Wednesday 19 September 2012

Referencing Work Titles II

Works of Art

1. Italics

  • Paintings
  • Sculptures
  • Drawings
  • Posters
  • Prints
Examples: Guernica (painting), David (sculpture), etc.

2. Roman
  • Series of unique works of art
  • Titles bestowed by someone other than the artist
Examples: La Gioconda (title bestowed by someone other than the artist)

Musical Works

This is where it gets a bit tricky!

1. Italics
  • Albums
  • Operas
  • Musicals
  • True titles of symphonies, concertos, etc. 
Examples: Making Mirrors by Gotye (album), La bohème by Puccini (opera), Wicked (musical)

2. Roman in quotation marks
  • Songs
  • Arias
  • Anthems
  • Movements
  • Nicknames
Examples: 'Hysteria' by Muse (song), 'Summertime' from Porgy and Bess (aria), 'God Save the Queen' (anthem), 'Winter' from The Four Seasons (movement), the 'Jupiter' symphony (nickname)

3. Roman
  • Generic names
  • Tempo markings used as titles of movements
  • Sections of mass and other services
Examples: Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 (generic name), the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5 (tempo marking used as title of movement)

The above is just a summary! If you want more detailed information, I recommend New Hart's Rules: The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors (OUP). 


Monday 19 March 2012

Referencing Work Titles I

Here are a few simple rules to remember when referencing work titles in your writing!

The general question to ask is: Is the work a whole, or part of a whole?

  • Whole à use italics
  • Part of a whole à use roman in quotation marks
An example is a music album, e.g. Born to Die by Lana Del Ray. This is the whole. A song on the album is part of the whole, e.g. 'Video Games' on the album Born to Die by Lana Del Ray.

We can divide work titles into three areas:
  1. Written work
  2. Works of art
  3. Works of music
This post will concentrate on written work.

Written Work

1. Italics

Use italics for the following types of written work:
  • Films
  • Books
  • Journals
  • Newspapers
Examples: Pulp Fiction (film), Pride and Prejudice (book), BMJ (journal), The Guardian (newspaper), Moments of Vision (poetry collection), etc.

2. Roman in quotation marks

Use roman in quotation marks for:
  • Poems
  • Articles
  • Chapter titles
  • Short stories
Examples: 'A Birthday' by Christina Rossetti (poem), 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro' by Ernest Hemingway (short story), etc.

3. Roman

A couple of exceptions to the above rule are:
  • Series titles
  • Sacred texts
Examples: The Harry Potter books, the Rough Guides, the Bible, the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis, etc.

A Note on Capitalisation
Titles of works are generally capitalised according to the following rules:
  1. Always capitalise the initial word of the title
  2. Capitalise nouns, adjectives and verbs
  3. You may or may not capitalise pronouns and adverbs (up to you but be consistent)
  4. Do not capitalise articles, conjunctions and prepositions
Example: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

In my next post I will go on to discuss works of art and music!

Monday 20 February 2012

Quoting

Here are a few simple rules to remember when quoting!


1. Single or double quotation marks?


This is your personal choice, just ensure that you use either single or double quotation marks consistently throughout! This saves a lot of trouble when debating what to enclose in single and what to enclose in double quotation marks.

2. Quote within a quote?


Modern British practice is to use single quotation marks for quotations and double quotation marks for quotations within quotations, for example:

She said ‘The term “haemoglobin” is difficult to spell.’


Newspaper and US practice is the opposite:

She said “The term ‘haemoglobin’ is difficult to spell.”

3. When do I use quotation marks?


Quotations are either embedded or separated from the text. Embedded quotations need quotation marks – see the two examples above. Quotations that are separated from the text tend to be long quotations and are usually indented – in this case quotation marks are not needed. For example:

The definition of haemoglobin is:

a red protein responsible for transporting oxygen in the blood of vertebrates; its molecule comprises four subunits, each containing an iron atom bound to a haem group (OED)

4. Punctuation?


If the quotation is a full, complete sentence then place the punctuation marks inside the quotation marks (and use a capital letter for the first letter of the first word):


He asked her, ‘Will you marry me?’


If the quotation is only part of the original quotation then punctuation marks go outside the quotation marks:


What does the poet mean when he says ‘purples prinked the main’?