Words with another word in italics

Karin-Marijke Vis wrote:

What to do with foreign words? Do I put them in Italics, or in single or double quotes? And then, is there a difference in for example the word ‘retsina’, that my dictionary knows, or ‘kafé’ that the dictionary doesn’t know [both words relate to a story in Greece]. Same about Indian words, are ‘nan’ and ‘puja’ officially acknowledged words or should they be written in Italics, or with quotes?

Whether or not to italicize foreign words depends upon the word’s familiarity to the intended audience, the context in which the word appears, and the frequency with which the word appears in a given text.

In American usage, if a foreign word has an entry in Merriam-Webster, it need not be italicized. According to that rule of thumb, kafé and nan would be italicized; retsina and puja, not.

However, if the writer feels that a word is largely unfamiliar to the intended audience, italicizing it may be the reasonable thing to do, dictionary entry notwithstanding.

If the word is going to be used frequently in the text, then it need be italicized only the first time it is introduced. For example, in a story with a Hindu setting, the word puja would probably occur frequently. The first time it could be defined as “a Hindu act of worship” and thereafter used without italics.

Here are some guidelines for the use of italics with foreign words in an English text.

1. If only one unfamiliar foreign word or brief phrase is being used, italicize it.

2. If an entire sentence or passage of two or more sentences appear in a foreign language, type the passage in plain type and put the passage in quotation marks.

3. If the foreign word is a proper noun, do not italicize it.

4. If you are using two foreign words or phrases, one familiar and one unfamiliar, italicize both of them for consistency and appearance.

5. Common Latin words and abbreviations like etc., et al., and ibid. need not be italicized. An exception is sic, which should be italicized and placed in square brackets.

Sources:
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
APA Style Guide
Chicago Manual of Style

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In English-language writing, words from other languages are often presented in italics. As a proofreader, you may therefore need to check that such words are presented correctly. But what are the rules about italicizing foreign words in English writing?

In this post, we look at what a proofreader needs to know on this subject.

When to Use Italics for Non-English Words

In broad terms, unfamiliar foreign words or phrases should be italicized in English writing. This is common when referring to technical terms used by non-English writers. For instance:

Heidegger’s concept of Dasein is fundamental to his philosophy.

Here, the German word “Dasein” could have been translated to English as “being.” But the author has preserved the original term because it has a technical use in Heidegger’s work. And to show that this term is borrowed from another language, it is written in italics.

By comparison, there is no need to italicize foreign words or phrases that have an established use in English. For example, most English speakers are familiar with the term “déjà vu” and the experience it describes. Thus, even though this is a French term, it would not need to be italicized. Likewise, common Latin abbreviations such as “e.g.” or “etc.” are not usually italicized.

In general, then, when deciding whether a term should be italicized, the two key factors are:

1. Does it have an entry in an authoritative English-language dictionary (e.g., the OED for British English or Merriam-Webster for American English)? If so, it has an established used in English and does not need to be italicized when used in English writing.
2. Will your client’s audience be familiar with the term? If not, it may be best to italicize it even if it has an established use, as it may still be new to the target reader(s).

Beyond this, the most important thing is making sure that your client uses a consistent approach to italicizing non-English words in their work.

However, if your client is using a style guide, you should check it for advice. We will look at what some of the major style guides say about italicizing non-English words below.

Style Guides on Italicizing Foreign Words

Most major style guides offer advice on when to italicize foreign words. These include:

• AMA Style – In AMA style, writers should italicize words and phrases from other languages that do not have a standard use in English, as well as giving a definition if required for clarity. However, this is not necessary for non-English street, building, or organization names.
• APA Style – Requires italics for non-English words, phrases, and abbreviations if they may be unfamiliar to readers, but only on the first use. If the same word, phrase, or abbreviation is used later in the same document, it should be written without italics.
• Chicago Style – Italicizes isolated words and phrases from non-English languages unless they are proper nouns or they appear in a standard dictionary for the relevant dialect. If a non-English word is used frequently, only the first instance needs to be italicized.
• MHRA Style – Words and short phrases from other languages, except direct quotations, should be italicized if they do not have a standard usage in English. If in doubt over whether a word has a use in English, MHRA style suggests using roman type.
• MLA Style – Suggests italicizing non-English words except for full quotes in other languages, non-English titles of articles and other short works (which are placed in quotation marks instead), proper nouns, and words with an established use in English.

These variations between systems mean it is important to check your client’s style guide.

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Switching to italics for the occasional word or phrase borrowed from another language—and not listed in a standard English-language dictionary—can be helpful to readers.

For example, if I refer to Marcel Proust’s fictional maman in my otherwise English prose, italics signal that I’m not simply making up new words or misspelling “mama.”

This strategy works well for literary studies and history and the like—or for anything that requires straightforward, unambiguous prose. And it’s what CMOS recommends (see paragraph 11.3).

Fiction, however, isn’t always so straightforward and unambiguous.

A novel or a story invites its readers to enter a world that isn’t the same as their own while asking them to accept it as real (or at least plausible). And that can mean encountering unfamiliar words and words from another language or culture.

Italics = Inauthentic

The problem with using italics for non-English words in fiction is that italics will draw attention to those words in a way that can make them seem mannered or inauthentic. Ernest Hemingway (or his editor) understood this a long time ago.

Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, originally published in 1926, follows a group of American and British expatriates as they travel from France to Spain for the festival of San Fermín. Hemingway uses his novel to show off his own recently acquired local knowledge, especially once we get to Spain for the running of the bulls.

In the following passage, the words “encierro” and “cogido” are enough to suggest that the narrator is speaking Spanish (or broken Spanish, or a mix of Spanish and English—we can’t know for sure) with his Spanish waiter:

“Anything happen at the encierro?”

“I didn’t see it all. One man was badly cogido.”

“Where?”

“Here.” I put one hand on the small of my back and the other on my chest, where it looked as though the horn must have come through. (Modern Library ed., 1930, p. 205)

Italics would have taken these two words out of the ordinary, conversational register of the rest of the dialogue, as if the speakers were emphasizing them in some way.

Even when they’re not in dialogue, most of the Spanish words in Hemingway’s novel appear in regular text, from “aguardiente” (pp. 109 and 155) and “bota” (p. 161) to “fondas” (p. 252) and “paseo” (pp. 155 and 186). All of these are now listed in Merriam-Webster (either in the free dictionary or the unabridged).*

On the other hand, even familiar French terms are put in italics in the narrative (but notably not in dialogue)—from “apéritif” (p. 13) and “bal musette” (p. 19) to “fine à l’eau” (p. 21) and “sportif” (p. 247). (“Apéritif,” “bal musette,” and “sportif” are all in Merriam-Webster.) The result is that the French terms feel less authentic, or more self-consciously French, than the Spanish.

This distinction can serve as a model for today’s writers and editors. If Hemingway’s relatively inexpert smattering of Spanish words in both dialogue and narrative could seem more authentic without italics, then maybe yours won’t need italics either.

Italics Are for Emphasis

Writers working today have the same choices available to them that Hemingway did, but many still default to italics for non-English words—or accept the italics imposed by their editors or publishers.

Here’s a passage of dialogue from Pachinko (New York: Grand Central, 2017), an English-language historical novel by Korean American writer Min Jin Lee:

“Ajumoni,” Fatso shouted genially. “Ajumoni.”

“Yes?” Yangjin knew he wanted more to eat. He was a puny young man who ate more than both his brothers combined. (p. 14)

These italics read as emphatic, which is a reasonable assumption for a character who is supposed to be shouting. But “ajumoni” (a Korean word that means something like “ma’am” or “madam”) is italicized wherever it appears, even where there’s clearly no emphasis: “Yes. I’m indebted to you and ajumoni” (p. 54). So we can’t be sure.

A similar problem crops up in a narrative passage from another historical novel, Shanghai Girls (New York: Random House, 2009), by American writer Lisa See:

Her gown, a cheongsam made of midnight blue silk with midlength sleeves, has been expertly tailored to fit her age and status. A bracelet carved from a single piece of good jade hangs from her wrist. The thump of it when it hits the table edge is comforting and familiar. (p. 4)

The language-marking italics for “cheongsam”—the Cantonese name for a type of close-fitting dress that became popular in Shanghai in the 1920s—compete on the page with the emphasis italics for “thump.”

Though the italics for non-English terms work well enough in most cases throughout both of these novels, readers might be better off without having to navigate this additional layer of meaning.

Fiction in Translation

A good translation can provide valuable insight into how to deal with non-English words in an English-language context. That’s because all translations start with unfamiliar words—and, to complicate things, many words aren’t easily translated.

Here’s Matthew Ward’s translation of the famous first paragraph of Albert Camus’s The Stranger (Vintage International, 1989; published in French by Gallimard in 1942, as L’Étranger):

Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday. (p. 3)

Note that “Maman” (the French word for “mom” or “mum”) remains untranslated. And it’s not in italics either. That works well: “Maman,” in italics, might have spoiled at the outset the slender illusion that Camus’s fictional world—and that of his first-person narrator, Meursault—might be real.†

To put it another way, the choice of regular text for “Maman” signals—by not signaling—that this word belongs to the narrator’s vocabulary and worldview in a way that can’t be translated, on the one hand, and that needs no special typographic treatment, on the other.

Less Is More

Using regular text for non-English words is one way to avoid the heavy-handed feel of italics. Another strategy is demonstrated by a recent story by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.

“With the Beatles” (a title the story shares with the second studio album by the Fab Four, who were almost as famous in Japan at the time it was released as they were in the US and the UK) was translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel. Aside from a few place-names and other proper nouns or adjectives, there isn’t a single word of Japanese in Gabriel’s English-language version.

Yet the translation still manages to remind us that the story is in Japanese, as in this notable chance encounter between the narrator and the older brother of his first love. They are in Tokyo, a few hundred miles from the place where they both grew up, and it has been eighteen years since their last meeting:

“Excuse me,” he said. He had an unmistakable Kansai intonation. I stopped, turned around, and saw a man I didn’t recognize.

We can guess that the narrator shares the Kansai accent, though this is the first and only time it’s mentioned. And soon it will become clear that he has come face-to-face with his past—his childhood and adolescence in the city of Kobe—in a way that turns out to be both unsettling and revelatory.

Sometimes it’s enough to remind readers of the narrator’s world through simple narrative hints. This strategy can be even more effective than introducing words that may not have much meaning for your audience and that may need help from additional context anyway.

* * *

Ultimately it’s up to the author of any creative work to decide how to incorporate different languages into the text and whether to use italics or not. If you’re the editor and you’re not sure what the author wants, just ask.

But authors and editors should both consider that using italics for non-English words risks sending the wrong message. In a polyglot narrative, who decides what is familiar, or which language is the default? On the other hand, what assumptions do you want to make about readers?

My advice would be to give readers the benefit of the doubt and save the italics for better uses.

---

* Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (published in 1961 and the original basis of Merriam-Webster’s online unabridged dictionary) cites a passage from Hemingway—from the 1927 story “The Undefeated”—for the sense of “paseo” related to bullfighting (the online version retains the example). The Oxford English Dictionary cites this same passage in its definition of the word.

† It’s worth noting that Ward’s translation capitalizes “maman,” which becomes apparent in the middle of a sentence: “I wanted to see Maman right away” (p. 4). This is the convention in English for words like “mom” that are used alone, in place of a name (see CMOS 8.36). But in French it’s lowercase, as you can see in the original version of the opening sentence: “Aujourd’hui, maman est mort.”

Top image: Torre di Pisa (Tower of Pisa), by Davide Ragusa on Unsplash.

Fiction+ posts at Shop Talk reflect the opinions of its authors and not necessarily those of The Chicago Manual of Style or the University of Chicago Press.

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Russell Harper (@cpyeditor) is editor of The Chicago Manual of Style Online Q&A and was the principal reviser of the last two editions of The Chicago Manual of Style. He also contributed to the revisions of the last two editions of Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.

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(B).

A) 1. The
natural environment is at once a hindrance and a help, and the
architect seeks both to

invite its aid and repel its
attacks.

2. The architect must foresee
destructive potentialities such as fire, earthquake, flood, and
disease.

3. The placement and form of
buildings in relation to their sites, the distribution of spaces
within buildings, and other planning devices are fundamental elements
in the aesthetics of architecture.

4. Orientation may control
air for circulation and reduce the disadvan­tages of wind, rain,
and snow.

5. Planning may control the
environment by the design of architectural forms that may modify the
effects of natural forces.

6. The choice of materials is
conditioned by their own ability to with­stand the environment as
well as by properties that make them useful to human beings.

7. One of the architect’s
jobs is to find a successful solution to both conditions.

B). to look for, to resist, to
diminish, people, subversive, to vary, basic, a task

III. Answer the questions.

1. When does the architect
begin to work on the project?

2. What are the main aspects
of architectural planning?

3. What are the fundamental
elements in the aesthetics of architecture?

4. What must the architect
control to make buildings habitable and comfortable?

5. What is the planning for
use concerned with?

6. What are the major
expenses in building?

IV. Give the English equivalents.

отразить атаку;
пригодный для жилья; расположение,
положение; результаты воздействия
солнца, ветра и дождя; создавать влажность
и отражать солнце; важное (эффективное)
средство контроля; выбор материалов
для строительства; способность
противостоять воздей­ствиям окружающей
среды; отопление, изоляция, кондиционирова­ние
воздуха, освещение, акустические методы;
функциональное пла­нирование; боковой
неф; склеп, ризница, часовня; расходы;
влиять на выбор материалов; зависеть
от требований заказчика

V. With your partner, speak on the different aspects of architectural planning.

Suggested topics:

Environmental Design

Materials and Techniques

Aesthetic and Functional
Criteria in Architecture

Economics and Architectural
Planning

Text B.
Read the text. Tell about the main functions of architecture

THE ART OF ARCHITECTURE

Architecture
is the art and the technique of building, employed to fulfil the
practical and expressive requirements of civilized people. Almost
every settled society that possesses the techniques for building
produces archi­tecture. It is necessary in all but the simplest
cultures; without it, man is confined to a primitive struggle with
the elements; with it, he has not only a defence against the natural
environment but also the benefits of a human environment, a
prerequisite for and a symbol of the development of civilized
institutions.

The
characteristics that distinguish a work of architecture from other
man-made structures are (1) the suitability of the work to use by
human beings in general and the adaptability of it to particular
human activities; (2) the stability and permanence of the work’s
construction; and (3) the communication of experience and ideas
through its form.

All these
conditions must be met in architecture. The second is a con­stant,
while the first and the third vary in relative importance according
to the social function of buildings. If the function is chiefly
utilitarian, as in a factory, communication is of less importance. If
the function is chiefly expressive, as in a monumental tomb, utility
is a minor concern. In some buildings such as churches and city
halls, utility and communication may be of equal importance.

Text C. Read the text and
answer the question: What is required for the safety of the
structure?

DESIGN CRITERIA

When the
basic theory of static equilibrium for forces acting in any
di­rection was first applied in structural design in the second
half of the 18century, the criterion of a safe design seemed obvious enough. The
struc­ture would be safe if it could support its own weight, and
perhaps the weight of a wagon passing over it, or of machinery on a
floor, without overloading any crucial element — arch rib, beam,
column, masonry pier, or tie rod. The strength of these elements
could be assessed by loading specimens to failure, or by similarly
loading specimens of the material if the strength of the element
could then be estimated by simple proportion. For greater safe­ty,
some factor would be allowed on the measured or estimated strengths.

During the
19century, loads other than the weight of the structure it­self
became more important. The development of elastic theories of the
behavior of the main structural elements and some complete structural
systems called for further criteria to bypass the reliance on
strength tests of these elements and systems. Tests were made to
determine both wind loads and the effective loads imposed by moving
locomotives, but the data ob­tained remained of limited and
somewhat questionable validity for want of adequate understanding of
the nature of these dynamic loads.

In the
first half of the 20century, design criteria for particular classes of structure — like
steel frames and reinforced-concrete frames — were

progressively codified for
normal design in terms of design loads and al­lowable stresses.

In the last few decades, far
more again has been learned about likely loads, particularly wind
loads and earthquake shocks.

Text D.
Read the text and tell about the subdivisions of Romanesque
architecture and its main features.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

The generic term Romanesque is
sometimes applied to embrace all the styles of architecture which, in
most European countries, followed the Early Christian style and
preceded the introduction of the Gothic style, c. 1200. It is often
subdivided into pre-Romanesque, which includes the Lombardic,
Carolingian, and Ottonian or Rhenish styles as well as Saxon and
Ro­manesque proper, which is taken to have begun c. AD 1000.

From the ancient Roman
tradition, the pre-Romanesque architects adopted characteristic
features: the semicircular arch, the groined cross vault, and a
modified and simplified form of the Corinthian column with its
capital of acanthus leaves. Occasionally, at an early period, they
used carved fragments of antique buildings. They made important
advances upon Roman structural methods in balancing the thrust of
heavy vaults and domes by means of buttresses, and in substituting
thinner webs supported on the curved stone ribs for the thick vaults
used by the Romans.

The Romanesque period lasted
two centuries, and was the great age of European monasticism.

The architectural work of the
Romanesque period therefor consists al­most exclusively on
monasteries, cathedrals, parish churches, and castles. Very few
domestic buildings have survived.

The
greatest examples of this style are Benedictine abbey church at
Jumieges, Normandy (1036—1066); S. Ambrogio, Milan, Italy, 1140;
Sompting church in Succex, llcentury; Augsburg Cathedral, Germany.

Unit 2

Text A. Read the text and
tell about the orders of classical architecture.

ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE

The first step in architecture
was simply the replacement of wooden pil­lars with stone ones,
and the translation of the carpentry and brick struc­tural forms
into stone equivalents. This provided an opportunity for the
ex­pression of proportion and pattern. This expression eventually
took the form of the invention or evolution of the stone «orders»
of architecture. These orders, or arrangements of specific types of
columns supporting an upper section called an entablature, defined
the pattern of the columnar facades and upperworks that formed the
basic decorative shell of buildings.

The Greeks invented the Doric,
Ionic, and Corinthian orders. The Romans added the Tuscan and the
Composite.

The oldest order, the Doric,
is subdivided into Greek Doric and Ro­man Doric. The first is the
simplest and has baseless columns as those of the Parthenon. Roman
Doric has a base and was less massive.

The parts
of Greek Doric — the simple, baseless columns, the spread­ing
capitals, and triglyph-metope (alternating vertically ridged and
plain blocks) frieze above the columns — constitute an aesthetic
development in stone incorporating variants on themes used
functionally in earlier wood and brick construction. Doric long
remained the favourite order of the Greek mainland and western
colonies, and it changed little throughout its history.

The Ionic order evolved later,
in eastern Greece. About 600 BC, in Asia Minor, the first intimation
of the style appeared in stone columns with cap­itals elaborately
carved in floral hoops — an Orientalizing pattern familiar mainly
on smaller objects and furniture and enlarged for architecture.

It developed throughout so
called Aeolic capital with vertically spring­ing volutes or
spiral ornaments to the familiar Ionic capital, the volutes of which
spread horizontally from the centre and curl downward. The order was
always fussier and more ornate, less stereotyped than Doric. The
Ionic temples of the 6th century exceed in size and decoration even
the most ambitious of their Classical successors. Such were the
temples of Artemis at Ephesus in Asia Minor and the successive
temples of Hera on the island of Samos.

The Corinthian order
originated in the 5th century BC in Athens. It had Ionic capital
elaborated with acanthus leaves. In its general proportions it is
very like the Ionic. For the first time the Corinthian order was used
for temple exteriors. Because of its advantage of facing equally in
tour direc­tions it was more adaptable than Ionic for corners.
There are not many Greek examples of the Corinthian order. The Romans
widely used it for its showiness. The earliest known instance of the
Corinthian order used on the exterior is the choragic monument of
Lysicrates in Athens, 335/334 BC.

A simplified version of the
Roman Doric is the Tuscan order. It has a less decorated frieze and
no mutules in the cornice.

The
Composite order is also a late Roman invention. It combines the
elements from all the Greek orders.

Vocabulary

replacement
— замена

pillar
— столб,
колонна,
опора

eventually
— в конце концов

arrangement
— расположение

to
define
— определять

pattern
— модель, образец

shell
— (зд.) оболочка, каркас

spreading
— простирающийся, распространяющийся

alternating
— чередующийся

ridged
— имеющий борозды, кромки

plain
— (зд.) без узора

to
evolve
— происходить

intimation
— указание, сообщение, намек

elaborately
— тщательно (разрабатывать)

to
carve
— резать, вырезать (по дереву или кости);
высекать (из камня)

hoop
— o6pyч

fussy
— вычурный, аляповатый

to
exceed
— превышать, превосходить

advantage
— преимущество

corner
— угол

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English has a lot of grammatical rules to keep in mind. From the usage of commas to capitalization, knowing how to write properly is an important skill to hone for those in school and beyond. Whether you are writing research papers or formal letters, you’ll come across instances of italicization. Knowing when to italicize is an important skill to master.

Let’s take a look at how italics came to exist and when to italicize. With this guide, you’ll soon be an italics pro!

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

The History Behind Italics

Italics is when a typeface is slanted to the right. Like this!

Italics are used to distinguish words from other parts of the text and draw attention. Like underlining, it can create emphasis; therefore, you wouldn’t want to both underline and italicize the same word. Yet, underlining and italicizing may often be used interchangeably.

Underlining was the precursor to italicizing. Once word processors and printers became more sophisticated to handle italics, it has become a popular alternative to underlining.

When To Italicize

With this being said, using italics isn’t always a choice of personal preference. There are rules and guidelines to follow to know when to italicize. Let’s take a look at some of the rules!

7 Rules For Italics

1. Emphasis

Want a word or phrase to stand out in a block of text? Try writing in italics. Example: I went to grab pizza with friends today. It was so delicious that I ate an entire pie. (Notice how you read the word “so” with more emphasis than the rest of the words in that statement).

2. Titles Of Work

The titles of works should be italicized (or underlined). Examples include:

• Books – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Newspapers – The Los Angeles Times
• Movies – The Dark Knight
• Magazines – People
• Plays – A Streetcar Named Desire
• Works of Art – Frida Kahlo’s The Two Fridas
• TV/radio programs – Friends
• CDs/albums – Drake’s Views

3. Articles

Based on the above, you may be questioning, “Are articles italicized?” Articles are shorter forms of work. As such, they are put into quotation marks rather than italicized. For example, you could write something like: In his article “A Mystery Explained” for The New York Times, the author exposed the details of the crime.

4. Foreign Words

If you’re writing in one language but you want to introduce a word in another language, you may consider italicizing it. For example, “The word for war in Spanish is guerra.”

5. Names Of Trains, Ships, Spaceships

Words that are names of transportation vehicles (with the exception of cars) are italicized. For example, the space shuttle Challenger is in italics.

6. Words As Reproduced Sounds

If you want to write out the way something sounds, then you can leverage italics. To depict, “The bees went bzzz in my ear.” This doesn’t mean that you would write verbs that are sounds in italics. (i.e., “There was a loud thud.”)

7. Words As Words

When you are writing a word to use it as a word for reference, then you can put it in italics. For example, “He defined close in context of the situation as being within 6 feet of each other.”

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Examples For When To Use Italics

There are various writing formats that have slightly different rules. When you’re writing a scholarly paper, you may be advised to write in MLA format or APA format.

The MLA format may allow for interchangeability between italics and underlines. In the APA format, these are some examples of when to use and when not to use italics — and they aren’t always in line with the examples above. In APA format, for example, you should not use italics just for emphasis.

So before writing any scholarly paper, it’s useful to double check the rules for italics according to the specific guidelines.

Use Italics

• First introduction to a new term – i.e., “Communism is defined as, ‘ a form of government…’”
• Titles of book and web pages – i.e., “Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson”
• English letters used as math symbols – i.e., “Solve for the variable x.”
• Anchors of scale – i.e., “Rate your experience on a scale of 1 (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied)”
• First use of words in a different language – i.e., “She was the crème de la crème.”

Do Not Use Italics

• For the title of book series – i.e., “the Dan Brown series”
• Punctuation around italics – i.e., “(extremely dissatisfied)”
• Words from foreign languages that are in the dictionary of the language you are writing – i.e., “per se”

Things To Remember

This list of rules and exceptions can feel overwhelming. And there’s still more to learn and remember on top of the points above! Keep in mind:

• Don’t italicize the titles of songs, chapters in books, or poems. Instead, use quotations. For example, you could write: On the Drake album Views, I really like the song “Fire & Desire.”
• Don’t italicize religious texts – i.e., the Torah or the Koran. Instead, these are capitalized.
• Don’t underline and italicize together like this. (That sure is painful to read!)

Although there is a lot to remember when it comes to what to italicize, the good news is that you can always research whether or not something should be italicized online or refer back to this list!

Italics Or Not? That Is The Question

As a student, it’s important to fine tune your grammar skills now so that when you graduate and enter the workforce, you can produce exemplary work every time!

As mentioned, when writing research papers or any other academic paper, your professor will share what standards they want you to abide by. Whether it’s MLA or APA formats, you can look up the rules for when to italicize before and during the writing process.

Then, when you edit, be sure to check all your usages of underlines, italics, and quotation marks to ensure they are implemented correctly!

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Of all the typographic styles, italicization may look the most dynamic. Perhaps it’s the way the words slant to the right, as if striding confidently to a business meeting. Or perhaps we’re overthinking this. The point is that italics are a useful, versatile part of writing. But when should you use them?

Key occasions for using italics include:

• To emphasize something.
• For titles of standalone works, such as books and movies.
• For vehicle names, such as ships.
• To show that a word is borrowed from another language.
• For the Latin “scientific” names of plant and animal species.

Let’s take a look at each of these to see how they work in practice.

Italics for Emphasis

Like bold fonts or underlining, italics are often used for emphasis. This means we can use italics to stress or draw attention to a particular word or phrase:

Italicization is the best way to emphasize something.

Here, italicizing best shows that we feel strongly about italics.

Generally, italics are the standard form of emphasis in academic writing. This is because they look more formal than bold formatting. However, always check your style guide if your university or employer has one, since some organizations have different rules about emphasizing text.

Italics in Place of Quote Marks

It would be unusual to italicize a full quote rather than placing it in quote marks. However, some people do use italics to set single words apart in the same way you might with quotes. For example:

Quote Marks: The word “italic” comes from a Greek word meaning “Italy.”

Italics: The word italic comes from a Greek word meaning Italy.

As with emphasis, if you are using a style guide, you may want to check whether it allows this. Otherwise, though, italics can be helpful if using too many quote marks makes your writing look cluttered.

When to Use Italics for Titles

Another common use of italicization is for titles. Not your own headings – you can italicize these, but that’s a matter of stylistic preference – but the titles of published works, such as books. For instance, if we mentioned a work by Charles Dickens in an essay, we would write it like this:

Queen Victoria read The Old Curiosity Shop in 1841.

By using italics, we set the title text apart from the rest of the sentence.

It’s not just books that you should do this for. Typically, the same applies for any self-contained media product or publication (i.e., something published by itself rather than as part of a collection). This includes the titles of:

• Books and book-length poems
• Academic journals (i.e., the journal title itself, not individual article titles)
• Magazines and newspapers
• Movies, radio programs, and TV shows
• Plays and other stage shows
• Music albums and other published audio recordings
• Paintings, statues, and other works of art

Titles of shorter works, by comparison, are often placed in quotation marks. However, the rules for presenting titles do vary between style guides.

Italicizing Vehicle Names

You can use italics for the names of individual vehicles, such as a ship or space rocket. For instance, we would italicize the following vehicle names:

The sailors boarded the HMS Belfast in silence.

The Titanic sank during her maiden voyage.

Here, we italicize Belfast and Titanic because they’re the proper names of specific ships. We do not italicize the initials preceding names of ships (e.g., HMS, RMS, USS). In addition, you should only italicize the names of individual vehicles. If you’re writing the name of a brand or make of a vehicle (e.g., Ford Escort or Boeing 747), by comparison, you don’t need italics.

Italicizing Non-English Words

Make sure to italicize any non-English words you use in English-language writing. This shows the reader that the word was borrowed from another language. For instance, we could say:

In Germany, this feeling is known as Waldeinsamkeit.

The exact rules for when to italicize foreign words may vary depending on the style guide you check. For instance, most style guides make exceptions for words that are now fairly common in English even if they are still loanwords, so you would not usually need to italicize terms like “raison d’être.”

If in doubt, though, you can always check a good dictionary (e.g., the OED or Webster’s). Assuming you can find the word in the dictionary, it should be widely used enough in English to write without italics.

Italicizing Species Names

Binomial nomenclature (i.e., the Latin names given to plant and animal species) is usually italicized. For example, we could say:

Nobody wants Amorphophallus titanum growing in their garden.

As above, you should also capitalize the first word (i.e., the genus) in scientific plant and animal names, but not the second term (i.e., the species).

Other Uses for Italics

There are occasions when you may want to use italics not covered above. In fact, italics are useful for most situations where you need to make some part of a text distinct. One example comes from creative writing, where some people use italics to indicate an unspoken thought. For instance, we could use italics to show a character’s inner monologue:

Jeff sat silently in the doctor’s office. It wasn’t his usual doctor, so he was already nervous before the needle appeared.

“Don’t worry,” said the doctor. “It won’t hurt.”

Easy for you to say, Jeff thought. It’s not you at the sharp end of that thing. But he kept this to himself, instead uttering a meek “OK.”

However you use italics, though, there are two main rules to follow:

1. Try not to use italics for too many different reasons in a single document. For instance, if you are writing something with a lot of titles and foreign words, you may want to find a different way of formatting emphasis.
2. If you use italicized text for any part of a document, apply it consistently. So, for instance, if you’re using italics for loanwords in one part of an essay, you’ll want to do the same throughout the document.

And if you need anyone to check your use of italics in a document, our editors are here to help. Just submit your work for proofreading today.

8. Policies are put into practice (i_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _) by the Group Management Committee.

9. The Group Management Committee consists of members of the Board of Management and chairmen of most of the product sectors (d_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ).

10. The Group Management Committee serves to ensure that important matters (i _ _ _ _ _) and ways of doing business (p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ) are shared across the company.

ТЕКСТ
The Philips Story

The foundations of the world’s biggest electronics company were laid in

1891 when Gerard Philips established a company in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, to manufacture light bulbs and other electrical products. In the beginning, it concentrated on making carbon-filament lamps and by the tum of the century was one of the largest producers in Europe. Developments in new lighting technologies fuelled a steady programme of expansion and, in 1914, it established a research laboratory to stimulate product innovation.

In the 1920s, Philips decided to protect its innovations in X-ray radiation and radio reception with patents. This marked the beginning of the diversification of its product range. Since then, Philips has continued to develop new and exciting product ideas like the compact disc, which it launched in 1983.Other interesting landmarks include the production of Philips’ 100-millionthTV set in 1984 and 250-millionth Philishave electric shaver in 1989.

The Philips Company

Philips’ headquarters are still in Eindhoven. It employs 256,400 people all over the world, and hassales and service outlets in 150 countries. Research laboratories are located in six countries, staffed by some 3,000 scientists. It also has an impressive global network of some 400 designers spread over twenty-five locations. Its shares are listed on sixteen stock exchanges in nine countries and it is active in about 100 businesses, including lighting, monitors, shavers and colour picture tubes; each day its factories turn out a total of 50 million integrated circuits.

The Philips People

Royal Philips Electronics is managed by the Board of Management, which looks after the general direction and long-term strategy of the

Philips group as a whole. The Supervisory Board monitors the general course of business of the Philips group as well as advising the Board of Management and supervising its policies. These policies are implemented by the Group Management Committee, which consists of the members of the Board of Management, chairmen of most of the product divisions and some other key officers. The Group Management Committee also serves to ensure that business issues and practices are shared across the various activities in the group.

The company creed is ‘Let’s make things better’. It is committed to making better products and systems and contributing to improving the quality of people’s work and life. One recent example of this is its ‘Genie’ mobile phone. To dial a number you just have to say it aloud. Its Web TV Internet terminal brings the excitement of cyberspace into the living room. And on travels around the world,whether passing the Eiffel Tower in Paris, walking across London’s Tower Bridge, or witnessing the beauty of the ancient pyramids of Giza, you don’t have to wonder any more who lit these world famous landmarks, it was Philips.