Italics
Italics
Italics (slanted type in printing) are indicated in a typed or handwritten manuscript by underlining.
1. Use italics for titles of books, magazines, plays, movies, long musical compositions, and names of trains, planes, and ships.
I read Austin Warren's Rage for Order.
Esquire is one of my favourite magazines.
We saw Alee Guinness in The Horse's Mouth.
We sailed on the Cristoforo Colombo.
Jim Frantz gave us Menotti's The Medium for Christmas.
Mort Walker directed Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding.
2. Use italics to emphasize a word or larger element in a sentence or to refer to a word as a word.
Moderation and pragmatism are the key terms to describe his fiscal policies.
The dictionary under the word run lists dozens of meanings. Note: Do not overuse italics for emphasis.
3. Use italics to indicate a foreign word or phrase which has not been fully adopted as an English word. Check the dictionary to see whether the foreign word or phrase you want to use is so regarded.
His motto was ars gratia artis, which means "art for art's sake."
I thought the bullfighter would never deliver the coup de grace.
He received a per diem allowance while on the trip. (Note that the phrase "per diem," a Latin phrase, is now a fully naturalized English term and, hence, is not italicized.)
Hyphens
The Hyphen [ - ]
1. Use a hyphen to divide a word at the end of a line. But note:
• Words of one syllable cannot be divided (this includes verbs such as "worked"),
• Words of more than one syllable can be divided only between syllables. (Consult the dictionary.)
• Suffixes of fewer than three letters should not be separated from the rest of the word.
• Never divide a word so that only one letter stands at the end of the line.
• Hyphenated words should be divided only at the hyphen.
2. Use a hyphen between parts of a compound modifier preceding a noun except when the compound includes an adverb ending in ly. Compound modifiers following a noun are usually not hyphenated.
It was their twenty-fifth anniversary.
(All compound numerical modifiers between twenty-one and ninety-nine are hyphenated.)
She was a well-dressed woman.
The woman was well dressed.
(Here the compound follows the noun.)
She was a smartly dressed woman.
(Here the compound includes an adverb ending in ly.)
3. Use the dictionary to check on the hyphenation of other compound words. The practice of hyphenating words varies, and dictionaries seek to show the prevailing current practices. The main thing is to be consistent in one's treatment of any particular compound word.