It is no longer a grammar error to fail to put book titles in italic font
Posted: 11 Aug 2023, 14:00
Per official website policy, it will no longer be considered a "grammar error" to fail to put a book title in italics.
Grammar rules are descriptive, not prescriptive, and times have changed.
In the internet age, it is often not even possible to make text italic when commenting or posting on certain websites or using certain email clients or messenger apps.
It has become common to distinguish book titles with quotation marks or asterisks, or to just write them in plain text with no extra punctuation at all.
When scoring a review for our Review Team, editors are optionally allowed to take up to 1 subjective point off in the subjective score (which translates into 3 points off the total score) for reviews that do not use any formatting or punctuation at all to distinguish title.
To illustrate with an example, all of the following be considered grammatically correct:
I love the book Animal Farm by George Orwell.
I love the book "Animal Farm" by George Orwell.
I love the book *Animal Farm* by George Orwell.
I love the book Animal Farm by George Orwell.
All of the above variations would be considered grammatically correct.
However, in the last of the four examples above, a Review Team Editor is optionally allowed to take off 1 small little point in the subjective score when scoring a review, with the reasonable point that the review would arguably look much better and be easier to read with one of the other options, especially the first.
If you have any questions or comments about this, or anything at all at any time, please do contact us. We are always eager for suggestions to make OnlineBookClub even better, and we are always happy to help in any way we can.
Grammar rules are descriptive, not prescriptive, and times have changed.
In the internet age, it is often not even possible to make text italic when commenting or posting on certain websites or using certain email clients or messenger apps.
It has become common to distinguish book titles with quotation marks or asterisks, or to just write them in plain text with no extra punctuation at all.
When scoring a review for our Review Team, editors are optionally allowed to take up to 1 subjective point off in the subjective score (which translates into 3 points off the total score) for reviews that do not use any formatting or punctuation at all to distinguish title.
To illustrate with an example, all of the following be considered grammatically correct:
I love the book Animal Farm by George Orwell.
I love the book "Animal Farm" by George Orwell.
I love the book *Animal Farm* by George Orwell.
I love the book Animal Farm by George Orwell.
All of the above variations would be considered grammatically correct.
However, in the last of the four examples above, a Review Team Editor is optionally allowed to take off 1 small little point in the subjective score when scoring a review, with the reasonable point that the review would arguably look much better and be easier to read with one of the other options, especially the first.
If you have any questions or comments about this, or anything at all at any time, please do contact us. We are always eager for suggestions to make OnlineBookClub even better, and we are always happy to help in any way we can.