HIGHLIGHTING AND EMPHASIS
Highlighting describes the use of typographical effects to call attention to the text. This
might include using italics, bold, capitalization, quotation marks, or color. Highlighting
calls readers’ attention to actions they must take or information they must consider
carefully.
GENERAL HIGHLIGHTING GUIDELINES: Consider the following when you
want to emphasize certain areas of your document:
o Used in excess, highlighting can lose its ability to emphasize and can
become busy and distracting. This can drive away rather than help the
reader.
o Use emphasis techniques consistently to prevent readers from becoming
confused.
o To promote consistency, use a style guide or style sheet to record and
dictate all decisions you make about document design and formatting.
o To help readers understand your highlighting scheme, you can include a
brief section somewhere in your document (usually in the preface)
explaining how you will use the emphasis techniques.
BOLD: In this class, you will primarily use the bold-formatted font to indicate
section headings within your document, but here are some other common,
standard uses of bold:
o Simple emphasis. Some technical texts use bold for simple emphasis
instead of traditional italics.
o Computer texts (like software instruction manuals) commonly use bold for
commands. Likewise, they will use bold to indicate specific buttons the
reader should press.
o Field labels. Some computer texts use bold to indicate field labels or
specific areas on a page. This, however, can result in too much
highlighting.
o Two-column lists. Bold is typically used to emphasize items in the left of a
two-column list.
ITALICS: Here are some of the standard uses for italics:
o Simple emphasis. Traditionally, italics are used to emphasize words or
phrases within the text.
o Two-column lists. While bold is more common for the items in the left
column of a two-column list, italics are also used.
o Terms when defined. When a term is defined in regular text, it is often
italicized.
UNDERLINING: Underlining is rarely used in modern technical writing: Bold and
italic font is usually the default for emphasizing text. However, underlining is
occasionally used in heading design.
CAPITALIZATION: The overuse of capital letters is distracting, and all-caps text
is uncomfortable to read. As a general rule, capitalize the first letters of proper
nouns only, as you would in other forms of writing. Here are some typical
guidelines for capitalization:
Highlighting describes the use of typographical effects to call attention to the text. This
might include using italics, bold, capitalization, quotation marks, or color. Highlighting
calls readers’ attention to actions they must take or information they must consider
carefully.
GENERAL HIGHLIGHTING GUIDELINES: Consider the following when you
want to emphasize certain areas of your document:
o Used in excess, highlighting can lose its ability to emphasize and can
become busy and distracting. This can drive away rather than help the
reader.
o Use emphasis techniques consistently to prevent readers from becoming
confused.
o To promote consistency, use a style guide or style sheet to record and
dictate all decisions you make about document design and formatting.
o To help readers understand your highlighting scheme, you can include a
brief section somewhere in your document (usually in the preface)
explaining how you will use the emphasis techniques.
BOLD: In this class, you will primarily use the bold-formatted font to indicate
section headings within your document, but here are some other common,
standard uses of bold:
o Simple emphasis. Some technical texts use bold for simple emphasis
instead of traditional italics.
o Computer texts (like software instruction manuals) commonly use bold for
commands. Likewise, they will use bold to indicate specific buttons the
reader should press.
o Field labels. Some computer texts use bold to indicate field labels or
specific areas on a page. This, however, can result in too much
highlighting.
o Two-column lists. Bold is typically used to emphasize items in the left of a
two-column list.
ITALICS: Here are some of the standard uses for italics:
o Simple emphasis. Traditionally, italics are used to emphasize words or
phrases within the text.
o Two-column lists. While bold is more common for the items in the left
column of a two-column list, italics are also used.
o Terms when defined. When a term is defined in regular text, it is often
italicized.
UNDERLINING: Underlining is rarely used in modern technical writing: Bold and
italic font is usually the default for emphasizing text. However, underlining is
occasionally used in heading design.
CAPITALIZATION: The overuse of capital letters is distracting, and all-caps text
is uncomfortable to read. As a general rule, capitalize the first letters of proper
nouns only, as you would in other forms of writing. Here are some typical
guidelines for capitalization:
