27 April 2014
In historical writing and citing, italics have one purpose: emphasis. We most commonly see them used in five ways:
- For foreign words that are not common to the language in which we are writing.
- When speaking of a word "as a word." (For example: The word italics is not normally capitalized in the middle of a sentence.)
- For the names of ships.
- For a subhead or a word or point that otherwise needs strong emphasis.
- (In citations) to signify the title of a standalone publication such as a book, a journal, a website, etc.
The sin, where italics is concerned, is gluttony—over consumption. In citations, we sin when we put every title in italics, regardless of what kind of item we're citing. In narrative writing, we sin when we lace our prose with rivers of that slanted, hard-to-read type.
An occasional use of italics for emphasis can helpfully flag key points. A rare sentence, in italics, can snap a reader to attention. But emphasis, like cussing, loses its impact when overdone.
EE discusses many more nuances for the use of italics. Start with the index page 858.