Emphasis

By Geoff Hart

Previously published as: Hart, G. 2018. Emphasis. World Translation Services, Japan. <https://www.worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun58/index.html>

In English writing, we often want to emphasize a word or a group of words (a phrase). Readers make their own choices about what is important to them, and we cannot control those choices, but as authors, we can guide their choice towards the points that we consider to be most important or help them notice something we consider important. When it’s necessary to be explicit, we can use words such as “note” or phrases such as “it’s particularly important that”. But sometimes we want to emphasize something more subtly. To accomplish that, we can use two visual tools provided by our word processors: boldface and italics.

Boldface

Boldface format is a visual alteration of the text that makes it darker and thicker. Because the human eye is skilled at detecting differences between dark and light, boldfaced text is highly visible. This is why we use boldface for headings, such as the title of this article and the heading that begins this section: when readers examine a page of text, they are often looking for something specific, such as the start of a section. Boldfaced headings are difficult to miss, making this format a powerful tool for helping our readers navigate through a document. This is also why we use boldface at the start of paragraphs that begin with one or a few boldfaced words. For example:

Note: The phrases “Before you begin:” and “Caution:” are often boldfaced.

These words are called run-in headings because the heading runs into the text that follows instead of being separate, but like regular headings, the boldface words still attract attention.

Changes in formatting are also used when we want to warn the reader that we are using a word or phrase differently from how it would ordinarily be used. For example, in computer software documentation, the names of menus are often boldfaced; thus, I might refer to the Menu menu. Boldface is also commonly used to indicate that a word is the name of a vector or matrix; for example, I is often used to represent the identity matrix, and a might be used for a vector name. In the previous sentence, “I” does not mean the writer of this article (I = me) and “a” does not mean “one of a group of items” (e.g., “a manuscript”). Readers can figure this out by themselves, but using boldface as a clue helps them receive the correct meaning with far less mental effort.

The problem with boldface is that it’s hard to ignore because it stands out so strongly from the background text. This is why it’s so useful for headings and warning words such as “Caution:” but not useful for long phrases. If you overuse boldface format, your manuscript will look like someone spilled a bottle of ink across the page. When we want a subtler form of emphasis that readers will still notice, but without being distracted, we use italics instead.

Italics

Italics is a slanted form of text that resembles cursive handwriting, in which the letters of words are joined together rather than separated. This contrasts clearly from the common upright (vertical) text that forms the majority of the text. The italics format received its name because this typographic format was first developed and widely used in Italy. Confusingly, the upright text is called “Roman”, even though Rome is in Italy. English is not always logical!

In contrast with boldface, italics makes the italicized text seem lighter than the surrounding words. Again, the human eye detects such variations easily, and tells readers to pay attention to the italicized words. Before computers made formatting easy, this emphasis was most often achieved by underlining, but underlining is nearly as obtrusive as boldface and is currently rarely used. The only common use of underlining is to indicate a Web address (because this is how early Web pages indicated links to other pages) and for headings.

Italics format is used to identify non-English words, so you’ll often see it used for Japanese words such as satoyama. It is also commonly used when English words or letters are not being used in their usual sense, such as in the names of variables. For example, I could be used to mean inputs of some substance, and the italics format clarifies that it does not mean me (the writer) or a matrix variable (which would be boldfaced). Italics can also be used for gene names; the non-italicized form of that word then represents the protein encoded by the gene.

Italics is often used to highlight definitions or to introduce a new term that you will then define. For example, “we use the word emphasis to describe changes in the appearance of text using formatting such as italics and boldface”. Italics can also be used to format quotations, such as the following reminder from the Englishman Alexander Pope that we should retain old rules that work until new rules prove, over time, to be superior:

“In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold;

Alike fantastic, if too new, or old:

Be not the first by whom the new are tried,

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”

― Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

As I’ve shown in the previous line, italics format is also used to identify a title; again, the format makes the words appear different from the surrounding text, which alerts the reader that they should not read the words as ordinary words within the sentence. Instead, they represent a single object (e.g., the title of an essay, a definition). Also note that the effect produces weaker emphasis than boldface, and is thus less distracting to the reader’s eyes. Or course, you can also overuse italics, so try to use it only for emphasis.

Boldly go… but not too boldly!

Emphasis is like wasabi: a little bit improves the experience, but too much conceals the flavor. Use emphasis conservatively, for only the most important points, and you’ll find that it improves the taste of your writing by helping readers identify and focus on your most tasty points.