Icelandic names see names.
identical with, not to.
ilk means same, so of that ilk means of the place of the same name as the family, not of that kind. Best avoided.
immolate means to sacrifice, not to burn.
important If something is important, say why and to whom. Use sparingly, and avoid such unexplained claims as this important house, the most important painter of the 20th century. See also interesting.
impractical, impracticable If something is impractical, it is not worth trying to do it. If it’s impracticable, it cannot be done. See also practical, practicable.
inchoate means not fully developed or at an early stage, not incoherent or chaotic.
including When including is used as a preposition, as it often is, it must be followed by a noun, pronoun or noun clause, not by a preposition. So Iran needs more investment, including for its tired oil industry is ungrammatical. The sentence should be rephrased, perhaps, as Iran, including its tired oil industry, needs more investment; or, Iran needs more investment, especially for its tired oil industry.
individual (noun) used occasionally, can be a useful colloquial term for chap or bloke or guy (“In a corner, Parker, a grave, lean individual, bent over the chafing-dish, in which he was preparing for his employer and his guest their simple lunch.” P.G. Wodehouse). Used indiscriminately as a term for person or, in the plural, people, it becomes bureaucratic.
Indonesian names see names.
initially Prefer first, at first.
interesting Like important and funny, interesting makes assumptions about the word or words it describes that may not be shared by the reader. Facts and stories introduced as interesting often turn out to be something else. “Interestingly, my father-in-law was born in East Kilbride,” for instance. If something really is interesting, you probably do not need to say so.
Internet/IT terms
computer terms are usually lower case:
dotcom
home page
laptop
online
the net (and internet)
the web, website and world wide web
but Gmail, Wi-Fi
When giving websites, do not include http://. Just www is enough: www.economist.com. But it should be included for websites that do not use www, eg http://twitter.com.
cyber-expressions Most cyber-terms are hyphenated: cyber-attack, cyber-security, cyber-soccer, etc, but cybercrime, cybernetics, cyberspace and cyberwars.
e-expressions Except at the start of a sentence, the e- is lower case and hyphenated:
e-book
e-business
e-commerce
inverted commas (quotation marks) see punctuation.
investigations of not into.
Iranian names see names.
Islamic, Islamist Islamic means relating to Islam; it is a synonym of the adjective Muslim, but it is not used for a follower of Islam, who is always Muslim. But Islamic art and architecture is conventional usage.
Islamist refers to those who see Islam as a political and social ideology as well as a religious one.
See jihad.
issues The Economist has issues – 51 a year – but if you think you have issues with The Economist, you probably mean you have complaints, irritations or delivery problems. If you disagree with The Economist, you may take issue with it. Do not use issue as a synonym for problem. Be precise.
Italian names see names.
algebraic formulae Thus: e = mc2
books, pamphlets, films, plays, operas, ballets, radio and television programmes and video games Titles are roman, not italic, with capital letters for each main word, in quotation marks. Thus: “Pride and Prejudice”, “Much Ado about Nothing”, “Any Questions”, “Crossfire”, “Grand Theft Auto”, etc. But the Bible and its books (Genesis, Ecclesiastes, John, etc), as well as the Koran, are written without inverted commas. These rules apply to footnotes as well as bodymatter.
Web magazines and blogs are in italics, as for newspapers, with a lower-case “The” if appropriate.
But book publishers may follow different rules here.
foreign words and phrases should be set in italics:
cabinet (French type)
de rigueur
fatwa
glasnost
Hindutva
in camera
intifada
loya jirga
Mitbestimmung
pace
papabile
perestroika
persona non grata
sarariman
Schadenfreude
ujamaa
If they are so familiar that they have become anglicised, they should be in roman. For example:
a priori
à propos
ad hoc
apartheid
avant-garde
bête noire
bona fide
bourgeois
café
chargé d’affaires
coup d’état (but coup de foudre, coup de grâce)
Dalit, etc
de facto, de jure
dirigisme
en masse, en route
grand prix
hijab
in absentia
in situ
jihad, jihadist
machismo
nom de guerre
nouveau riche
parvenu
pogrom
post mortem
putsch
raison d’être
Realpolitik
sharia
status quo
tsunami
vice versa
vis-à-vis
Remember to put appropriate accents and diacritical signs on French, German, Spanish and Portuguese words in italics (and give initial capital letters to German nouns when in italics, but not if not). Make sure that the meaning of any foreign word you use is clear. See also accents.
Foreign-language quotations are in quotation marks and roman.
For the Latin names of animals, plants, etc, see spelling and Part 3.
Brown v Board of Education
Coatsworth v Johnson
Jarndyce v Jarndyce
If abbreviated, versus should always be shortened to v, with no point after it. The v should not be italic if it is not a lawsuit.
names of ships, aircraft, spacecraft
HMS Illustrious
Spirit of St Louis
Apollo 13 (but Apollo space programme) Air Force 1
Prototype craft, such as Sea Duck, are roman.
newspapers and periodicals Only The Economist has The italicised. Thus the Daily Telegraph, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Spectator (but Le Monde, Die Welt, Die Zeit). The Yomiuri Shimbun should be italicised, but you can also say the Yomiuri, or the Yomiuri newspaper, as shimbun simply means newspaper in Japanese.
political parties Names of parties based on foreign-language slogans (eg “Podemos”, “Pouvoir”) are roman with quote marks; they may need a translation, also in quotes.