Quote:
Originally Posted by Lukusaukko
I've always thought it was clear-cut, with one style being consistently used in the UK and the other in the US, and that also seems to be what many online style guides claim - which is why this particular case stood out. With dashes (and ellipses) it seems the recommendations are more lenient, as long as you choose one style and stick to it consistently throughout.
Interesting tidbits, and makes sense - there are very few things people or countries can agree on and be consistent about...
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Nope, not that clear cut. I can pretty well guarantee that I can find examples of UK books with proper em-dashes on my bookshelves if I look. Ebooks too. Likewise for UK books that use US-style quotation marks, even though spellings are UK-style. For that matter, one can find US authored and published books with British spellings sprinkled about for no apparent reason, though this is mostly older books.
As far as I can tell, there's exceptions to
everything when it comes to books and punctuation style, and publishers
do as they will do.
Like, it's generally not considered great typography for a print book to leave a mid-sentence em-dash at the front of a line, or a mid-sentence ellipse either, right? Yet, I've got a 1940s book I was reading recently (print) and I saw lines exactly like that fairly frequently. There's no ebook, but if there were, it'd fit right in.
