The Grammarnator will comment this week on the publication of his column last week, and give the Insider something to ponder about its own practices.
“Tomas assured us that the chemicals could probably be safely mixed, but his probably stuck in our minds.” – A Pocket Style Manual, by, by Diane Hacker.
“What does our imply?” – Quick Access Reference for Writers, by Lynn Quitman Troyka.
“The commonest English word is the.” – English Grammar and Composition, by John E. Warriner.
In these examples, probably, our, and the are all italicized because they are words being used as words. For as long as I’ve been reading and writing, I have regarded this italicization as standard usage.
Therefore, when I submit to the Insider a sentence like “Outside and our friend in are adverbs in this exchange,” I respectfully request that the sentence be printed with the italics. If the Insider can cite another manual of style to show that my preference is obsolete and thereby justify its omission of the italics, I will be happy to withdraw my objection.
(Editor’s note: Common newspaper style dictates that we use quotation marks, as opposed to italics, in these situations. That’s what we’ll do from now on.)