Grammar Nazis! Hear my plea!

[Benjamin Strange]

Help me out here:

When one is refering to a song, should it be underlined, italicized, or in quotation marks? Should the album title utilize the same text style?

Example:

Kiss released the defining artistic statement of the century, Dance All Over Your Face, from their album Lick It Up.

How should the above quote be punctuated?

[TheButler]

I use the quotation marks myself...

Kiss released the defining artistic statement of the century, ''Dance All Over Your Face'', from their album ''Lick It Up''.

I use single apostrophes a lot when using neologisms and so on

[Benjamin Strange]

Sorry, but aren't you Scottish? What do you know about speaking 'Merican?

[Richard Lindsey]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Strange

Help me out here:

When one is refering to a song, should it be underlined, italicized, or in quotation marks? Should the album title utilize the same text style?

Example:



How should the above quote be punctuated?

Generally (which is not to say there couldn't be exceptions), the song title is in quotation marks, and the album title is in italics. Underlining is really only for when you can't get italics, and nobody really has that problem any more unless they're still using typewriters.

[TheButler]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Strange

Sorry, but aren't you Scottish? What do you know about speaking 'Merican?

No Sh1t Sherlock, most people don't know people from Scotland are Scottish Anyway, Scottish people do still speak English, and seeing as you put no direct reference to American grammar in the post i thought that my English grammar would be applicable

[Lazylion]

I usually use quotation marks on a song title and none on an album title, just capital letters. That way the album title doesn't look like a song title. No idea if it's correct...
Maybe check the Now Playing thread in Recordings, to see what the typical usage is? Of course, that won't guarantee correctness.

[Spector_Ray]

If it's a song, quotation marks should be used. If it's a cd, the title of the cd is italicized or underlined.

"Quotation Marks for Titles of Minor Works and Parts of Wholes
Use quotation marks for:

titles of short or minor works, such as songs, short stories, essays, short poems, one-act plays, and other literary works that are shorter than a three-act play or a complete book.
titles of parts of larger works, such as chapters in books; articles in newspapers, magazines, journals, or other periodical publications; and episodes of television and radio series.
Use underlining or italics for titles of major works or of works that contain smaller segments such as books; plays of three or more acts; newspapers, magazines, journals, or other periodical publications; films; and television and radio series."

-Online Writing Lab

[Folmeister]

The MLA Handbook will tell you to underline entire albums and put quotations around song titles. Italics works as well as underlining, but looks terrible.

[bongomania]

Just because you asked for grammar Nazis, I will point out that punctuation and underlining of titles and authors is not grammar, it is "style". Grammar has a fairly rigid set of standards throughout the English-speaking world, whereas style varies according to many different published standards. So for example there are the AP Stylebook, CP Stylebook, APA Publication Manual, Chicago Manual of Style, and so forth, and different publications and universities will agree internally to adhere to one style standard or another.

So there is no one right answer to your question- it will vary depending on whether your intended audience has agreed on a particular style. If you want the most commonly recognized style, that would probably be Chicago.

[BartmanPDX]

AFAIK, song titles are quoted, and albums are underlined/italicized.

[Basshole]

Originally Posted by TheButler

Scottish people do still speak English

That, sir, is debatable. I speak English, and yet I can't understand 75% of what comes out of a Scotsman's mouth more often than not.

[Toasted]

Originally Posted by Richard Lindsey

Generally (which is not to say there couldn't be exceptions), the song title is in quotation marks, and the album title is in italics. Underlining is really only for when you can't get italics, and nobody really has that problem any more unless they're still using typewriters.

+1.

[Benjamin Strange]

Originally Posted by bongomania

Just because you asked for grammar Nazis, I will point out that punctuation and underlining of titles and authors is not grammar, it is "style". Grammar has a fairly rigid set of standards throughout the English-speaking world, whereas style varies according to many different published standards. So for example there are the AP Stylebook, CP Stylebook, APA Publication Manual, Chicago Manual of Style, and so forth, and different publications and universities will agree internally to adhere to one style standard or another.

So there is no one right answer to your question- it will vary depending on whether your intended audience has agreed on a particular style. If you want the most commonly recognized style, that would probably be Chicago.

The purpose has mostly been for my own website. This has helped a bunch. Thankee kindly, sirs!

[kherber]

Originally Posted by Folmeister

The MLA Handbook will tell you to underline entire albums and put quotations around song titles. Italics works as well as underlining, but looks terrible.

Well, if you want Nazi...

You never underlline anything. Underline's were/are used by authors and editors to indicate to typesetters a word or passage should be italicized. As for typesetting for publication, underlines are verboten. They're ugly and draw too much attention.

Song titles in quotations, album titles in italics; short stories in quotations, book titles in italics, etc.

Doc

[Folmeister]

Originally Posted by kherber

Well, if you want Nazi...

You never underlline anything. Underline's were/are used by authors and editors to indicate to typesetters a word or passage should be italicized. As for typesetting for publication, underlines are verboten. They're ugly and draw too much attention.

Song titles in quotations, album titles in italics; short stories in quotations, book titles in italics, etc.

Doc

Interesting. In practical writing, it's the opposite (IMHO)!