Punctuation gone bad

Most people, if they think of the editorial profession at all, have little idea of the enormous importance and, yes, difficulty of this job. It is not a job for the weak. Take this sentence I came across in our style guide at work one day, about the punctuation mark unfortunately known as the colon. When a colon follows a word that has been italicized, the style guide advised, "an effort should be made to italicize the colon."

One can infer from this the natural inclination of the colon to remain un-italicized. The note is not clear about what to do in the event you encounter resistance from the colon in your efforts to italicize it. Should you raise your voice at it? Threaten to reduce its status to semi-colon if it does not at once repent and submit to italicization? What if your efforts should prove fruitless? Do you banish the recalcitrant colon from your document? Are there rights you should read to it before doing so?

These are the issues with which we editors struggle on a daily basis. We wrestle continually with punctuation and other text that does not wish to have any formatting forced upon it, and occasionally with some text that does not wish to have any meaning forced upon it.

Not everyone, of course, appreciates the difficulties involved in keeping our written language under control. Some individuals, for instance, are of the opinion that punctuation should be allowed to roam freely throughout a selection of text, with no arbitrary demands or restrictions placed upon it. My husband is squarely in this camp. "Free the commas!" is his motto.

But for those of us who labor in this much-misunderstood profession, there is much work to be done. Our efforts to bring some order to the chaos of the written word must continue, including our efforts to italicize the colon.