Italics are often used to emphasise 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, write the titles of books, journals and other published materials such as theses, end-of-degree projects, dictionaries and reference works in italics, 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 depending on the publication or academic field. 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 (that is, 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), which should be italicized.
  
  But note that foreign words that have now become common in English do not require italics.
  
  

  addendum	cognoscenti	entente cordiale	papier 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

  
  
  
  Note also that, in the event of using a non-English form for the official name of an organization (universities, companies, governmental bodies, etc.) these names are not written in italics.
  
  

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