Usage When to use * Emphasis: "Smith wasn't the only guilty party, it's true." * The titles of works that stand by themselves, such as books or newspapers: "He wrote his thesis on The Scarlet Letter." * An example of a book would be You Are Special Works that appear within larger works, such as short stories, poems, or newspaper articles, are not italicized, but merely set off in quotation marks. * The names of ships: "The Queen Mary sailed last night." * The title of an epic poem: "The Iliad is thought to be the first Greek writing." * Foreign words, including the Latin binary nomenclature in the taxonomy of living organisms: "A splendid coq au vin was served"; "Homo sapiens". * Using a word as an example of a word rather than for its semantic content (see use-mention distinction): "The word the is an article." o Using a letter or number mentioned as itself: + John was annoyed; they had forgotten the h in his name once again. + When she saw her name beside the 1 on the rankings, she finally had proof that she was the best. * Introducing or defining terms, especially technical terms or those used in an unusual or different way:[1] "Freudian psychology is based on the ego, the super-ego, and the id."; "An even number is one that is a multiple of 2." * Sometimes in novels to indicate a character's thought process: "This can't be happening, thought Mary." * Symbols for physical quantities and other mathematical variables: "The speed of light, c, is approximately equal to 3.00×108 m s-1."
