Writing Titles for Kids: Italics, Underlining and Quotation Marks (Grade 5 English)

Hi, I'm Luna from DoodleBeez. When you write the title of a book, a song or a movie, you need to show that it is a title. Today we will learn when to use italics, underlining and quotation marks.

Here is the big idea. Long works, or whole works, get italics when you type. Short works, or parts of something bigger, get quotation marks. Ask yourself, is it big or small?

Big works include books, movies, magazines, newspapers, TV series and music albums. When you type, use slanted italic letters. When you write by hand, underline the title instead.

Small works include short stories, poems, songs, articles and chapters. These are often part of a bigger work. Put their titles inside quotation marks, like a pair of little hugs.

For example, a song on an album goes in quotation marks, but the album name is in italics. A chapter goes in quotation marks, but the whole book is in italics.

Titles also need capital letters. Capitalize the first word, the last word and all the important words. Small words like a, the, and, of and in stay lowercase in the middle.

Now it's your turn. You are writing by hand about a poem called Autumn Leaves. How should you show its title? Pause and try. A poem is a short work, so use quotation marks.

Great job! Remember, big works get italics when typed or underlining by hand. Small works get quotation marks. Capitalize the important words. Practice writing titles in the English Lab at doodlebeez.com. See you next time!