1. The following dialogue ensued: Where do you live? — In Cambridge. - Have you been there long? — Three years.

you no home?—No, sir.

- Have

The dash is used properly to denote the omission of a word or of letters in a word:

I hope you have met Mrs.

(Miss K, Mr. B- -n).

A short dash is used in tabulations, references, and the like to denote the omission of figures or letters in a series (§ 131): Reports for 1907-1918; pp. 21–343; sec. a-f.

489. Objectionable use. The dash denotes the interruption of thought; its use for the comma, semicolon, or colon, which denotes the continuation of thought, is a contradiction, and often bewilders the reader. The dash, or the comma followed by the dash, should not be used for the comma or the colon (see § 50):

1. Faulty: There was one whom he did not forget mother. (Use a comma.)

his aged

2. Faulty: Anybody might be an accuser, -a personal enemy, an infamous person, a child, a parent, a brother, or a sister. (Use a colon; or, preferably, change the dash to whether.)

3. I have taken a general view of it under these four heads, the fable, the characters, the sentiment, and the language. ADDISON. (The comma after heads might, formally, be a colon; § 486.)

4. London had only one commercial rival, the mighty and opulent Amsterdam.-MACAULAY. (Do not add a dash to the comma.) 5. Lord Byron could exhibit only one man, a man proud, moody, cynical. MACAULAY.

6. The proverb of old Hesiod, that half is often more than the whole, is eminently applicable to description. - MACAULAY.

Two dashes, or two commas followed by two dashes, are often used, instead of commas or parentheses, to set off

parenthetic matter (§§ 470, 490); but foreign matter introduced parenthetically destroys the unity of the sentence, and should be avoided (§ 355):

1. Objectionable: His difficulties

were

and great difficulties they

found a speedy solution. (Use commas; § 470.)

2. Objectionable: The sailors nibbled what little bread was not water-soaked, for they had lost all their bacon, and caught rain water to drink. (Use parentheses, and put a comma before and; or, better still, recast the sentence: 'Having lost all their bacon, the sailors nibbled what little bread was not water-soaked,

and',

etc.)

NOTE. Oftentimes the reader does not know whether the first dash is followed by a second, and reads with uncertainty. "If two single independent dashes are placed near each other, still more if they are in the same sentence, the reader naturally takes them for a pair constituting a parenthesis, and has to reconsider the sentence when he finds that his first reading gives nonsense."— The King's English.

PARENTHESES

490. Parentheses. Parenthetic words, phrases, or clauses are set off lightly by the use of commas (§ 470); formally, and often with the force of an effective aside, by the use of parentheses, but this should not be overdone:

1. This, you see, is his present plan.

2. But (I ask you, sir), what was I to do?

3. I have seen charity (if charity it may be called) insult with an air of pity. - B.

4. Left now to himself (malice could not wish him a worse adviser), he resolves on a desperate project. — B.

:

NOTE I. "The occasional use of parentheses may add liveliness and spirit to a discourse, but their frequent employment is very inju dicious for nothing so much weakens the force of language as the continual dropping of the voice, and the consequent diversion of the attention from the main object of inquiry, which a constant recurrence of parenthetical observations necessitates." — BEADNELL.

NOTE 2. When parentheses are used, any accompanying punctuation should be so placed that if the parentheses and all they inclose were removed, the sentence would still be properly punctuated (as in Examples 2 and 4, above; here the comma stands after the parenthesis because the parenthesis explains what precedes).

BRACKETS

491. Brackets. Brackets are used to denote that the matter inclosed by them is inserted, and is not a part of the text:

1. Go you and tell her of it. [Enter Attendants.] Cousins, you know what you have to do.

2. Under him [Pericles] Athens had become the most powerful naval state in the world.

3. He wrote that under Pyrocles [sic] Athens had become, etc. (The Latin word sic, meaning thus, is used to indicate that the faulty or anomalous expression before it is quoted correctly.)

QUOTATION MARKS

492. Quotations; titles of books, etc. Quotation marks (" " or '') are used to inclose quotations and titles of books, poems, and the like; titles which are made plain by the capitalization do not need quotation marks, and look better without them; short titles are sometimes put in italics (§ 512, N.), or if well known, are often unmarked:

1. I do not like your "if " (or 'if').

2. He replied, "Do not act hastily." (Or 'Do not act hastily.') 3. Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities (or "A Tale of Two Cities"; or 'A Tale of Two Cities').

4. Kingsley's Hypatia; Homer's Iliad (or Iliad); Vergil's Eneid (or Eneid).

NOTE 1. Double quotation marks are still in general use in the United States. The Oxford University Press uses single marks. The single marks are sufficient, and save space. For quotations within quotations, see § 494.

NOTE 2. Single (or double) quotation marks are often used to call attention to a word or group of words, as is done in this book.

493. The Bible. In the Bible no quotation marks are used, but quotations begin with a capital letter.

494. Quotation within quotation. When a quotation contains a quotation, the double quotation marks are used with one quotation, the single marks with the other:

He said, "Dickens wrote 'A Tale of Two Cities'." (Or 'Dickens wrote "A Tale of Two Cities". The latter is the practice at the Oxford University Press.)

495. Quoted punctuation. At the Oxford University Press no sign of punctuation is included within quotation marks unless it is a part of the quotation (as in quoted dialogue, standing alone); after ? and the period is omitted. With regard to the almost universal custom of quoting the comma and the period at the end of an extract the Oxford University Press says, "There seems to be no reason for perpetuating a bad practice." The following examples illustrate the Oxford usage:

1. "It is late." "It is late ", she says. She says, "It is late." (The period in the last example is a part of the quotation.)

2. "Is it late?" she asks. Will she say, "It is late"?

3. Do not say, "It is late "; say nothing.

4. "Yes, it is late." She replied, "Yes, it is late."

Yes," she replied, "it is late." (The comma after Yes is a part of the quotation; she replied is parenthetic, and has no effect on the period.)

5. "But it is late." "But", she replied, "it is late." (The comma after But is not a part of the quotation.)

6. "How late it is!" she cried.

How foolish it was to cry, "It is late "!

7. "Why does she say, 'It is late'?" (See Note 2.)

8. Such phrases as 'now and then', 'in and out', 'by and by?, 'to and fro'. (So with isolated words, phrases, or clauses.)

NOTE 1. Similarly, marks of punctuation should not be italic or boldface unless they are a part of the subject matter: To err is human; to forgive, divine; Did she say at last or alas?

NOTE 2. Do not use such forms as "Does she ask, 'Is it too late?'?" Make the second question indirect: "Does she ask if it is too late?"

NOTE 3. A superior figure (referring to a footnote) is placed after the word which is to be commented on in the footnote; if an entire sentence or clause is to be commented on, the figure is placed at the end of the sentence or clause, after the punctuation: Thou 1, ye, and you are of the second person; 2 but ye and you are plural.3

496. Two or more paragraphs. When the quoted matter runs into more than one paragraph, each paragraph begins with quotation marks, but only the last paragraph ends with them.

497. Needless quotation marks. Care should be taken not to use quotation marks where they are not needed. For example, it is better not to quote familiar proverbial expressions; not to quote terms that are known to the reader; not to quote good colloquial words as an apology for using them; and not to quote words or expressions used ironically or playfully :

1. But I felt it was better late than never. (Not ' But I felt that it was er better late than never ".)

2. They tried to corner the market. (Not 'to market'.)

corner

"the

3. He said he didn't want to be bamboozled. (Not to be "bamboozled " ".)

4. Such kind-heartedness I did not relish. (Not 'Such "kindheartedness" ".)

THE HYPHEN

498. Noun phrases. In the hyphening of noun phrases usage among writers and publishers is not uniform. Webster does not use the hyphen except for the sake of clearness (see the New International Dictionary, page lxxx, Use of the Hyphen). When in doubt, consult the dictionary.