How to Add Emphasis to Your Writing

How to Add Emphasis to Your Writing How to Add Emphasis to Your Writing How to Add Emphasis to Your Writing By Mark Nichol Some people consider italics and boldface type and quotation marks, when they’re used other than as dialogue markers to be just so many noisy bells and whistles. They often are, when they’re misused, but when they’re employed correctly and strategically, they send strong signals. The following rules apply primarily for books and magazines. 1. Italics Italics, based on handwriting script, serve several functions. They identify the titles of stand-alone creative works like books, films and television series, and paintings. But parts of compositions chapters, episodes of TV shows, short poems collected into anthologies, and the like are enclosed in quotation marks. They denote a word that would be stressed if spoken: â€Å"Stop the car I really have to go to the bathroom.† They indicate a word being introduced as itself, not as an idea: â€Å"Write, right, and rite are all pronounced identically.† Terms of more than one word are often enclosed in quotation marks, but this format may look awkward when used inconsistently alongside single italicized words, so self-referring phrases are often italicized as well (â€Å"it’s rank and file, not rank in file†). They also identify letters used as such: â€Å"The letter n on that sign is backward.† But letters compared to shapes (â€Å"turn right at the Y in the road†; â€Å"I watched a graceful V of geese fly overhead†) are set in roman type. (The lowercase term roman refers to the default type style.) The same is true for names of letters used in expressions (â€Å"dot your i’s and cross your t’s†). They signal the use of an unfamiliar foreign term: â€Å"The Roman legatus was the equivalent of a general in a modern army.† Note, however, that many words you might think are foreign have been adopted into English, that most welcoming of languages. Check your dictionary’s main section (not the foreign-words appendix); if a foreign term appears there, no italics are necessary. Also, foreign proper nouns need no emphasis. The rule of thumb for repetition of foreign terms is to italicize on first reference only, and leave them in roman type when they recur. Use your judgment, though, depending on the frequency and interval of recurrence. 2. Boldface Boldface lettering is best reserved for display type (chapter and section titles and the like). But they’re often used in textbooks and other learning materials to emphasize newly introduced terms, such as those that would appear in a glossary or be on a vocabulary quiz. Otherwise, this type style is the printed or posted equivalent of shouting. 3. Quotation Marks Quotation marks are often used as what are called scare quotes - emphasis markers that communicate novelty, irony, or a nontraditional use of a word or phrase. Writers overuse scare quotes. Except in special cases, they should trust readers to understand the unusual use of a word or phrase. The context in â€Å"I played dumb,† for example, precludes the need for a visual hint to the reader that the writer’s stupidity was an act, but â€Å"I had a ‘fit’ so she’d go away† may need a subtle clue that the tantrum was feigned. (Fit appears in single, not double, quotation marks here because they’re used within double quotes.) Newspapers traditionally omit emphasis because formatting it is time consuming, and many web sites have the same policy, but the many exceptions in both cases or using quotation marks in place of italics, as often seen on this site acknowledge that italics and judicious use of boldface and scare quotes aid comprehension. Just don’t have a fit and go â€Å"overboard.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Words for Facial ExpressionsList of Greek Words in the English LanguageNominalized Verbs

Role and Importance of Children in the Middle Ages

Role and Importance of Children in the Middle Ages Of all the misconceptions about the Middle Ages, some of the most difficult to overcome involve life for medieval children and their place in society. It is a popular notion that there was no recognition of childhood in medieval society and children were treated like miniature adults as soon as they could walk and talk. However, scholarship on the topic by medievalists provides a different account of children in the Middle Ages. Of course, it is not correct to assume that medieval attitudes were identical or even similar to modern ones. But, it can be argued that childhood was recognized as a phase of life, and one that had value, at that time. Concept of Childhood One of the most frequently mentioned arguments for the non-existence of childhood in the Middle Ages is that representative of children in medieval artwork depicts them in adult clothing. If they wore grown-up clothes, the theory goes, they must have been expected to behave like grown-ups. However, while there certainly isnt a great deal of medieval artwork that depicted children other than the Christ Child, the examples that survive do not universally display them in adult garb. Additionally, medieval laws existed to protect the rights of orphans. For example, in medieval London, laws were careful to place an orphaned child with someone who could not benefit from his or her death. Also, medieval medicine approached the treatment of children separately from adults. In general, children were recognized as vulnerable, and in need of special protection. Concept of Adolescence   The idea that adolescence was not recognized as a category of development separate from both childhood and adulthood is a more subtle distinction. The primary evidence concerning this outlook is the lack of any term for the modern-day word adolescence. If they didnt have a word for it, they didnt comprehend it as a stage in life. This argument also leaves something to be desired, especially as medieval people did not use the terms feudalism or courtly love though those practices definitely existed at the time. Inheritance laws set the age of majority at 21, expecting a certain level of maturity before entrusting a young individual with financial responsibility.   Importance of Children There is a general perception that, in the Middle Ages, children were not valued by their families or by society as a whole. Perhaps no time in history has sentimentalized infants,  toddlers, and waifs as has modern culture, but it doesnt necessarily follow that children were undervalued in earlier times. In part, a lack of representation in medieval popular culture is responsible for this perception. Contemporary chronicles and biographies that include childhood details are few and far between. Literature of the times rarely touched on the heros tender years, and medieval artwork offering visual clues about children other than the Christ Child is almost nonexistent. This lack of representation in and of itself has led some observers to conclude that children were of limited interest, and therefore of limited importance, to medieval society at large. On the other hand, it is important to remember that medieval society was primarily an agrarian one. And the family unit made the agrarian economy work. From an economic standpoint, nothing was more valuable to a peasant family than sons to help with the plowing and daughters to help with the household. To have children were, essentially, one of the primary reason to marry.   Among the nobility, children would perpetuate the family name and increase the familys holdings through advancement in service to their liege lords and through advantageous marriages. Some of these unions were planned while the bride and groom-to-be were still in the cradle. In the face of these  facts,  it is difficult to argue that people of the Middle Ages were any less aware that children were their future then people are aware today that children are the future of the modern world.   Question of Affection Few aspects of life in the  Middle Ages  can be more difficult to determine than the nature and depth of the emotional attachments made among family members. It is perhaps natural for us to assume that in a society that placed a high value on its younger members, most parents loved their children. Biology alone would suggest a bond between a child and the mother who nursed him or her. And yet, it has been theorized that affection was largely lacking in the medieval household. Some of the reasons that have been put forward to support this notion include rampant infanticide, high infant mortality, the use of child labor and extreme discipline.   Further Reading If you are interested in the topic of childhood in medieval times,  Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in History  by Barbara A. Hanawalt,  Medieval Children  by Nicholas Orme, Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages by Joseph Gies and Frances Gies and The Ties that Bound by Barbara Hanawalt may be good reads for you.