Re: Cleaning House

David Woolley wrote:

> In most other fields of endeavour, it is just understood
 > as part of the general rules of style.  E.g. a newspaper
 > might italicise ship names, but it would have a key saying
 > that that was what it was doing.

With the first part of this assertion, I agree 100%; but the
first part is in conflict with the second part, and I cannot
think of a single newspaper that glosses "house style" for
the benefit of the first-time reader.  If one is /really/
uncertain why a particular stretch of text is italicised,
one could consult Hart [1] to see the normal usages for
italics in current practice.

Philip Taylor
--------
Hart’s Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford