the), coordinating conjunctions (and but or for nor), and prepositions are always lowercased (unless they are the first or last words of the title.)
4.CMS also includes these points:
◦Capitalize the first element in hyphenated and open compounds in titles.
◦Capitalize the subsequent elements unless they are articles, prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, or modifiers such as flat sharp or natural following musical key elements.
◦Capitalize second elements attached by hyphens to prefixes only if they are proper nouns or proper adjectives.
◦Capitalize the final element of a compound that comes at the end of a title (other than one with a hyphenated prefix) no matter what part of speech it may be.
Along the way, I was also exposed to other forms of capitalization of titles -- notes, bibliographies, foreign titles, technical and scientific writing, library style, and probably others. I also learned that "house style" for various businesses and institutions can vary from these "rules." My dendrites were somewhat tangled to start with. By this point they may have knotted in some portions of my brain from the stress of all this data.

Further complicating the matter is the fact that whatever I've learned about open compounds, proper adjectives, subordinating conjunctions, and many other related terms is not at the forefront of my mind at all times.

What's the answer for you? Unless you are a copyeditor or working within the rules of a particular style -- keep it simple and, as always, consistent. Don't get your dendrites in a knot. The U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual offers one easy style: "Capitalize all words in titles of publications and documents, except a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, it, or, and nor." I guess that's about what I learned in first grade."

Source
Writers.com/Writers on the Net

 

[martybegan]

 

[MaggieMae]

Which is the correct way to present a book, story or movie title in text? I have seen both italic and underlined. A few times both. There seems to be no consistency.

So is it War and Peace, War and Peace or War and Peace?

The book is underlined or in italics. Each is proper, but now that all of us have easy access to italic font (typing we could only underline), italics are more common. The movie is in italics, too. And, journals/magazine/papers are also in italics.

That's my understanding.

I think the theory around that is that individual chapters in a book, scenes in a movie, and article titles are then in quotes. Not sure, though.

Yup. Right on.

 

[percysunshine]

Which is the correct way to present a book, story or movie title in text? I have seen both italic and underlined. A few times both. There seems to be no consistency.

So is it War and Peace, War and Peace or War and Peace?

'Peace and War'.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Which is the correct way to present a book, story or movie title in text? I have seen both italic and underlined. A few times both. There seems to be no consistency.

So is it War and Peace, War and Peace or War and Peace?

'Peace and War'.

Well, for once it is an easy translation.

If you want to be really persnickety, it is Воений и Мир

 

[Zebra]

interesting old thred

 

[TheParser]

1. Seriously, let's refer to the "grammar police."

a. The word "N - - -" is too tragic to use in any comedic circumstance.

 

[BackAgain]

1. Seriously, let's refer to the "grammar police."

a. The word "N - - -" is too tragic to use in any comedic circumstance.

 

[Zebra]

1. Seriously, let's refer to the "grammar police."

a. The word "N - - -" is too tragic to use in any comedic circumstance.

i agree

 

[fncceo]

Full works such as books are italicized but not quoted..

Portions of a full work are quoted but not italicized.

Underlining full works is a holdover from the days when typewriters had no italics option.

 

[GLASNOST]

Which is the correct way to present a book, story or movie title in text? I have seen both italic and underlined. A few times both. There seems to be no consistency.

So is it War and Peace, War and Peace or War and Peace?

The correct way is Война и мир. Italicized alone. Not in quotation marks nor underlined. Poems/short stories however should be in quotation marks.