Public Services and Procurement Canada
Symbol of the Government of Canada

Institutional Links

 

Important notice

The Canadian Style has been archived and won’t be updated before it is permanently deleted.

For the most up-to-date content, please consult Writing Tips Plus, which combines content from Writing Tips and The Canadian Style. And don’t forget to update your bookmarks!

Search Canada.ca

6.05 Titles of publications and works of art

Italicize the titles of books, pamphlets, published reports and studies, plays, operas and long musical compositions, paintings, sculptures, novels, films, long poems, newspapers and periodicals:

  • book
    • The Canadian Style
  • pamphlet
    • Keeping the Heat In
  • report
    • Public Accounts of Canada
  • play
    • Murder in the Cathedral
  • opera
    • Rigoletto
  • symphony
    • the Pastoral Symphony
  • painting
    • Voice of Fire
  • novel
    • Cabbagetown
  • long poem
    • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
  • sculpture
    • David
  • newspaper
    • The Globe and Mail
  • periodical
    • Saturday Night

For the title of a major work within another title, two possibilities exist:

  • Report on the Application of the "Alternative Fuels Act"

or

  • Report on the Application of the Alternative Fuels Act

Exception

Titles of scientific periodicals are usually abbreviated and set in roman type (see 9.08 Compiling a bibliographic entry(c)).

Do not italicize unofficial titles:

  • A record of the debate can be found in Hansard.

Titles of articles, short poems and short stories, songs, arias and other short musical compositions, and radio and television programs are set in roman type and enclosed in quotation marks:

  • article
    • "The Life Beyond"
  • aria
    • "Pace, pace, Mio Dio"
  • musical composition
    • "Stille Nacht"
  • television program
    • "Street Legal"