The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Spaces around an em dash is blasphemy. Spaces around en dashes are accepted practice. And a lot of people rather than inserting an ellipsis seem to feel 3 periods with or without separating spaces is an acceptable substitute. IMNSHO, that is not an acceptable substitute.

All true.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Spaces around an em dash is blasphemy. Spaces around en dashes are accepted practice. And a lot of people rather than inserting an ellipsis seem to feel 3 periods with or without separating spaces is an acceptable substitute. IMNSHO, that is not an acceptable substitute.

I convert en dashes to em dashes and remove the spaces. I also convert . . . to an ellipsis with no extra space.

I don't know where some people learned typesetting, but they failed the course.

One other thing I'd like to get rid of is a single quote for speech. It should be a double quote for speech.

[ownedbycats]

I was confused the first time i saw single-quote. I think its a British thing.

I've also seen some fanfics written by I think Europeans that use dashes at the beginning of their dialogue.

[DrNefario]

None of these typographical "rules" really bother me. I'm used to using a keyboard where I only have one kind of dash that also has to work as a hyphen and a minus-sign, and where I am going to type three dots when I want ellipsis. I don't even care if opening and closing single and double quotes are the same.

I wouldn't know when to use an em-dash and when to use an en-dash, and honestly it doesn't seem like a useful thing to know or care about. Never mind that there are different standards in different places.

I've read printed books from the middle of the last century where there was a space after every opening speech mark and before every closing speech mark. It was odd, but not a deal-breaker.

[ownedbycats]

Okay, why do people post foreign-language fanfics with an English description?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Okay, why do people post foreign-language fanfics with an English description?

Stupid?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I was confused the first time i saw single-quote. I think its a British thing.

I've also seen some fanfics written by I think Europeans that use dashes at the beginning of their dialogue.

i have read books with single quotes for speech. But the double quotes are the ones that should be used as they look correct.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

i have read books with single quotes for speech. But the double quotes are the ones that should be used as they look correct.

It’s what you are used to, so it looks more correct. “I prefer it as it’s less confusing with apostrophes”.

The UK uses both schemes depending on era and publisher. Mostly Ireland used the double quote. The " and ' came in with typewriters, extended to teletype in 1928, which almost unchanged in style were used on computers till late 1970s and thus the IBM PC keyboard layout is based on a 19th Century mechanism.

Sadly wordprocessors still get various so called smart quotes wrong and Publishers don't seem to check. Such as ’tis, ’80s and —” are often ‘ and “. Also now only older stuff has prime and double prime as in 5′ 4″ (feet, inches or minutes, seconds).

EDIT:
And languages other than English have other systems, which is better than overloading the poor ’ symbol.
«Alors!»
I don't know how to type the German and other ones that are similar.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It’s what you are used to, so it looks more correct. “I prefer it as it’s less confusing with apostrophes”.

The UK uses both schemes depending on era and publisher. Mostly Ireland used the double quote. The " and ' came in with typewriters, extended to teletype in 1928, which almost unchanged in style were used on computers till late 1970s and thus the IBM PC keyboard layout is based on a 19th Century mechanism.

Sadly wordprocessors still get various so called smart quotes wrong and Publishers don't seem to check. Such as ’tis, ’80s and —” are often ‘ and “. Also now only older stuff has prime and double prime as in 5′ 4″ (feet, inches or minutes, seconds).

That's a really good reason to use double quotes.

It's actually rather easy to check single quotes for errors in smartening as long as you use double quotes for speech. You just search for the open and close single quotes to see if they are correct.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

One other thing I'd like to get rid of is a single quote for speech. It should be a double quote for speech.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I was confused the first time i saw single-quote. I think its a British thing.

I've also seen some fanfics written by I think Europeans that use dashes at the beginning of their dialogue.

Haven't that discussion been beaten to death at least once before? English language usage is single quotes then double quotes outside of North America where the common usage is double quotes then single quotes. Nothing special about either way and it doesn't take me more than a page or two to stop noticing them.

Take a look at the Wikipedia article about the various quotation marks around the world. Guillemets («...») are commonly found in European writing.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Take a look at the Wikipedia article about the various quotation marks around the world. Guillemets («...») are commonly found in European writing.

Exactly. And Russian uses — instead of quotation marks (em dash? En dash? No idea...)

[DNSB]

I though Russian used guillemets. I seem to remember that Polish uses an em-dash or en-dash to open a direct quote and to close it if the quote does not end the paragraph.

— This sentence is standalone.

— This sentence is standalone. — said the person of little interest.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I though Russian used guillemets. I seem to remember that Polish uses an em-dash or en-dash to open a direct quote and to close it if the quote does not end the paragraph.

— This sentence is standalone.

— This sentence is standalone. — said the person of little interest.

This is what I mean when I said European authors and dashes.

[Quoth]

I thought only the French language in Europe used «guillemots»
Note that Irish authors are Europeans, and even British ones, though some of them find that surprising.

[JSWolf]

I think all countries where English is the main language should be using double quotes. Even the UK sometimes uses double quotes.