Punctuating Titles

If you're like most people, you can remember to underline the name of a book and put an article title in quotation marks. That's easy enough.

But what if you come across the name of a painting? What about a building or even a ship? Do you know what to do?

There is a trick to remembering how to punctuate titles. It's the big and little trick.

Big things and independent things, like books and movies, are strong enough to stand on their own. Little things, like short poems, chapters, and commercials aren't so strong and independent. They support the bigger things. Since titles of big things are underlined, you can imagine the underline as a reinforced floor, to give a sturdy base. Yes, it sounds a little cheesy--but it works!