What do magazine editors do?

Do magazine editors expect punctuation to be underlined in manuscript submissions?

• I'm writing a short story manuscript that will first be sent to Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. I read that any text you wanted in italics should be underlined. However, when it comes to end punctuation, such as commas (in dialogue), periods, colons, and semi-colons, I have not underlined the punctuation. Will this bother editors? This is my primary source for manuscript submissions: http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

• Answer:

  There is no reason to underline punctuation. Italics might get reverted back to regular text during formatting. But a comma will stay a comma. Etc.