The Chicago Manual of Style is the bible for how text is
presented in books. The Fourteenth Edition (section 5.4)
says this: "Generally, punctuation marks are printed in the same
style or font of type as the word, letter, character,
or symbol immediately preceding them."
And that's the way it should be, in my view (in most of the
examples that follow italicized text is also colored
green):
Look out! looks right, whereas Look out! looks awkward. Same
thing with "Say what?" looking better than either
"Say what?" or "Say what?"
But now The Chicago Manual of Style has changed its mind. The
new Fifteenth Edition (section 6.3 --
"Punctuation and font: primary system") delcares: "All
punctuation marks should appear in the same font --
roman or italic -- as the main or surrounding text, except for
punctuation that belongs to a title or an
exclamation in a different font.
CMS, 6.3: Punctuation and font: primary system -- All
punctuation marks should appear in the same font---roman
or italic---as the main or surrounding text, except for
punctuation that belongs to a title or an exclamation in a
different font...
6.6 ... parentheses and brackets should appear in the same
font---roman or italic---as the surrounding text, not in
that of the material they enclose.
This departure from Chicago's former usage serves both
simplicity and logic. For an alternative system, see 6.5."
These samples are given:
Smith played the title role in Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear;
after his final performance, during which many in
the audience wept, he announced his retirement.
An Apache Life-way: The Economic, Social, and Religious
Institutions of the Chiricahua Indians
Are you saying the wound was self-inflicted?
She is the author of What Next?
For light entertainment he reads King Lear!
The manual Online! is always at my elbow.
We heard his cries of "Help!"
he Fifteenth Edition's section 6.5 ("Punctuation and font:
alternative system") doesn't give you the option of using
the system from the Fourteenth Edition. Rather, it says:
"According to a more traditional system, periods, commas,
colons, and semicolons should appear in the same font as the
word, letter, character, or symbol immediately
preceding them if different from that of the main or surrounding
text". In the first example in 6.3, the first two
commas and the semicolon would be italic. Question marks and
exclamation points, however, should appear in the
same font as the immediately preceding word only if they belong
to a title or an exclamation (see examples in 6.3).
Punctuation with Italics
What about punctuation that appears after an italicized word or
phrase? The rules for punctuation and italics are a
little confusing. The traditional method, and the one explained
in the classic style book Words into Type (Prentice
Hall, 1974), states that commas, colons, and semicolons are set
in the typeface (italic or bold) of the preceding word. Quotation
marks, exclamation points, question marks, and parentheses are set
according to the overall
context of the sentence.
While the current Chicago Manual of Style (University of Chicago
Press, 2010) acknowledges this traditional
method, Chicago suggests that it be used, if at all, for print
publications only. The better rule, according to Chicago
and other more recent style manuals, is to put punctuation marks
in the same font as the main text unless the punctuation belongs
with the italicized word, such as a book title ending in an
exclamation point.
Punctuation marks should be in the same style or font of type as
the
word, letter, character, or symbol immediately preceding them,
as is
the case with the following question mark, semicolon, and
colon:
What is meant by random selection?
Luke 4:16a;
Point: one-twelfth of a pica
However, when a proper name is set in italics, the possessive
ending
(including the apostrophe) should be in roman:
the Pueblos captain
A question mark or exclamation point that immediately follows
an
italicized title and that is not part of the title should be set
in roman to
avoid misreading:
When did she write Together Again?
but
After she wrote What Next?
Parentheses and brackets that enclose italicized text may also
be set
in italics:
[continued]
(An exception is [sic].) However, if only one end of the
enclosed text
is italicized, the parentheses or brackets should be roman:
(he objected to the term handicapped)
Italicize the proper names of specific ships and submarines but
not the
accompanying abbreviations SS or HMS: HMS Shannon, SS United
States, CSS Alabama, Kiev-class submarine. Capitalize but do not
italicize
make of aircraft and ships and names of space programs:
Boeing
707, Project Apollo, ICBM, U-boat, DC-3. See also aircraft;
spacecraft.
Do not italicize titles of forms or put them in quotation
marks.
Instead, capitalize the main words: AF Form 673, Request to
Issue
Publication; AU Form 107, Request for Loan.
Italicize terms singled out as terms, and words referred to as
words (see also quotation marks):
