Library of Formatting Examples:Italics/42A

Page image

Correctly formatted text

the table. All eyes were fixed on him. "<i>Well, Miss Eliza</i>,"
said he, addressing the elegant Miss E. Sitgreaves, "<i>can
you set these little dogs a dancing?</i>" "<i>No indeed, I can't</i>,"
replied she. "<i>Well</i>," replied he, "<i>if I had such a pair of
eyes as you have, I think I could do it.</i>" She blushed. "<i>However,
let us see</i>,"  continued he, "<i>if we can't do something.</i>"

Ownership of punctuation

This example involves some "judgment calls."

These sentences use italicized dialog, with the speakers identified in upright text. The first one ("Well, Miss Eliza,") is a question, and the "?" obviously goes with it, inside the markup. The second one ("No indeed, I can't,") is straightforward. However....

The third and fourth ones ("Well, ... I think I could do it." and "However, let us see,...") are italicized, but contain upright text. So, where should their periods go?

The Guidelines section on "Placement of Inline Formatting Markup" says, "Place punctuation outside the tags unless the markup is around an entire sentence or paragraph, or the punctuation is itself part of the phrase, title, or abbreviation that you are marking."

One interpretation is that the markup is not around an entire sentence, so the period should go outside the markups. Another interpretation is that the entire sentence is italicized, and the upright text is just a descriptor inserted in the middle, so the period should go inside (as shown here).

Suggestion: if this occurs just a couple of times in a project, leave a note, regardless of how you format it. If it occurs frequently (there were hundreds of them in this Project), ASK about it in the Project Discussion. (You can include a recommendation, with an explanation of why you prefer to do it one way or the other. If you receive an authoritative answer, follow it; if not, you've called attention to the situation and documented it.)