Giving your grammar your best, you might want to italicize. Well, should you? When is this style of font fine and dandy, and when should you not slant your lines? Here are a few quick tips on how to properly use italics.
For Emphasis
If you have a turn of phrase that you want to make a point give it the italics’ treatment. You are able to draw attention in a subtle way. Highlight while sticking to the white background with the use of italics. Perfect for providing a piece of shocking or highly informative information in web content. Useful when you want to make sure your readers are on point.
Never Slanting Punctuation
What about question marks and quotations and commas? Well, here’s something interesting. Leave out the italics for punctuation. Those grammatical periods and points and slashes should always remain straight and sturdy. When you are writing something online that contains commas, such as this sentence, along with italics, you want to go back in there and straighten up those commas. Just do a little highlight-edit and correct the punctuation.
Honestly, you’d be amazed how many times people forget about this. Sometimes you’ll see a sentence where almost everything is slanted, including that poor, confused semicolon. It just looks sloppy. Not to shame anyone (we all space out here and there), but straightening out your punctuation goes a long way, trust me. It’s one of those small things that makes your writing look like you actually cared.
Sounds Like Onomatopoeia
Then you’ve got those words that are used in place of sounds. Called onomatopoeia, these are words including grrr for growling or woof for barking. In the case of words used as sounds, you have a couple of options. You can italicize woof or put quotation marks around “Woof” as if the animal is, in fact, making these sounds like a human’s “Said.” How you choose to grammatically corral your animal sounds is onomatopoeia-p to you.
Sometimes, if you’re writing fiction or even just a lively blog, dropping in an italicized onomatopoeic word gives the sentence a little punch. It’s sort of like adding a visual sound effect—inviting your reader to “hear” it as they read. Not every reader will notice, but those who do often appreciate it. And hey, if you ever get called out for being “too playful” with italics, remember there are actually style guides that encourage this for clarity. Go figure, right?
Give Your Grammar More
Want to find more grammar and wordsmithing excitement? Explore resources on malaphors and metanoias, or tree-adjoining grammar to continue with your lit adventure. There are many content writer tips and tools that will help you drive your writing career into the fast lane. If you need writing jobs, there are those, too. Get started now and see what you can do to improve your writing skills and career options.
