Style question re: common cliche

Crossing all Ts and dotting all Is
Crossing all T's and dotting all Is
Crossing all Tees and dotting all Ieieieieieieiehghs

Write-in

 

I believe the discussion we had on this a few months ago concluded that the apostrophes were necessary, if undesirable, to prevent I's, for example, from looking like the word Is. Not as necessary with T's, but do it for consistency's sake.

 

That was, indeed, what was unfortunately agreed upon.

 

The style is "T's" and "I's." The latter is one of the best examples why: the reader would think that it's the word "Is" if that appeared at the beginning of a sentence.

 

I'm going to be the asshole here and point this out (mainly because this is a copy-edit thread)...

Your thread topic is about a "common cliché." What would an uncommon cliché be?

 

unless it's in a quote, don't ever use that phrase. But if you have to, use apostrophes.

 

I wonder if the best way would be ... crossing the "t"s and dotting the "i"s. This would seem to make this clear.

 

I agree with "crossing the "t"s and dotting the "i"s." You can't dot the i if it's capitalized.

 

How do you write this?

"There are three (toos) in the English language.

 

I always loved the MAD Magazine book of "Horrifying Cliches."