The Use of Quotation Marks and Italics to Introduce Unfamiliar Terms

Abstract

Quotation marks and italics—two devices for giving special typographic treatment to words—are customarily used when a writer is introducing unfamiliar terms. The purpose of this as-yet-unexplained convention is to prevent the reader from experiencing a moment of apprehension in sentences in which an unfamiliar term appears several words or more before its explanation. The quotation marks or italics signal the reader that the writer knows the term is probably unfamiliar and that the term will therefore be explained. In those few instances in which unfamiliar terms are not explained, the reader infers that an explanation is not necessary for a productive reading of the text. This convention is less functional when the unfamiliar term is followed immediately by its explanation and is nonfunctional when the explanation precedes the term.