Italics are often used to emphasize words or phrases.





Generally speaking, however, restrict their use to the following cases.

• Titles of books, journals and other publications
  
  Unless following specific editorial guides, italicize the titles of books, journals and other published materials such as theses, end-of-degree projects, dictionaries and reference works, to distinguish the titles from the rest of the sentence.
  
  

  Recent research into the applications of microbial cyanobacteria in treating oil pollution has been published in the latest edition of the prestigious journal Science Today.

  
  
  Be aware, however, that conventions for indicating the title of a book or journal may vary from one publication or academic field to another. You will therefore have to bear these factors in mind, depending on the purpose of your text and where it will be published. For additional comment, see Titles.
  
  
• Words and expressions in other languages
  
  Italicize words or expressions from other languages that are not common in English (i.e., words not included in a reliable English dictionary) and that may therefore not be readily understood.
  
  

  The ceiling of the Faculty’s Aula Magna offers visitors a beautiful example of Catalan Modernisme.

  
  
  Other expressions of this kind are the Latin terms for academic distinction, cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude (meaning “with honour”, “with great honour” and “with highest honour”, respectively).
  
  However, do not italicize foreign words which have become common in English.
  
  

  addendum	cognoscenti	entente cordiale	pâpier-maché
  ad hoc	communiqué	ex-ante	schadenfreude
  alma mater	croissant	fest	status quo
  attaché	deja-vu	genre	terra firma
  avant-garde	doppelganger	hors d’oeuvre	vice versa
  barista	éminence gris	kefir	zeitgeist

  
  
  
  Also, do not italicize foreign words that form the official names of universities, companies, governmental bodies and other such organizations.
  
  

  The University is currently involved in discussions with the Red Española de Supercomputación (Spanish Supercomputing Network).