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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: Kali on March 24, 2010, 07:01:28 PM

Title: Grammar Question: Song title in text
Post by: Kali on March 24, 2010, 07:01:28 PM

I reference the Soundgarden song "Fell On Black Days" repeatedly in text.  What's the proper way to handle this in fiction?  Quotes?  Italics?  Are capital letters enough?  It looks wrong no matter how I do it.

Title: Re: Grammar Question: Song title in text
Post by: Shecky on March 24, 2010, 07:09:50 PM

Song titles are in quotation marks.

Title: Re: Grammar Question: Song title in text
Post by: Enjorous on March 25, 2010, 12:44:10 AM

Quote from: Shecky on March 24, 2010, 07:09:50 PM

Song titles are in quotation marks.

Yup, but if you referenced the album that would be in italics. General rule of thumb short works get "quotes" long works get italics

That might be a rule of English that is actually upheld...Damn, now I have to think of an exception. Hope that helps.

Title: Re: Grammar Question: Song title in text
Post by: Kali on March 25, 2010, 01:36:28 AM

Thanks, guys.  So far it's a lot of song titles in various places, so quotation marks it is.

10k words into Rewrite #1.  Go team!

Title: Re: Grammar Question: Song title in text
Post by: Kris_W on March 25, 2010, 03:02:09 AM

Quotes are fine, and don't worry about it. The publishing house will have their own guidelines which they will give to the copyeditor. It's not your problem.

Title: Re: Grammar Question: Song title in text
Post by: Shecky on March 25, 2010, 03:07:51 AM

Quote from: Enjorous on March 25, 2010, 12:44:10 AM

Yup, but if you referenced the album that would be in italics. General rule of thumb short works get "quotes" long works get italics

That might be a rule of English that is actually upheld...Damn, now I have to think of an exception. Hope that helps.

Yep, and since she was just asking about a song, that definitely qualifies for quotation marks. Point of interest: because pre-personal-computer typewriters generally couldn't handle italics, the usual approach was underlining for longer works / compilation titles.