The following are proposed guidelines regarding the use of style devices to show emphasis:

• Italics are used for emphasis, but used sparingly.
• The use of exclamation points are discouraged for emphasis except in a direct quote. Look in other encyclopedias and see if you can find them used.
• The use of bold is discouraged for emphasis since it is reserved for headings and article names
• ALL CAPS are discouraged for emphasis and should be reduced to the title case where each word is capitalized. "WAR BEGINS TODAY" should be reduced to "War Begins Today". This has become the standard for the New York Times in its transcription project. [[1]