: Re: Is emphasizing a point by underlining still appropriate? Instinctively I find underlining for emphasis distracting and much prefer bold or italic. From my research it seems underlining is a carryover

@Frith254

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I think underlining for emphasizing is a little bit old-fashioned. But if you write for an audience which is used to it, why not?

If you want to publish your writing online, I would advice against underlining. On the internet underlined text is associated with a link. If you do not really have a good reason to break this convention (and emphasizing isn't one, if you ask me), then do not do it.

Mixing different styles (bold, italic, underlining) is confusing at best for the reader. Is the italic section less important than the bold? Does underlining strengthen more than bold? Is the not emphasized text necessary at all?

The last sentence isn't a joke. I've seen whole paragraphs underlined in some writings, wondering why they have written the non-underlined at all. If they had skipped these, they could have skipped the underlining also.

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