Emphasis in a Paragraph

How to Create a Perfect Emphasis in a Paragraph

Emphasis as an important element of writing. Quotation marks and italics are, probably, the most important instruments of making an emphasis in a paragraph. Quotation marks and italics are used to emphasize the meaning of the word. This is particularly the case of translated words or words borrowed from a foreign language. Italics and quotation marks are frequently used to underline the ironic meaning of the word/ sentence. These are also the ways used to mark the most important words in the sentence.

You can emphasize the meaning/ word in a sentence/ paragraph you can use three different instruments: these are underlined words, italics, and quotation marks.

Italicizing is used for keywords, titles, and foreign terms.

Keywords: use italics to emphasize keywords

Titles: use italics to emphasize the titles of articles, books, names of periodicals, as well as other titles in your essay.

Foreign terms: use italics to emphasize words or phrases borrowed from a foreign language.

Remember that balance is the best way to create a good piece of writing. Do not over-use italics or other instruments of making an emphasis. Good writers use italicized words occasionally, only when they can help to make sentences more efficient. The more italics you use the weaker its role in the sentence becomes.

Use italics only when the word, phrase, or title is used for the first time. Write these words and phrases in plain text when you use them later in the paper.

How to use quotation marks

1. Quotation marks can help emphasize the meaning of a word/ phrase, when used for slang words, coined words and nicknames, as well as words and phrases that have an implicit ironic meaning. Again, use quotation marks only when the discussed word/ phrase is used for the first time. Do not use quotation marks when you mention the same word/ phrase later in the text.
2. Quotation marks can emphasize the meaning of a common word, when used in an unusual sense. You can use quotation marks to enclose a common word, when it is used in an unusual context and does not make a clear sense.
3. Quotation marks can be used to emphasize foreign words/ phrases. The most appropriate is the use of quotation marks for the words that were translated from a foreign language or are foreign by themselves.
4. Quotation marks can be used to enclose titles of essays, short poems, radio programs, TV programs, short poems and songs, as well as parts of published papers and even names of electronic files.

Underlining is probably the most appropriate and preferred type of an emphasis to be used in MLA formatting. The principles and rules of underlining are the same as for italics.