O.K., but really: Is it kosher to capitalize for emphasis?

It depends, said Bryan A. Garner, a grammarian who is the author of “Garner’s Modern English Usage.”

Some acclaimed writers, such as David Foster Wallace, have used capitalization for emphasis in a way that many consider literary, he said. But, he said, the rules are there for a reason — and you have to know them in order to break them.

“If you want to come across as a literate writer, you should adhere to those standards,” he said. “But if you don’t care about how you look to others, then you just capitalize according to your own feelings.”

So if not capitalization, then what?

Use italics, Mr. Garner said. If you are tweeting or texting, he said, you can use asterisks on either side of the word for *emphasis*.

Should I capitalize every word in a sentence?

Only if You Want to Be Annoying.

Or if You Write Headlines for a Certain Newspaper.

And in that case, Mr. Garner said, some words should still remain lowercase, including: articles (a, an, the); conjunctions (and, or, but) and prepositions with fewer than four letters (of, by, to, for).