Author: aimee amodio
Date:   05-06-05 14:48

If this has been covered in another thread somewhere, I apologize.

Can somebody point me in the right direction to find out how to refer to titles when you're writing about your own work?

Book titles... are in all caps?
Short story titles... ?

Author: Mya Bell
Date:   05-06-05 15:49

Sometimes knowing the origins of the conventions can help you choose an appropriate format.

Book titles in caps is a holdover from pre-roller-ball typewriter days when typewriters couldn't do italics. The convention is still widely accepted for books and, I believe, for individual short stories. You're almost always safe with caps.

It is also acceptable to use italics for book titles. In fact, most style guides favor italics.

In pre-digital days, typesetters typically used italics (because traditional lead type was usually available in a variety of fonts as opposed to typewriter keys) or caps if they didn't have a set of italic letters. With the advent of digital typesetting and word processors, the use of italics has increased.

If you need to refer to a short story that has been included in a book anthology or magazine (in other words, a subset of a larger print publication), then it is set off by double quotes, with the title of the book or magazine in italics (or caps, if italics aren't available).


--- Mya Bell

Author: Mya Bell
Date:   05-06-05 15:55

Oh, I should mention, the above apply to articles, résumés, etc.

In manuscripts, italicized words may be underlined (again, a holdover from typewriter days and it's still used, so it may be a way to ensure the typesetter doesn't miss them). This can be confusing in nonfiction manuscripts that use both italics and underlines, but is rarely a problem in fiction manuscripts.

On the Web, the rules change a little, but not too much. Since the convention for a Web "link" is for it to be underlined, underlining isn't usually used to denote italics on the Web, as it is in manuscripts.

I haven't studied online style guides as extensively, but I think they recommend italics for titles. I'll have to look it up when I have time.

--- Mya Bell

Author: aimee amodio
Date:   05-06-05 16:15

thanks for the quick response AND the interesting info, Mya! :) it's much appreciated!

Author: Harper
Date:   05-07-05 18:35

I use italics.