On Sun, Jun 25, 2006 at 10:02:40PM +0200, Andrew Dunbar wrote:
On 6/25/06, Jay R. Ashworth <jra(a)baylink.com>
wrote:
On Sun, Jun 25, 2006 at 08:47:37PM +0200, Andrew
Dunbar wrote:
<snob
type=typography>
Em dashes are properly set in English text without spacing on either
side, though the ASCIIography of this usage is much less picky.
Can you provide a reference for this? Also can you be
sure this is the only style and that it doesn't vary by
style guide, by publisher, by country, by newspaper vs
novels, etc.
A formal reference?
No; not off hand.
Just personal experience from 35 years or so of reading American
typesetting, and at least 15 years of paying professional attention
thereto.
I ask for a reference because I've seen people say that
serial commas (also known as Harvard commas or
Oxford commas) are correct or incorrect whereas in that
case it does turn out to depend on region, publisher, etc.
but people wrongly assume there is a global rule.
Serial commas are historically more "proper", but that has been lost
with time. I prefer them due to greater precision and communication of
intended meaning (particularly in cases where a series may contain
sub-series), and because they tend to better represent the conceptual
flow of the sentence as well as the verbal flow when it is pronounced
aloud. In other words, use of serial commans enhances clarity.
--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [
http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
"It's just incredible that a trillion-synapse computer could actually
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