How to quote or underline a novel? What are the common practices and rules?
To quote a novel, you typically use quotation marks. For example, if you are quoting a line from 'Pride and Prejudice' like 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.' The double quotation marks are used to set it apart from your own text. When underlining, it was more common in the past, especially for titles. But now, italics are often used instead for titles of novels. For instance, we would write 'The Great Gatsby' in italics rather than underlining it. However, if you are following an older style guide, underlining can still be used for the same purpose.
When quoting a novel, make sure you are accurate. You need to include the page number if it's for academic or more formal writing. For example, if you're writing an essay about '1984' and you quote 'War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.', you should note where in the book it comes from. As for underlining, it's less common now. In the past, it was a way to emphasize or show that something was a title, like underlining 'Moby - Dick' to signify it was the name of the novel. But these days, italics are preferred for titles as it gives a cleaner look to the text.