Which Is Correct?

[lynbrown]

In the following sentences which one is correct?

He wrote to the Times. (only the word Times is in italics)

He wrote to The Times ( both words are in italics)


PS Why doesn't Answerbank do italics??

[sunny-dave]

it does

(but not in original questions)

I think your second option is probably correct.

[ichkeria]

Not sure of the relevance of the italics - I think they're optional - but the second one is more correct as The Times (not Times) is the name of the newspaper, and therefore should have the article capitalised.

[Old_Geezer]

I concur. Use the full name of the newspaper as one.

[Alston]

I think the question of italics is being examined

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/AB-Editors-Blog/Question1232630-2.html

Al.

[Baldric]

I thought they did

[society]

The Times

[FredPuli43]

Yup (and that wouldn't get past their subs !), it's properly named as "The Times". If you are American , you can insult the paper by calling it "The Times of London", which makes it sound like a cheap parfumier, but the practice is not to be encouraged. The New York Times is known there as the Times.

[jno]

a lot of authorities say it's because The Times is the paper's full name; and yet they often don't say the same of The Daily Telegraph or The Guardian. I can't help suspecting this particular rule was made up in The Times style book.

[jno]

oh... just read the OP properly... I was really talking about the capital letters. Whether the name of a paper should be in italics or not is pretty much up to you. The Guardian, for instance, doesn't do it; the Telegraphs do.

[ichkeria]

It doesn't matter whether you are talking about italics or capitalisation, the name of the paper is "The Times". The only time you're likely to see it without the article) or other newspapers for that matter is when it;'s used as a qualifier in front of a noun (e.g. "Daily Telegraph journalists drink champagne"; "Daily Mail journalists drink cider")
etc ...

[jno]

took me about 30 seconds to come up with this one, ichkeria

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100209016/has-steve-bell-of-the-guardian-ever-met-an-ethnic-stereotype-he-didnt-like/

[ichkeria]

Well that's the Daily Telegraph for you :-)

[ichkeria]

...and it's still got the article, albeit it not capitalised

[jno]

the article's always there, isn't it? Nobody says Steve Bell, the cartoonist of Guardian (Mail, Sun, whatever). The question's whether it's seen as part of the name, and therefore gets a capital letter (The Guardian, The Times) or not (the Mirror, the Sun). The Telegraph seems to think "The" isn't part of the Guardian's name; but it is*.

But lynbrown's question is about italics, though.

*Actually, this may be in breach of its own style book, which says they should write "The Archbishop of York" and "The National Lottery".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/about-us/style-book/1435309/Telegraph-style-book-Cc.html

[Canary42]

How can we tell unless you tell us who "he" is .

Then either both or neither would be correct.