VII. ITALICS

A. Italicize Latin names of plants and animals (genus and species).

Homarus americanus

B. Do not italicize

1) Scientific names for phylum, class, order, and family, but use initial caps.

Chordata, Carnivora

2) English derivatives of scientific names, and use lower case: amoeba, carnivore.

C. Italicize the specific names of ships, airplanes, and spacecraft but not the abbreviations that may precede them. Do not italicize designations of classes or makes, and do not italicize names of trains.

USS Enterprise
HMS Victory
Spirit of St. Louis
Boeing 747
Essex Class carriers
Apollo 7

D. Titles

The following should be italicized:

books
catalogs
CDs
long musical compositions
movies
operas
pamphlets
periodicals
plays
radio and television programs
works of art (paintings, statues, sculpture, etc.)
Web publications (but not Web sites).

The following should be placed in quotation marks:

book series
conference presentations
dissertations and theses
essays
film series
lectures
parts of volumes (chapters, titles of papers, etc.)
radio and television episodes
short stories
single conferences/lectures (but NOT lecture series)
songs.

Note: Instrumental works known by their generic name and a number or key or both are capitalized but not italicized (e.g., Bach's Mass in B Minor, or Sonata in E-flat, op. 31, no. 3).

E. Emphasize Words and Phrases

Use italics, rather than quotes or underlining, to emphasize words in text; also to highlight foreign words or phrases not yet Anglicized (Note: If a foreign word or phrase is in Webster’s, do not italicize).

The time to strike is now.
She asked if I had a novia, or girlfriend.