I have to write for my research paper and I looked this up online but got conflicting answers, most sites it seem to say you have to capitalize and not italics but some have it in italics…so does it have to be italicized and capitalized?
What about Bacilli or Bacillus, Streptococcus and Pseudomonas?? (I have "spp." for species after those terms)
Also I want make sure I’m right with this. If its a genus and species full name then you italicize it right?
This is how I wrote my paper, I put: Streptococcus pneumoniae (in italics) and also have the word Streptococcus in italics. IS this correct? Basilcally I’m just asking when to and when not to italicize and captalize it, since I don’t know, especially for if it’s the family name like above examples…
I think Merriam-Webster’s take on the issue is probably correct. Genus names and species names should be italicized. Perhaps the confusion comes when a common name is very similar to the technical taxonomic identification. But if you are using the actual genus and/or species name, it should be italicized.
There doesn’t seem to be a set rule in English for levels above genus, but the italics, as I understand it, are for the rule governing foreign words, so it should apply to the other groupings, one would think.
