tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post4756795938461517258..comments2024-03-28T10:41:26.999-06:00Comments on Blood-Red Pencil: Be My Guest Jodie RennerDanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471919576687777886noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-23090902551565816392011-11-18T21:19:53.753-07:002011-11-18T21:19:53.753-07:00Excellent!Excellent!Heidiwriterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593338979995203659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-84994039980701843062011-11-18T13:00:58.385-07:002011-11-18T13:00:58.385-07:00Live by the ellipses ... die by the ellipses.Live by the ellipses ... die by the ellipses.Christopher Hudsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03667548312923348614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-27109872458744817262011-11-18T09:49:31.231-07:002011-11-18T09:49:31.231-07:00Thanks, Kathryn, for supplying that info on creati...Thanks, Kathryn, for supplying that info on creating en-dashes and em-dashes with Mac!Jodie Rennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180607353893233389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-41756352071632163582011-11-18T09:41:34.049-07:002011-11-18T09:41:34.049-07:00Great clarification, Jodie. I get manuscripts with...Great clarification, Jodie. I get manuscripts with hyphens instead of em-dashes all the time. Hope you're feeling less seasick!<br /><br />For all you Mac lovers out there, here are the shortcuts:<br />em-dash is "shift + option + hyphen"<br />en-dash is "option + hyphen"<br /><br />Also—at least on my Mac—Word is set to auto-replace double hyphen with an em-dash.Kathryn Crafthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08371458857187160425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-19059993157820701962011-11-17T18:56:05.552-07:002011-11-17T18:56:05.552-07:00Thanks, everyone, for stopping by!Thanks, everyone, for stopping by!Jodie Rennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180607353893233389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-48358553861306008832011-11-17T18:23:13.463-07:002011-11-17T18:23:13.463-07:00Very useful information. Thanks, Jodie.
Morgan Ma...Very useful information. Thanks, Jodie.<br /><br />Morgan Mandel<br />http://morganmandel.blogspot.com<br />http://www.morganmandel.comMorgan Mandelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10118929301591850918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-27951895186652769712011-11-17T12:45:59.357-07:002011-11-17T12:45:59.357-07:00Thanks, Teresa and Adrian. Besides having very exp...Thanks, Teresa and Adrian. Besides having very expensive internet on this cruise (75 cents per minute!), I'm also a bit seasick, so just checking back sporadically.<br /><br />Adrian, quite a few of my clients selp-publish, so I like to get the formatting right for e-books, or near perfect for submitting to agents and editors, so I make sure to use the proper dashes at this stage, so it all looks very professional.Jodie Rennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180607353893233389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-21133852995338659192011-11-17T10:34:12.824-07:002011-11-17T10:34:12.824-07:00Excellent information presented well.
As for typi...Excellent information presented well.<br /><br />As for typing the various types of dashes, I'd only worry about that if I were doing final formatting (e.g., for direct publishing an e-book). Until then, use traditional manuscript rules: one hyphen for a hyphen or en-dash and two hyphens for an em-dash.<br /><br />If you get published through a legacy publisher, a professional typesetter will convert to the proper dashes (with our without spaces according to house style).<br /><br />AP puts spaces on each side of the dash because their guidelines were designed for newspaper printing. In narrow columns of text, spaces can be stretched pretty wide when justifying a line. When that happens, the visual proportions get so far out of whack that a dash can start to look like a hyphen connecting the words on either side instead of a mark breaking up the sentence. It's exactly the opposite of what you'd want. (I was a the typesetter for my college paper a couple decades ago.)<br /><br />If your typesetter is really awesome he/she will make sure that a line break never happens at the beginning of a dash or an ellipsis.Adriannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-37892361359298378552011-11-17T09:46:15.607-07:002011-11-17T09:46:15.607-07:00Exactly what I needed to know today. I'm print...Exactly what I needed to know today. I'm printing this out and keeping it by my laptop! Thanks so much.Teresahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12031358252817150321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-89010340224316878502011-11-17T09:04:37.050-07:002011-11-17T09:04:37.050-07:00Thanks, Dana and Larry, for your comments. I'...Thanks, Dana and Larry, for your comments. I'm away on a cruise with limited and very expensive internet, so won't be able to comment as much as I usually do.<br /><br />JodieJodie Rennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180607353893233389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-67535679203858837152011-11-17T08:20:44.723-07:002011-11-17T08:20:44.723-07:00Regarding the keyboard shortcuts, Jodie, the ones ...Regarding the keyboard shortcuts, Jodie, the ones you offer apply to MS Word, which is almost but not quite universal. It might be important to note that ctrl+- on the numeric pad generates an en-dash, but ctrl+- on the top row of the main keyboard generates a so-called optional or hidden hyphen, one which will appear only if needed to break a word at the end of a line in fully justified text (quaded, to us old-timers). Hidden hyphens, by the way, can wreak havoc with e-book editions, because they become hyphens in the middle of words regardless of where they appear.<br /><br />I do like one of your examples: “Someday he’s going to hit one of those long shots and”—his voice turned huffy—“I won’t be there to see it.” This is clearer, and strictly speaking more correct, than the alternative which I often see in print, using commas: “Someday he’s going to hit one of those long shots and,” his voice turned huffy, “I won’t be there to see it.”<br /><br />--Larry Constantine (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lior-Samson/e/B004KDPO9A/" rel="nofollow">Lior Samson</a>)Larry Constantine (Lior Samson)http://www.liorsamson.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-64065952066470875282011-11-17T08:16:23.580-07:002011-11-17T08:16:23.580-07:00Big pat on my own back for FINALLY using some part...Big pat on my own back for FINALLY using some part of grammar correctly. Thanks for the simplified breakdown.Dana Elmendorfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07130309062939542854noreply@blogger.com