Hyphen, N-dash, M-dash
What is the difference between a hyphen, an N-dash and an M-dash? How do you properly use them?
69 comments • Posted in Punctuation and Mechanics
rock ‘n’ roll
What kind of an inverted apostrophe should be used before n? Strictly speaking, I think it should be tail pointing downwards. But for reasons of aesthetics is it okay to use the one with the tail upwards?
2 comments • Posted in Punctuation and Mechanics
Spaces After Period
I know that you are supposed to put one space after a period if you are using a word processor, and two spaces if you are using a typewriter. But this doesn’t make sense. A space on a typewriter is wider than a space on a word processor (though it depends on the font you are using.). So, why would you put two spaces on typewriters?
60 comments • Posted in Punctuation and Mechanics
Commas, Periods, and Quotation Marks
I know that commas and periods go inside quotation marks, but I can’t help breaking this rule. Firstly, they look better outside. Secondly it doesn’t make sense, at least to me. For instance:
From the crowd I heard, “apple!,” “orange!,” “grape!,” and “banana!.”
For each expression, the exclamation mark makes sense to be within the double-quotes because it functionally belongs to each person who is uttering it, but the commas do not. What the first person said is: “apple!” The comma has nothing to do with him. That is, he is not the one who is itemizing various fruits. As far as he is concerned, apple was the only thing he needed to express. Functionally speaking the comma belongs to the sentence, not to the expression. For me, it looks much better to write:
From the crowd I heard, “apple!”, “orange!”, “grape!”, and “banana!”.
This makes it clear what I am itemizing. Here is one quote, here is another, and so on..
21 comments • Posted in Punctuation and Mechanics
Em dash
Do you need spaces before and after em dash? Blah blah—blah blah. Or Blah blah — blah blah.
9 comments • Posted in Punctuation and Mechanics
Where are the commas?
Every native speaker has a different opinion about where the commas go when you list more than 2 words. Which is correct? “apples, oranges and grapes.” or “apples, oranges, and grapes”
33 comments • Posted in Punctuation and Mechanics
