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Chapter 8
8.59.
Wherever possible without danger of ambiguity.
- $2 gold
- Executive Order No. 21
- General Order No. 12; but General Orders, No. 12
- Public Law 85–1
- He graduates in the year 2010 (not the year 2,010)
- My age is 30 years 6 months 12 days.
- John Lewis 2d (or II)
- Murphy of Illinois; Murphy of New York (where only last :name is used)
- Carroll of Carrollton; Henry of Navarre (person closely identified with place);
- but Clyde Leo Downs, of Maryland; President Levin, of Yale University
- James Bros, et al.; but James Bros., Nelson Co., et al. (last element of series)
Dash
A 1-em dash is used—
8.60.
To mark a sudden break or abrupt change in thought.
- He said—and no one contradicted him—"The battle is lost."
- If the bill should pass—which God forbid!—the service will be wrecked.
- The auditor—shall we call him a knave or a fool?—approved an inaccurate statement.
8.61.
To indicate an interruption or an unfinished word or sentence. A 2-em dash is used when the interruption is by a person other than the speaker, and a 1-em dash will show self-interruption. Note that extracts must begin with a true paragraph. Following extracts, colloquy must start as a paragraph.
- "Such an idea can scarcely be"
- "The word 'donation'"
- "The word 'dona'"
- He said: "Give me lib"
- The bill reads "repeal," not "am"
- Q. Did you seeA. No, sir.
- Mr. Brown [reading]: "The report goes on to say that"—Observe this closely—"during the fiscal year * * *."
8.62.
Instead of commas or parentheses, if the meaning may thus be clarified.
- These are shore deposits—gravel, sand, and clay—but marine sediments underlie them.
