User blog:I'm Lynda/Combatant Page Formatting: Italicization

Q: In the introductory paragraph, why is the source of a Combatant sometimes italicized, and sometimes not?

A: In the English language, it is proper to italicize a title, but it is not proper to italicize a name. Therefore, when writing a introduction that reads, “Heathcliff is a character from the book, Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Brontë,” it is proper to italicize “Wuthering Heights” (the title of the book), but not the character’s name, nor the author’s name.

When writing an introduction that references a company, the company’s name is also not italicized. For example, when writing, “Superman is a character from DC Comics,” one does not italicize the name of the company, “DC Comics.”