Italics: A Distinguished Device
Aldus Manutius (1449-1515) was the father of modern punctuation. He invented italic typeface used to distinguish certain words from other words in the text. Personally, I love the look of italics, because they break up the page and draw my eye to important words: titles, vehicles, foreign words and phrases, emphasized words and words that mimic sounds.
Recently, I browsed a style manual called The Mac is not a Typewriter by Robin Williams--no, not Mork but a part-time instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, California. Concisely, Williams explains how to create professional-level type on a Macintosh, but it would apply in many situations to using a PC. He wants us to forget the rules we learned from our typewriting teachers, because the Mac and PC have integrated typesetting, and he describes the logic behind the advances that allow us to ignore such practices as underlining. I have always hated the look of underlining. Even before the computer.
I learned to underline the title of a book, but as Williams commands: "Don't underline. Underlining is for typewriters; italic is for professional text." He writes: "This doesn't mean you should never have any sort of underline with text--just don't use the underline style that appears on the menu. If you really do want the look of an underline, use a drawn line (called a 'rule' in typesetter's jargon).
On a typewriter, we had no way to italicize. Now we do. Williams' book speaks to the typographic quality used by professional typesetters for centuries (do they really live that long?) These typesetting secrets made type readable, legible and even artistic. Our old typewriters were not able to match the professional typesetter, but now with the advances of desktop publishing, an excellence has invaded the typesetting possibilities.
Here are some basic rules and suggestions for using italics:
Titles
Things that stand by themselves--novels, journals--are italicized. Titles of poems, short stories, articles and episodes (for television) are surrounded with double quotation marks.
My novel, Bread and Butter, was loosely based on my short story, "Wish I Could Eat My Money."
Rudyard Kipling's inspiring poem, "If," was thematically the basis for my recent article in the Ventura Star.
A couple of things I try to remember about writing the titles of newspapers: first, do not italicize the word the--not even when it's part of the title (the New York Times); second--and this one is sometimes difficult to know, so I have to check it--do not italicize the name of the city in which the newspaper is published unless that city name is part of the title. So it's the Hartford Courant but the London Times.
Here are some more titles that we italicize:
Journals and Magazines: Newsweek, The Paris Review, Playboy, Playgirl, Play Dead (nah, there's no such thing).
Plays: Much Ado about Nothing, American Right (shameless plug).
Long Musical Compositions: Rossini's Otello, Verdi's La Traviata, Eubanks' Spaghetti in the Shower.
Films: Alien, Rocky, Grease, Titanic...how about Rocky Titanic or Alien Grease? Movies I'd like to see!
Television and Radio Programs: 24, 20/20, Chuck, Rush Limbaugh--no, now, there's a comma between Chuck and Rush, so don't be cheering; that's not nice.
Artworks: Van Gogh's Irises, the Venus de Milo, Picasso's Bread and Fruit Dish on a Table (like, duh).
Famous Speeches: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Winston Churchill's Their Finest Hour, Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream, Socrates' Apology (soon to be Obama's Apology [forgive me, I just got political!]).
Long Poems (long enough to appear by themselves in a book): Longfellow's Evangeline, Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Milton's Paradise Lost, Dr Seuss' The Cat in the Hat (heh-heh).
Pamphlets: New Developments in Cancer Research, New Research in Cancer Developments, Research New Cancer Developments, Developments in New Cancer Research...now, cut that out!
It's plain sacrilegious to italicize sacred works: the Bible, the Koran. And we don't italicize books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. And if I an exclamation or question mark is part of the title, it too must be italicized.
I just read a book called What Book Should I Read Next?
But if the exclamation or question mark is not part of the title, but is added to indicate a question or exclamation, it is not italicized.
Have you read Tom Eubanks' Worlds Apart? (Can't help myself.)
Names of Vehicles
No, not brand names like Prius, Volvo, Saab--or even real cars like Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet-- or Boeing 767. Challenger, Orient Express, The Polar Express are italicized. Ships names, too: U.S.S. Enterprise. Notice that we don't italicize U.S.S. and the same would go for H.M.S. Pinafore--unless I was writing about Gilbert and Sullivan's light opera, and then it's part of the title, H.M.S. Pinafore.
Foreign Words or Phrases
We no longer italicize foreign words such as bon voyage or the latin et cetera (etc.) because they have become a part of the English language through wide usage. (With the French, it's a conspiracy, but that's another "don't-get-me-started.") Deciding which foreign words you italicize depends on how you are using them and largely on the audience. Personally, I would italicize the Italian sotto voce (literally, "under voice"), because it's rarely used in speech. Whereas, bon voyage is used in common speech all the time--as in, "Bon voyage to all you Frenchmen who have forgotten who saved you from speaking German."
In my novel, Worlds Apart, I italicized all the creole, since that is the generally accepted rule for writing a foreign language in an English-language text.
Write About Words
Italicizing a word I am writing about helps to clarify in the text what word I am referring to.
The word irregardless is not a word.
In reading your book, there were so many fuck you's I got to think you actually liked me. (Notice that the apostrophe-s to create the word-as-word you is not italicized.)
Emphasis
This is probably the most common use of italics in narrative fiction and non-fiction. I try not to overdo using italics for emphasis. It's good in dialogue, because it gives your character the ability to emphasize from his own perspective. But really listen to the emphasis before you decide which word to emphasize. But really listen to the emphasis before you decide which word to emphasize. But really listen to the emphasis before you decide which word to emphasize. Get it?
Words that Mimic Sounds
Mimetically produced sounds are italicized and frequently accompanied by exclamation marks.
Ssssss! hissed the black mamba as I turned my attention from the bzzzzzzz of the bees attacking my face and the grrrr! of another beast coming up behind me from the other end of the circus. I fell backwards, hitting my head--kathunk! And then I heard the aaaaahhhh! of my own voice as the bear bit off my leg.
I would write "the snake hissed," because hissed tells the nature of the sound; it doesn't mimic it. And now you're thinking, "Why'd he underline "hissed"? Because if I italicized it in the context of explained when not to italicize, it would be confusing. And it was fun after I started by quoting Williams telling everyone not to do it. So there.
Recently, I browsed a style manual called The Mac is not a Typewriter by Robin Williams--no, not Mork but a part-time instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, California. Concisely, Williams explains how to create professional-level type on a Macintosh, but it would apply in many situations to using a PC. He wants us to forget the rules we learned from our typewriting teachers, because the Mac and PC have integrated typesetting, and he describes the logic behind the advances that allow us to ignore such practices as underlining. I have always hated the look of underlining. Even before the computer.
I learned to underline the title of a book, but as Williams commands: "Don't underline. Underlining is for typewriters; italic is for professional text." He writes: "This doesn't mean you should never have any sort of underline with text--just don't use the underline style that appears on the menu. If you really do want the look of an underline, use a drawn line (called a 'rule' in typesetter's jargon).
On a typewriter, we had no way to italicize. Now we do. Williams' book speaks to the typographic quality used by professional typesetters for centuries (do they really live that long?) These typesetting secrets made type readable, legible and even artistic. Our old typewriters were not able to match the professional typesetter, but now with the advances of desktop publishing, an excellence has invaded the typesetting possibilities.
Here are some basic rules and suggestions for using italics:
Titles
Things that stand by themselves--novels, journals--are italicized. Titles of poems, short stories, articles and episodes (for television) are surrounded with double quotation marks.
My novel, Bread and Butter, was loosely based on my short story, "Wish I Could Eat My Money."
Rudyard Kipling's inspiring poem, "If," was thematically the basis for my recent article in the Ventura Star.
A couple of things I try to remember about writing the titles of newspapers: first, do not italicize the word the--not even when it's part of the title (the New York Times); second--and this one is sometimes difficult to know, so I have to check it--do not italicize the name of the city in which the newspaper is published unless that city name is part of the title. So it's the Hartford Courant but the London Times.
Here are some more titles that we italicize:
Journals and Magazines: Newsweek, The Paris Review, Playboy, Playgirl, Play Dead (nah, there's no such thing).
Plays: Much Ado about Nothing, American Right (shameless plug).
Long Musical Compositions: Rossini's Otello, Verdi's La Traviata, Eubanks' Spaghetti in the Shower.
Films: Alien, Rocky, Grease, Titanic...how about Rocky Titanic or Alien Grease? Movies I'd like to see!
Television and Radio Programs: 24, 20/20, Chuck, Rush Limbaugh--no, now, there's a comma between Chuck and Rush, so don't be cheering; that's not nice.
Artworks: Van Gogh's Irises, the Venus de Milo, Picasso's Bread and Fruit Dish on a Table (like, duh).
Famous Speeches: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Winston Churchill's Their Finest Hour, Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream, Socrates' Apology (soon to be Obama's Apology [forgive me, I just got political!]).
Long Poems (long enough to appear by themselves in a book): Longfellow's Evangeline, Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Milton's Paradise Lost, Dr Seuss' The Cat in the Hat (heh-heh).
Pamphlets: New Developments in Cancer Research, New Research in Cancer Developments, Research New Cancer Developments, Developments in New Cancer Research...now, cut that out!
It's plain sacrilegious to italicize sacred works: the Bible, the Koran. And we don't italicize books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. And if I an exclamation or question mark is part of the title, it too must be italicized.
I just read a book called What Book Should I Read Next?
But if the exclamation or question mark is not part of the title, but is added to indicate a question or exclamation, it is not italicized.
Have you read Tom Eubanks' Worlds Apart? (Can't help myself.)
Names of Vehicles
No, not brand names like Prius, Volvo, Saab--or even real cars like Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet-- or Boeing 767. Challenger, Orient Express, The Polar Express are italicized. Ships names, too: U.S.S. Enterprise. Notice that we don't italicize U.S.S. and the same would go for H.M.S. Pinafore--unless I was writing about Gilbert and Sullivan's light opera, and then it's part of the title, H.M.S. Pinafore.
Foreign Words or Phrases
We no longer italicize foreign words such as bon voyage or the latin et cetera (etc.) because they have become a part of the English language through wide usage. (With the French, it's a conspiracy, but that's another "don't-get-me-started.") Deciding which foreign words you italicize depends on how you are using them and largely on the audience. Personally, I would italicize the Italian sotto voce (literally, "under voice"), because it's rarely used in speech. Whereas, bon voyage is used in common speech all the time--as in, "Bon voyage to all you Frenchmen who have forgotten who saved you from speaking German."
In my novel, Worlds Apart, I italicized all the creole, since that is the generally accepted rule for writing a foreign language in an English-language text.
Write About Words
Italicizing a word I am writing about helps to clarify in the text what word I am referring to.
The word irregardless is not a word.
In reading your book, there were so many fuck you's I got to think you actually liked me. (Notice that the apostrophe-s to create the word-as-word you is not italicized.)
Emphasis
This is probably the most common use of italics in narrative fiction and non-fiction. I try not to overdo using italics for emphasis. It's good in dialogue, because it gives your character the ability to emphasize from his own perspective. But really listen to the emphasis before you decide which word to emphasize. But really listen to the emphasis before you decide which word to emphasize. But really listen to the emphasis before you decide which word to emphasize. Get it?
Words that Mimic Sounds
Mimetically produced sounds are italicized and frequently accompanied by exclamation marks.
Ssssss! hissed the black mamba as I turned my attention from the bzzzzzzz of the bees attacking my face and the grrrr! of another beast coming up behind me from the other end of the circus. I fell backwards, hitting my head--kathunk! And then I heard the aaaaahhhh! of my own voice as the bear bit off my leg.
I would write "the snake hissed," because hissed tells the nature of the sound; it doesn't mimic it. And now you're thinking, "Why'd he underline "hissed"? Because if I italicized it in the context of explained when not to italicize, it would be confusing. And it was fun after I started by quoting Williams telling everyone not to do it. So there.
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