How To Use Italics - Use italics for the titles of books, articles, newspapers, book-length stories, or book-length poems. The titles of shorter stories or poems are not generally italicized. Use quotation marks instead. - Use italics for the names of movies, plays, television series, operas or other musical compositions. - Use italics to emphasize words or short phrases. Try not to overuse them. - Use italics foreign words that are likely to be unfamiliar to users. - Use italics to introduce new terms. - Use italics for the names of ships, planes, automobiles and trains.