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In the below sentence, does "taking the fifth" need to be in quotation marks?

A person may stay silent in order to avoid self-incrimination (commonly referred to as taking the fifth).

The style guide I'm working under does not allow for italics (it's reserved only for Latin/foreign terms). I like the way it looks without quotes, but just want to make sure that is okay.

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  • It looks okay. What kind of material are you writing? You could sneak in "to avoid self-incrimination, per the Fifth Amendment (commonly...).
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Aug 7, 2017 at 21:50
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    With neither quotation marks nor italics, it does not look right to me. "Taking the fifth" is a reference, and some form of punctuation is needed to distinguish those words from the rest of the sentence. It is a bit like reporting speech without any marks.
    – WS2
    Commented Aug 7, 2017 at 21:59
  • @EdwinAshworth That question was primarily about which form of quotation marks should be used - single inverted commas, double inverted commas, italics etc. Quite rightly it was seen as "primarily opinion based". It is a different matter which is raised here.
    – WS2
    Commented Aug 7, 2017 at 22:05
  • WS2 - Would you consider a compromise? How about using the parens for setting off the phrase as "self-incrimination (taking the fifth)"?
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Aug 7, 2017 at 22:14
  • Use quotations. Italics here would be humorous, or venomous, or both.
    – Ricky
    Commented Aug 7, 2017 at 22:31

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I think that quotes should be used for clarity. As Edwin Ashworth has described, italics could also work as a matter of opinion if that option were allowed to you.

As the purpose of your sentence is to educate those unfamiliar with the idiom, it might not be as clear that they couldn't "use the fifth" or other less idiomatic constructs. It could be unclear whether "taking" is part of the phrase.

Consider : Business travelers will sometimes avoid losing a day to travel by traveling from California to New York on a flight boarding late evening California Time(commonly referred to as taking 'the red-eye' ).

In that case, it is really "the red-eye" that is the common slang ... "taking" could be replaced with "booking the red-eye" or "flying on the red-eye", "caught the red-eye" etc.

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  • Yes, I think some marking is necessary because of the likely unfamiliarity of the expression to the intended audience. I'm with Ricky in preferring italics, though. But this is surely POB at this level.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 7, 2017 at 23:09

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