The Dream Café


At last, proof of what we all knew


When submitting a manuscript, italicized passages should be underlined. Why? It makes it easier for the editor to read.

When printed, italicized passages should be in, well, italics. Why? It makes it easier for people to read.

Editors are not people. QED.


Author: corwin



  1. Thank you for confirming this.

  2. If you’da ast me… I coulda toldja!

  3. Leaving the question of exactly what they are, then…

  4. Explains my aunt.
    (retired editor for the old Holt, Rhinehardt and Winston).

  5. Well, the underline tells the printer that it’s to be italicized, which is clearer for them when they’re changing the text to whatever font your book designer decides. Goes back a long way, of course, to pre-computer days, but it’s still a useful convention.

    Not that editors are people. I suppose that’s part of why, after graduating the Denver Publishing Institute, I went into coal mining. Well, that, and money.

  6. corwin

    Coal mining. Yeah. I should have gone into that.

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