To Use Italics or To Not Use Italics - That Is the Question

Well, it's not really a question...but I am starting to question why some authors are so in love with italics.  Specifically, italics for trademarked names or company names.

A few years ago, I downloaded a free book from Amazon.  The book wasn't particularly good (in fact, it may one of my Top Five Worst Books Ever) but the thing that struck me the most was the constant, overwhelming use of italics AND the constant, overwhelming overuse of company and trademarked names.  It went something like:

The UPS truck dropped off the box from Macy's.  The Tommy Hilfilger shirts had been on backorder; she'd almost thought about canceling the order and re-ordering something from Brooks Brothers.  She sipped her Pepsi and picked up the keys to her Mercedes.  It was time to head out to Saks Fifth Avenue and find the perfect pair of Louboutins.

And I recently read a really intriguing book.  I'd never read something with this particular premise and it really took me by surprise.  I truly felt invested in the characters and the author used character motivation in a way I'd never read before.  But...and this is a big but...every time there was a purchase, a mention of a brand name - it was in those dang italics!! I could overlook the occasional typo or missing punctuation, but every time I saw those italics, I practically shuddered in response. (If you are interested in the specific book, let me know and I'll email it to you.  I haven't contacted the author to ask why she has it like that, and I wouldn't want to put the title out there without having talked to the author first.  And maybe she's corrected the manuscript since I downloaded my copy.)

So, here are some guidelines from the Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition) in case you are wavering on what to do:

7.47  Italics for emphasis

Use italics for emphasis only as an occasional adjunct to efficient sentence structure. Overused, italics quickly lose their force. Seldom should as much as a sentence be italicized for emphasis, and never a whole passage. In the first example below, the last three words, though clearly emphatic, do not require italics because of their dramatic position at the end of the sentence.

The damaging evidence was offered not by the arresting officer, not by the injured plaintiff, but by the boy’s own mother.

On the other hand, the emphasis in the following example depends on the italics:

It was Leo! 

7.49  Italics for unfamiliar foreign words and phrases

Italics are used for isolated words and phrases in a foreign language if they are likely to be unfamiliar to readers. If a foreign word becomes familiar through repeated use throughout a work, it need be italicized only on its first occurrence. If it appears only rarely, however, italics may be retained.

The grève du zèle is not a true strike but a nitpicking obeying of work rules.

Honi soit qui mal y pense is the motto of the Order of the Garter.

8.152  Trademarks

Brand names that are trademarks—often so indicated in dictionaries—should be capitalized if they must be used. A better choice is to substitute a generic term when available.

Something You Ought To Know

Gather around, children, for today's lesson.  It's something you ought to know about aught.

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was the turn of the century.  Amazing things happened:

1900: Kodak Introduces $1 Brownie Cameras: The Brownie camera was the first hand-held camera that was cheap enough and simple enough for even children to use, making photography accessible to the masses. (Now we take pictures with our phones...it's so simple even a child can do it. And in return, the masses have given us photographic proof of the weirdness of people )

1901: First Nobel Prizes Awarded: A pacifist at heart and an inventor by nature, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite. Not wanting to go down in history for creating such a deadly device, Nobel created a will that left the bulk of his fortune to the establishment of five prizes (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace). On December 10, 1901, five years after Alfred Nobel's death, the first five Nobel Prizes were awarded. (No relation to the Darwin Awards, but still kind of important.)

1902: The Teddy Bear Is Introduced. (I couldn't imagine my life without my teddy bear.)

1903: Produced by Thomas Edison but directed and filmed by Edison Company employee Edwin S. Porter, the 12-minute-long silent film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), was the first narrative movie, one that told a story. The Great Train Robbery's popularity led directly to the opening up of permanent movie theaters and the possibility of a future film industry. (And that masterpiece led to such gems as Showgirls and Sex Lives of the Potato Men - and I'm happy to say I've avoided watching at least one of those.)

1904:  New York City Subway Opens (the city wouldn't be the same without it, would it?)

1905: Freud Publishes His Theory of Sexuality (I ain't touching that one with a ten-foot pole.)

1906: Kellogg's Starts Selling Corn Flakes (ever see The Road to Wellville?)

1907: First Electric Washing Machine (thank goodness we don't have to take the wash down to the river anymore!)

1908: Three Year-Old Pu Yi Becomes Emperor of China (proving that not only does a toddler rule the home, he can rule a country).

1909: Plastic Is Invented (and where would we be without plastic? I mean credit cards, of course.)



But something else happened, too.  It wasn't the 1880s or the 1890s anymore.  It was the 1900s now.  So a new word was needed to talk about the decade.  Okay, maybe not a new word (it's been around since 1821 at least), but one that probably didn't get used too often: aught. The aughts, plural :  the ten year period from 2000 through 2009, 1900 through 1909, etc. (Surprisingly enough, there are six other definitions for aught.)  

And now that we've gone through our own turn of the century, we get to revive the use of aught when we talk about those years between 2000 and 2009.  Can't you just hear some old-timey voice saying, "Back in aught eight, I danced in Beyonce's video for 'Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),' so I know how to dance, you pipsqueak."

Colons: What to do with them

I've always been fond of colons.  I'm not talking about those internal organs (although I suppose they have their place in my life), but those lovely little two dots of punctuation.

They seem so elegant, so refined: they help define things.  Typically, you have the first part of the sentence, then the colon, and then you can list the particulars, or give an appostive, or amplification, or an illustrative quotation.

Here's a little example:
I peeked into his grocery cart to see his treasures: gourmet chocolates, a bottle of Prosecco, and strawberries. 

A nice little list, right?  But here's where I really like the colon - or the reverse colon, as I call it in my head.

Gourmet chocolates, a bottle of Prosecco, strawberries: just what did he have in mind for tonight?


I just love how that sentence reads. (And not just because I'm fond of those items.)

So how about it, authors: do you feel the love for the colon?
 

I Have Spoken

One of the basic dialogue tags is said (he said, she said, they said). Now, some people are of the opinion that the most evil thing you can do is overuse said (here, here).  But others are equally adamant that said is the best way to write dialogue (here, here, here, and here).

You might be tempted to use an alternatives to said and pick spoke.  This would seem to make sense: they both refer to using one's vocal cords to impart sound.  It's talking, right? But it's not a blanket alternative. 

Let's use an example.  I'm not a writer by profession, so bear with my examples (this is what my brain thinks about at three thirty in the morning and I'm wide awake).

Option 1:

He said, "I am not going to eat that slop."
"It's not for you anyways," she said, trying to hide the hurt in her voice.  "Melvin is coming over for dinner."
"Poor fool," he said under his breath.

Here is what we'll call the traditional method of writing dialogue.  Simple and easy to follow.  Note the punctuation: comma before the opening quotation mark in Sentence 1; comma between the end of the spoken words and ending quotation mark in Sentence 2 and Sentence 3.

Option 2:
He spoke, "I am not going to eat that slop."
"It's not for you anyways," she spoke, trying to hide the hurt in her voice.  "Melvin is coming over for dinner."
"Poor fool," he spoke under his breath.

This is the same as Option 1, but I replaced said with spoke (no punctuation changes). This is incorrect and should NOT be in your manuscript.

Option 3:
He spoke slowly, sending bullets to her heart with each word.  "I am not going to eat that slop."
"It's not for you anyways." She spoke defiantly, trying to hide the hurt in her voice.  "Melvin is coming over for dinner."
"Poor fool." He spoke under his breath to avoid any more hysterics.

Notice that in Option 3, spoke isn't involved in the actual dialogue.  It's part of a dialogue beat, not a dialogue tag. And the punctuation has changed as well, because spoke is in its own sentence.

Looking in the dictionary, the word say has a past tense of said, a past participle of said, a present participle of saying, a present first singular of say, a present second singular of say, and a third singular of says. Nowhere does it list spoke as a part of say's tenses.

And likewise, in looking at speak, it lists spoke, spoken, speaking, and speaks.  Nowhere does it list say as part of speak's tenses.

So please, be careful how you use spoke in your manuscripts.

I have spoken.

The Long and Short of It

No, I’m not going to make short people jokes (I’m sensitive that way!).  Let’s make some hyphen jokes instead. 

Umm…I can’t think of any hyphen jokes.

Okay, instead let’s talk about the difference between a dash, en dash, and em dash. (And have you even ever heard of a 2-em dash or a 3-em dash?)  Turning your trusty copy of the Chicago Manual of Style to section 6.75, you see the following:

Hyphens and dashes compared

Hyphens and the various dashes all have their specific appearance (shown below) and uses (discussed in the following paragraphs). The hyphen, the en dash, and the em dash are the most commonly used. Though many readers may not notice the difference—especially between an en dash and a hyphen—correct use of the different types is a sign of editorial precision and care. (And hey, I'm all about editorial precision and care!)

hyphen -

en dash –

em dash —

2-em dash ——

3-em dash ———

A hyphen is used in compound words and names and in word division. A hyphen is used to separate numbers that are not inclusive, such as telephone numbers, social security numbers, and ISBNs. It is also used to separate letters when a word is spelled out letter by letter, in dialogue, in reference to American Sign Language, and elsewhere. Hyphens can also appear in URLs and e-mail addresses. A hyphen must not be added to such a string when it breaks at the end of a line.

The principal use of the en dash is to connect numbers and, less often, words. With continuing numbers—such as dates, times, and page numbers—it signifies up to and including (or through). For the sake of parallel construction, the word to, never the en dash, should be used if the word from precedes the first element in such a pair; similarly, and, never the en dash, should be used if between precedes the first element. In other contexts, such as with scores and directions, the en dash signifies, more simply, to.  An en dash may be used to indicate a number range that is ongoing—for example, to indicate the dates of a serial publication or to give the birth date of a living person. No space intervenes between the en dash and the mark of punctuation that follows. The en dash can be used in place of a hyphen in a compound adjective when one of its elements consists of an open compound or when both elements consist of hyphenated compounds. This editorial nicety may go unnoticed by the majority of readers; nonetheless, it is intended to signal a more comprehensive link than a hyphen would. It should be used sparingly, and only when a more elegant solution is unavailable. The en dash is sometimes used as a minus sign, but minus signs and en dashes are distinct characters (defined by the Unicode standard as U+2212 and U+2013, respectively). Both the characters themselves and the spacing around them may differ; moreover, substituting any character for another may hinder searches in electronic publications. Thus it is best to use the correct character, especially in mathematical copy.

The em dash, often simply called the dash, is the most commonly used and most versatile of the dashes. Em dashes are used to set off an amplifying or explanatory element and in that sense can function as an alternative to parentheses, commas , or a colon —especially when an abrupt break in thought is called for. An em dash is occasionally used to set off an introductory noun, or a series of nouns, from a pronoun that introduces the main clause. An em dash or a pair of em dashes may indicate a sudden break in thought or sentence structure or an interruption in dialogue. (Where a faltering rather than sudden break is intended, suspension points may be used.) An em dash may be used before expressions such as that is or namely. In modern usage, if the context calls for an em dash where a comma would ordinarily separate a dependent clause from an independent clause, the comma is omitted. Likewise, if an em dash is used at the end of quoted material to indicate an interruption, the comma can be safely omitted before the words that identify the speaker. In modern usage, a question mark or an exclamation point—but never a comma, a colon, or a semicolon, and rarely a period—may precede an em dash.

A 2-em dash represents a missing word or part of a word, either omitted to disguise a name (or occasionally an expletive) or else missing from or illegible in quoted or reprinted material. When a whole word is missing, space appears on both sides of the dash. When only part of a word is missing, no space appears between the dash and the existing part (or parts) of the word; when the dash represents the end of a word, a space follows it (unless a period or other punctuation immediately follows). Although a 2-em dash sometimes represents material to be supplied, it should not be confused with a blank line to be filled in; a blank in a form should appear as an underscore (e.g., ____).

In a bibliography, a 3-em dash followed by a period represents the same author or editor named in the preceding entry.

When I'm proofing a manuscript, I often find myself fixing hyphens to em dashes.  I do this by using the alt code for it.  Simply put, I hold down the Alt key and type 0151 while that Alt key is still held down.  This way, I know for sure the author will have a true em dash, not just what looks like a em dash. 

And I have to say, I love the versatility of the em dash.  When one character interrupts another-time for an em dash.  When a character's dialogue is stopped short by something they see-time for an em dash.  When it's time for an appositive-you know, something too good to leave out-time for an em dash. 

And to reward you for reading this entire post, here's a little something that made me smile.  Of course, I'm just twisted that way.

Want to learn more exciting rules for punctuation? Check out the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition.  Or, you know, hire a freelance proofreader like me AND I'll look up all the rules!

Who's That?

I've been seeing a trend lately.  And I can admit I have fallen prey to it as well.


When referring to people, use "who."
When referring to objects, things, or non-people, use "that."

The magician who started the show is known as an illusionist.
The illusion that made him famous was the apparent disappearance of the world's tallest hotel. 

When all else fails, remember - Who Are You?

Who Are These Guys, Anyway?

For some people, when you say Strunk and White, their eyes light up and you can see them engage.  Others wait with a blank stare, listening politely and expecting to hear about some new celebrity or maybe a singing duo.  I am, for better or worse, one of the first.

Strunk and White are responsible for The Elements of Style, one of the most concise and well-known books on the English language.  It wasn't until after college that I realized the "White" was actually E.B. White, of Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web fame.

Recently, I was introduced to this little video.  I'm not sure Strunk OR White would approve, but it certainly is fun to watch.  Enjoy!