Publishers’ style guides are like grammar in that they should aid the reader’s comprehension. The problem is, like with grammar, too often these guides become ends unto themselves and get in the way of the reader’s comprehension and enjoyment.
There are a couple of things that prompted me to write about
this. First is the relatively recent move toward not capitalizing certain
proper nouns. Let’s look at a couple of examples:
·
A building may have seven floors, but the one on
top should be the Seventh Floor, as it refers to a specific floor.
·
You can put a car in gear, but if you’re going
to be specific about which gear, it should be Park or Drive or Reverse.
A noun refers to a person, place, or thing. A proper noun
refers to a specific person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are
capitalized. To do other is incorrect. Not because it’s a rule. Because it’s
confusing.
A more recent development is in the use of italics to
replace quotation marks in places other than dialog. For example:
Will said, “John told them he was an expert. The fact
is, he doesn’t know his ass from his elbow about it.”
This makes the reader think Will emphasized “expert” when he
did not. The traditional way, which is also easier to understand on first
reading is
Will said, “John told them he was an ‘expert.’ The fact is, he
doesn’t know his ass from his elbow about it.”
Readers expect italics to indicate one of four things:
·
Emphasis of a word or phrase.
·
Internal monolog.
·
The title of a book, movie, magazine, or
newspaper.
·
A section of a book that is set apart from the
rest of the text, such as a flashback scene or chapter.
Using italics in lieu of quotation marks puts the reader in
mind of one of these four things and requires her to re-read the section to get
the proper interpretation. People should only read a passage twice because they
want to savor it, not because it confuses them.
The purpose of everything that goes on the printed page is
to convey what the author intended as directly as possible to the reader’s
mind. Anything that aids that is fine. Anything that works against that is
wrong.
I’ll have more to say on the grammar front next week.
4 comments:
I am 100% with you. House style is crippling to a writer who knows what words and marks should be. I also disagree with the trend not to italicize words in a foreign language, the excuse being that to do so creates a division, English vs “others.” Writing historical fiction, I use French, Latin, German, and Chinese in the midst of an English narrative. Reading my galleys makes me twitch!
Good point about not italicizing foreign words. There are a lot of words in other languages that are spelled the same, or very close to, the English word, but mean not at all the same thing. The sole purpose of things such as italics and punctuation is to make things easier for the reader, not to come up with arbitrary rules they have to wade through.
Dana, absolutely with you on italicization - the rules are well-established and clear. I'm wondering whether car gears are proper nouns. Would you write, "She put the car in First Gear?"
Charles,
I engaged in a conversation with Peter Rozovsky about a similar example on Facebook. Off the top of my head, I would think 'first gear' would be fine, though if the phrase were 'She put the car into First," I'd capitalize, though I acknowledge my rationale is not as clear cut there.
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