{"id":5408,"date":"2023-01-18T15:17:56","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T15:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/?p=5408"},"modified":"2025-09-22T09:00:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T09:00:36","slug":"stop-underlining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/stop-underlining\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop underlining"},"content":{"rendered":"[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”]\n\t\t\t[et_pb_row admin_label=”row”]\n\t\t\t\t[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underlining inside your text can be useful for emphasis when you write longhand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was useful when your ancestors typed on a typewriter. \u201cUnderlining is an unsightly relic from the typewriter era, when italics weren\u2019t usually available.\u201d Bryan A. Garner, \u2018Ban Underlining in your legal documents,\u2019 LawProse Lesson 271,\u00a0lawprose.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a typewriter, our ancestors used underlining to simulate italics. Italics are \u201cthe print equivalent of underlining.\u201d Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation<\/em> (Gotham Books, 2004), 146.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you can italicize to your heart\u2019s content on your computer, device, or tablet. Now, you emphasize, when you must, with italics and sometimes with boldface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoid using underlining for emphasis, for instance, to highlight your prayer or relief in an application or other court document, or to set out the questions for determination in a brief, or to set out a corporate resolution. Underlined text is not as easy to read as free text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underlining can obscure, if not obliterate, the descenders of these lowercase letters: f, g, j, p, q, and y. Underlining also obscures commas and semicolons. Underlined text is unkind to the human eye. \u201cUnderlining is ugly, both on-screen and in printouts.\u201d Bryan A. Garner, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style<\/em>, 4th ed. (West Academic Publishing, 2018), 85.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For headings, prefer boldface to underlining. Use boldface for your letters\u2019 subject lines. Don\u2019t combine boldface and underlining in your headings or anywhere else: that\u2019s the stylistic equivalent of wearing a belt and suspenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s another reason you shouldn\u2019t underline: your work may end up on the Internet. On webpages, underlining signifies a hyperlink. Your underlined text will create confusion unless the word or phrase you underline is actually a hyperlink. Readers who click on your presumed hyperlinks will be frustrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinua Asuzu, Learned Writing<\/em>, (Partridge, 2019), 473\u2013474.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/gwmw><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column]\n\t\t\t[\/et_pb_row]\n\t\t[\/et_pb_section]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Underlining is an unsightly relic from the typewriter era<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underlining inside your text can be useful for emphasis when you write longhand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was useful when your ancestors typed on a typewriter. \u201cUnderlining is an unsightly relic from the typewriter era, when italics weren\u2019t usually available.\u201d Bryan A. Garner, \u2018Ban Underlining in your legal documents,\u2019 LawProse Lesson 271,\u00a0lawprose.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a typewriter, our ancestors used underlining to simulate italics. Italics are \u201cthe print equivalent of underlining.\u201d Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation<\/em> (Gotham Books, 2004), 146.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you can italicize to your heart\u2019s content on your computer, device, or tablet. Now, you emphasize, when you must, with italics and sometimes with boldface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoid using underlining for emphasis, for instance, to highlight your prayer or relief in an application or other court document, or to set out the questions for determination in a brief, or to set out a corporate resolution. Underlined text is not as easy to read as free text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underlining can obscure, if not obliterate, the descenders of these lowercase letters: f, g, j, p, q, and y. Underlining also obscures commas and semicolons. Underlined text is unkind to the human eye. \u201cUnderlining is ugly, both on-screen and in printouts.\u201d Bryan A. Garner, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style<\/em>, 4th ed. (West Academic Publishing, 2018), 85.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For headings, prefer boldface to underlining. Use boldface for your letters\u2019 subject lines. Don\u2019t combine boldface and underlining in your headings or anywhere else: that\u2019s the stylistic equivalent of wearing a belt and suspenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s another reason you shouldn\u2019t underline: your work may end up on the Internet. On webpages, underlining signifies a hyperlink. Your underlined text will create confusion unless the word or phrase you underline is actually a hyperlink. Readers who click on your presumed hyperlinks will be frustrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinua Asuzu, Learned Writing<\/em>, (Partridge, 2019), 473\u2013474.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/gwmw><\/p>\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[170,130,300],"class_list":["post-5408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-brief-writing-training","tag-legal-writing","tag-stop-underlining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5408"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6625,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5408\/revisions\/6625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}