Have you ever
wondered when to use italics or underlining, as opposed to quotation marks, for
example? The 5th edition of the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association (a.k.a., the APA Style
Manual) notes these instances in which italics should be used:
§Titles of books, periodicals, and microfilm
publications
Beyond the Ivory Tower: Social Responsibilities
of the ModernUniversity
Chronicle of Higher Education
Do note that in the References
list, titles of periodicals are italicized, and the words remain capitalized.
However, titles of books are capitalized according to
“sentence-style” capitalization. In other words, the first word of
the title, all proper nouns, and the first word after a colon are capitalized: Beyond the ivory tower: Social responsibilities
of the modern university.
§Genera, species and varieties
Quercus alba
§Introduction of a new, technical, or key term
The
term cognitive dissonance
§Emphasis
Always unplug the copier before
attempting to repair it.
§A letter, word, or phrase referred to as such
The
letter q
The
word responsibility
The
meaning of get under someone’s skin
§Letters use as statistical symbols or algebraic
variables
t test
z
+ 3 × (8 - z)
§Anchors of a scale
Ratings
ranged from 1 (completely dissatisfied)
to 5 (completely satisfied)
The APA Style Manual also notes
that italics and underlining should not
be used in the following situations:
§Foreign abbreviations and phrases common in
English: et al., a priori
§Chemical terms: H2O
§Trigonometric terms: sin
§Greek letters: Ω
§Letters used as abbreviations: myocardial
infarction (MI)
Sometimes, the
question is not when to use italics
or underlining but which one to use. The
APA Style Manual favors italics, especially for manuscripts being prepared for
publication; however, underlining text is acceptable if you are using a
typewriter or a word processing program that does not have an italics function.
More importantly,
if your university has a specific style guide for papers, theses, or
dissertations and it favors italics over underlining (or vice versa), follow your
university’s style guide. It always takes precedence over the APA Style
Manual.
About the Author
Known for her quick turnaround time and attention to
detail, Melissa Simpson specializes in proofreading, copyediting, and APA and MLA styles. In addition to
addressing issues of organization, grammar, usage, and style, Melissa has a
knack for "tightening up" a document by making sure it is clear and concise.
She can also format headings and page numbers and create tables of contents at
a client's request and always double-checks that parenthetical references parallel
the references/works cited section of a document. She is skilled at ensuring
that documents not only comply with the APA or MLA style guides but also with a
university-specific guide, if applicable.
Melissa's 10+ years of editing experience is based
on a B.A. in English from Hendrix College, where she
graduated summa cum laude with
distinction, and an M.A. in English from Texas Woman's University. She has also
worked as a technical writer and has taught various writing and literature
courses on both the high school and college levels for over 15 years in both
traditional and online classrooms. Her editing work includes numerous
proposals, textbooks, dissertations, theses, academic papers, technical
documents, and journal articles on a broad range of subjects, including
education, psychology, nursing, business, government, speech pathology,
literature, philosophy, economics, and art. She is skilled at meeting the needs
of ESL students as well.
An accomplished writer herself, Melissa has published
many articles and a biography of Southern author Flannery O'Connor. She is
currently a community editor with Little Rock Family magazine, an award-winning magazine for families in central Arkansas.
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