The Writer's Desk Book. William Dana Orcutt
alt="̥Q"/>. It should always be placed outside the quotation-marks unless it is a part of the quotation itself.
1. Every sentence containing a direct question should close with an interrogation-point: e.g., When can this order be shipped ? We have received a letter which asks, “What date can you give us for shipping these goods ?”
2. The interrogation-point is used to express doubt: e.g., This volume is said to be bound in real ( ?) morocco.
3. Indirect questions do not take the interrogation-point: e.g., He inquired when it would be ready.
QUOTATION-MARKS
1. Enclose every direct quotation in double quotation-marks: e.g., “I insist upon it,” he said; “there is no alternative.”
2. When a quotation of a passage from an author in his own words is run into the text it should be placed between quotation-marks.
3. Selections from different works by the same author, or from different authors, following each other without intervening original matter, or by reference to their sources, should be quoted.
4. When setting poetry the quotation-marks should overhang the beginning of the line. This should also be done when prose display matter is “blocked.”
5. Single quotes are used for quotations {17} within quotations; double quotes for quotations within single quotations.
6. Quotations should always include the phrase etc., and other ellipses whenever necessary to secure perfect clearness.
7. When a long quotation is made, including several paragraphs or verses, the quotation-mark should appear at the beginning of each paragraph, but at the end of the last one only.
Quote:
1. A phrase or a word which is accompanied by its definition: e.g., “Roman quote” means to place the matter indicated between quotations in roman type.
2. Words or phrases in the text which are intended by the writer to possess an unusual, technical, or ironical meaning: e.g., Her literary “salon” will long be remembered; This so-called “captain of industry.”
3. Titles of poems, books, etc.: e.g., Longfellow’s “Belfry of Bruges.”
4. Serial titles: e.g., the “Oriental Series,” “Stories of Nations.”
5. Words to which the writer desires to attract attention: e.g., The name of “Florence” immediately causes one to think of humanism.
6. The names of ships, unless directed to italicize them.
7. The titles of works of art: e.g., Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna.” {18}
PARENTHESES
1. Marks of parenthesis are employed to separate from the rest of the sentence enclosed expressions having no essential connection: e.g., I am unable to take this action (why do you urge me?) for reasons which I cannot now give.
2. Figures or letters used to mark divisions in enumerations should be placed between parentheses: e.g., There is a double reason for doing this: (a) it is the simplest form; (b) it is clearer for the reader.
BRACKETS
Use brackets:
1. To enclose explanations or notes which are entirely independent of the balance of the sentence. Ordinarily these are comments, queries, directions, corrections, or criticisms inserted by some person other than the original writer: e.g., Let them clamor to get them back again [cheers].
2. Rather than parentheses, to enclose drop-folios (folios placed at foot of page).
3. For enclosing parenthetical statements within parentheses.
THE APOSTROPHE
Use the apostrophe (or the apostrophe and the letter s):
1. To form the possessive case of common and proper nouns: e.g., The nation’s {19} hope; For Jesus’ sake; James’s apple; For appearance’ sake; The boys’ camp.
2. To form the plural of numerals, but the apostrophe alone for the plural of polysyllabic proper nouns ending in a sibilant: e.g., They passed by in two’s and four’s; She is one of those W.C.T.U.’s; That came from Perkins’. Add es or s for monosyllabic proper nouns: e.g., The Fosses. In general, the pronunciation may be taken as a guide: if it is necessary to add a syllable to pronounce the possessive, use the double s: e.g., Sickles’ corps, not Sickles’s.
3. Use the apostrophe to indicate the omission of one or more letters in a contracted word, or the omission of figures in a number: e.g., That’s ’ow ’twas; The spirit of ’76; High o’er our heads; I’ll for I will; Don’t for do not, sha’n’t, etc.
4. The custom of substituting the apostrophe for the letter e in poetry, at one time common, is now obsolete: e.g., At ev’ry word a reputation dies. This rule is disregarded when the letter is omitted for metrical reasons.
THE HYPHEN
The hyphen is employed to join words together which have not become single words through general usage, and where words are necessarily broken at the end of a line. It is also used to separate the syllables of words, in showing the correct pronunciation. (See Compound Words.)
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CAPITALIZATION
THE original use of capitals in early manuscripts was for the purpose of variety and ornamentation, and their position was naturally subject to each writer’s individual taste. Good form now prescribes certain definite rules of capitalization as follows:
RELIGIOUS TERMS
Capitalize:
1. Titles of parables: e.g., the parable of the Prodigal Son, etc.
2. The books and divisions of the Bible and of other sacred books: e.g., Old Testament, Book of Job, etc.
3. Versions of the Bible: e.g., King James Version, Revised Version, etc.
4. The names of monastic orders and their members: e.g., the Jesuits, the Black Friars, etc.
5.