On the use of Italics
This post originally appeared on instagram.
Sometimes I get a little pushback on my use of italics. But I love the subtle ways emphasis shades the tone or changes the meaning of a word.
Italics reveal what’s truly important to us — something easy to do with spoken language, but much harder to accomplish in writing.
They can give a static sentence on the page a jaunty lilt that just sounds more human.
That’s what it is, more than anything. It makes writing sound more human.
If there’s any takeaway here, I guess it’s that. I think we should all strive to be a little more human in the way we talk about our work — whether you use italics or not.
