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How to Reference Books and Articles in Text

Before computers, we used our typewriters to underline book titles and we placed quotation marks around article titles. Some organizations still prefer this method. However, current style manuals recommend
italicizing book titles and magazine names (impossible to do on a typewriter) and using quotation marks around articles.

Example: I read Lord of the Flies in high school.

Example: I enjoyed reading “Become Your Own Best Friend” in Newsweek.

Pop Quiz
Choose the correct sentence.

1. A. My brother thought the “New York Times” article Homeless Team Roots for a New Life Through Soccer was fascinating.

1. B. My brother thought the New York Times article “Homeless Team Roots for a New Life Through Soccer” was fascinating.

2. A. “Light Meals for Nibblers” is a chapter in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, one of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks.

2. B. Light Meals for Nibblers is a chapter in “The Enchanted Broccoli Forest,” one of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks.

3. A. I remember reading “The Catcher in the Rye” when I was a teenager.

3. B. I remember reading The Catcher in the Rye when I was a teenager.

Answers
1. B.
2. A.
3. B.

Posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 11:41 pm

Titles of Books, Plays, Articles, etc.: Underline? Italics? Quotation Marks?

Prior to computers, people were taught to underline titles of books and plays and to surround chapters, articles, songs, and other shorter works in quotation marks. However, here is what The Chicago Manual of Style says: When quoted in text or listed in a bibliography, titles of books, journals, plays, and other freestanding works are italicized; titles of articles, chapters, and other shorter works are set in roman and enclosed in quotation marks.

Below are some examples to help you:

Example: We read A Separate Peace in class. (title of a book)

Example: That Time magazine article, “Your Brain on Drugs,” was fascinating.
Note that the word “magazine” was not italicized because that is not part of the actual name of the publication.

Example: His article, “Death by Dessert,” appeared in The New York Times Magazine.

Note that the and magazine are both capitalized and set off because the name of the publication is The New York Times Magazine.

Newspapers, which follow The Associated Press Stylebook, have their own sets of rules because italics cannot be sent through AP computers.

Posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 2:33 am