When dialog is italicized, should the quotation marks be italicized as well?
For example, in the following exchange,
"Shut up!" she yelled. "I can't think when you ramble."
(For context, it's for a novel or online story publication.) I want to emphasize the two words shut up using italics. Normally, if there was only one word or a part of a sentence emphasized, I would only italicize that word or part:
"I said there were three people missing. Can't you ever listen?"
Clearly, only the word is italicized. What if the whole dialog is emphasized? Which is correct:
"Shut up!" she yelled. (only the two words are italicized)
"Shut up!" she yelled (the exclamation mark is italicized)
"Shut up!" she yelled (the whole sentence, including quotation marks, is italicized.)
Or are none of these correct?
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1 answer
Purely a question of formatting aesthetics.
If it's a personal story or you're distributing it, do whatever you like. (I would italicize everything, including the quote marks so they hug the italic text nicely.)
If you're being published professionally, the publisher will have its own style guide and formatting preference.
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