There is a standard, well-designed way in which linguists write examples, and failure to use it in a paper about language is a strong shibboleth suggesting unfamiliarity with linguistics as a field. In brief, it is as follows:
- When an example (affix, word, phrase, or sentence) appears in the body (i.e., the middle of a sentence):
- if written in Roman, it should be italicized.
- if written in non-Roman, but alphabetic scripts like Cyrillic, italicization is optional. (Cyrillic italics are, like the Russian cursive hand they’re based on, famously hard for Western amateurs like myself to read.)
- if written in a non-alphabetic script, it can just be written as is, though you’re welcome to experiment.
- Examples should never be underlined, bolded, or placed in single or double quotes, regardless of the script used.
- When an example is set off from the body (i.e., as a numbered example or in a table), it need not be italicized.
- Any non-English example should be immediately followed with a gloss.
- A gloss should always be single-quoted.
- Don’t intersperse words like “meaning”, as in “…kitab meaning ‘book’…”, just write “…kitab ‘book’…”
- If using morph-by-morph or word-by-word glossing, follow the Leipzig glossing conventions.