Viva Italics
“Good words are better than bad strokes.”
In honor of Two-American-Attorneys-With-Italian-Names-in-the-Same-Appellate-Practice month (an event I just invented), let us pay homage to an oft-used typeface in our profession: italics.
Printer Aldus Manutius first used italics in Venice around 1500 to replicate the cursive handwriting of Italian humanists. Italics derived its name from the Latin “italicus,” which means “from Italy.”
Perhaps Jacob Vanzin and I should write our names only in italics henceforth. I don’t know the rule about that.
But I do know this: the typeface replication of my handwriting would have to be referred to as jacksonpollitalics (derived from the Latin for “ink splattered illegibly on a page.”) Thank you, typing!*
But seriously (semi-seriously), in our profession, italics are used primarily for emphasis. We also use italics when we add e-signatures to documents, or attorney designations at the end of signature blocks. Other applications include foreign words and phrases, letters representing hypothetical parties, places, or things, the lowercase “l” when used as a subdivision to distinguish it from the numeral “1,” and mathematical expressions. According to The Bluebook, “Id.” should always be italicized. (See Id.) Oh, yes, also use italics for titles of plays that you quote in your blog posts.
Ultimately, the scope of use regarding italics is up to you, dear writers. Note that the AWLD Guide to Legal Citation instructs us to “[e]mphasize words by italicizing them, but use this technique sparingly.” (Emphasis added.) I cannot overemphasize this. (Okay, maybe I can. Emphatically.)
However you choose to apply this five-hundred-and-twenty-six-year-old writing device, I hope you will join me in saying: Grazie, Aldus Manutius, for giving us an elegant way to turn our good words into emphatic strokes.
[*No paralegals with Scottish (non-Italian) names like Brandon Boyd were fired for taking cracks at my handwriting in this post.]
