"Stops", Or How to Punctuate Part 10

Mind your p's and q's.

He does not dot his i's nor cross his t's.

MARKS OF ELLIPSIS

LXXVII. When, in the middle of a quotation, a part is omitted, several asterisks or several full stops are placed in a line to mark the omission.

Clarendon makes the following remark about Lord Falkland: "Yet two things he could never bring himself to whilst he continued in that office, that was to his death; for which he was contented to be reproached as for omissions in a most necessary part of his place. The one, employing of spies, or giving any countenance or entertainment to them. * * * The other, the liberty of opening letters, upon a suspicion that they might contain matter of a dangerous consequence." (One sentence omitted.)

"The French and Spanish nations," said Louis XIV., "are so united that they will henceforth be only one.... My grandson, at the head of the Spaniards, will defend the French. I, at the head of the French, will defend the Spaniards."

"He who in former years," wrote Horace Walpole of his father, "was asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow ... now never sleeps above an hour without waking."

If the pa.s.sage omitted be of very considerable length, for instance if it be a complete paragraph, or if a line of poetry be omitted, the asterisks are placed in a line by themselves. There is a tendency to confine the asterisk to such cases, and to use the full stop for shorter ellipses. If a complete sentence be omitted, the number of additional full stops is generally four; if a pa.s.sage be omitted in the middle of a sentence, the number is generally three.

When some of the letters of a name are omitted, their place is supplied by a line or dash, whose length depends on the number of letters omitted.

The scene of our story is laid in the town of B----. There was one H----, who, I learned in after days, was seen expiating some maturer offence in the hulks.

Blakesmoor in H----s.h.i.+re.

REFERENCES TO NOTES

Notes are generally placed at the foot of a page; though sometimes they are collected at the end of a chapter, or even at the end of a book. Various devices are in use for indicating the pa.s.sage in the text to which a note refers.

(1) The six reference signs: the "asterisk" (*), the "dagger" ([dagger character]) (also called the "obelisk"), the "double dagger" ([double dagger character]), the "section" (--), the "parallels" ( ), the "paragraph" (--). They are suitable only where the notes are placed at the foot of a page, and are invariably used in the order in which we have mentioned them.

If the number of notes in one page exceeds six, the signs are doubled.

The seventh note is marked thus: **; the eighth, [dagger character][dagger character]; the ninth, [double dagger character][double dagger character]; and so on. But it is better, in cases where the notes are so numerous, to use other means of reference.

(2) Figures: either within parentheses, as (1), (2), (3), &c.; or, more usually, printed in the raised or "superior" form, as , &c. Sometimes the first note in each page is marked; but it is now common, in books divided into chapters, to mark the first note in each chapter with and then go on with continuous numbers to the end of the chapter.

"Superior" figures are now the most usual marks of reference in English books.

(3) Letters; which also may either be placed within parentheses or be printed in "superior" form: (a), (b), (c), &c., or ^{a} ^{b} ^{c}, &c.

Italic letters are sometimes used. As a rule the first note in each page is marked (a) or ^{a}. If in one page there are more notes than there are letters in the alphabet (which sometimes happens), we go to (aa), (bb), (cc), &c., ^{aa} ^{bb} ^{cc}. The letter "j" is often omitted.

It is less common to make the letters continuous from page to page.

The sign, whatever it may be, is placed at the beginning of the note, and also in the text immediately after the part to which the note refers. The note may refer to a whole sentence, to a part of a sentence, even to a single word; the sign is placed as the case may be, at the end of the sentence, at the end of the part referred to, or after the single word.

HOW TO CORRECT A PRINTER'S PROOF

[Ill.u.s.tration]

EXPLANATION

1. Where a word is to be changed from small letters to capitals, draw three lines under it, and write _caps._ in the margin.

2. Where there is a wrong letter, draw the pen through it, and make the right letter opposite in the margin.

3. A letter turned upside down.

4. The subst.i.tution of a comma for another point, or for a letter put in by mistake.

5. The insertion of a hyphen.

6. To draw close together the letters of a word that stand apart.

7. To take away a superfluous letter or word, the pen is struck through it and a round top _d_ made opposite, being the contraction of _deleatur_='expunge.'

8. Where a word has to be changed to Italic, draw a line under it, and write _Ital._ in the margin; and where a word has to be changed from Italic to Roman, write _Rom._ opposite.

9. When words are to be transposed, three ways of marking them are shown; but they are not usually numbered unless more than three words have their order changed.

10. The transposition of letters in a word.

11. To change one word for another.

12. The subst.i.tution of a period or a colon for any other point. It is customary to encircle these two points with a line.

13. The subst.i.tution of a capital for a small letter.

14. The insertion of a word or of a letter.

15. When a paragraph commences where it is not intended, connect the matter by a line, and write in the margin opposite _run on_.

16. Where a s.p.a.ce or a quadrat stands up and appears, draw a line under it, and make a strong perpendicular line in the margin.

17. When a letter of a different size from that used, or of a different face, appears in a word, draw a line either through it or under it, and write opposite _w.f._, for 'wrong fount.'

18. The marks for a paragraph, when its commencement has been omitted.

19. When a word or words have been struck out, and it is subsequently decided that they shall remain, make dots under them, and write the word _stet_ in the margin.

20. The mark for a s.p.a.ce where it has been omitted between two words.