Cite marks the title of a creative work such as a book, film, painting, or song. It is not intended for the name of a person who wrote the work.
What You Need to Know
Use other markup around the author's name as needed. The browser may italicize cite, but its job is to identify the work.
The goal is not to collect as many tags as possible. Pick the element that best describes what the content really is.
Example: See It in Action
Try this markup in a fresh practice file. The next section explains the parts worth paying attention to.
This is a short HTML fragment. To try it as a webpage, put it inside the body element of a complete HTML document.
<p>Our class is reading <cite>The Little Prince</cite>.</p>
<p>The title is a creative work.</p>
<p>Use ordinary text for the author's name.</p>Let’s Understand the Example
- Cite identifies the title of a creative work, not the name of its author.
- A p groups a paragraph of related text. Start another paragraph for a new thought.
Look for the text “Our class is reading” in the page. If the visible result surprises you, inspect the rendered elements to see what the browser actually built.
What Should You See?
The page should include “Our class is reading”. If it looks different from what you expected, open developer tools and compare the source with the elements the browser created.
Try removing one piece of markup in a scratch copy, refresh the page, and compare the behavior. This is often the fastest way to understand what that piece contributes.
Try It Yourself
- Write a sentence naming a film and its director, marking only the title with cite.
- Save your changes, open or refresh the page, and compare the result with the original example.
- Tell a friend what your change did. If you are not sure, undo it, refresh the page, and compare.
Common Beginner Mistakes
- Wrapping an author's name in cite instead of the book or article title.
- Avoid picking tags just for their default bold, italic or spaced appearance. Use CSS for presentation.
Key Takeaways
- Cite marks the title of a creative work such as a book, film, painting, or song.
- Cite identifies the title of a creative work, not the name of its author.
- Use other markup around the author's name as needed. The browser may italicize cite, but its job is to identify the work.