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Nox
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What is the commen rule for speach marks? Is it a double "hello" or a single 'hello'? I prefer the double but most of my stories are using the single because I read that that is the way publishers like it. Also does anyone put two spaces after a fullstop? Or a single space after a fullstop? Again I am using double because I read it somewhere, I wish I could remember where I read it. Anyway, anybody help?
This post was last edited by Nox, 07 Oct 2008, 20:44
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Lorraine
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Quote: Nox, Tuesday, 7 Oct 2008 20:43What is the commen rule for speach marks? Is it a double "hello" or a single 'hello'? I prefer the double but most of my stories are using the single because I read that that is the way publishers like it. Also does anyone put two spaces after a fullstop? Or a single space after a fullstop? Again I am using double because I read it somewhere, I wish I could remember where I read it. Anyway, anybody help? A single space after any punctuation mark. Double or single quote marks are both fine as long as you are consistent in using one or the other throughout the ms. Different publishers and editors will ask for either single or double, so, if worried about it, you should check their guidelines. If it is for a magazine submission, have a look to see which style is used. In truth, though, it really doesn't matter which you use. If using double for speech, then use single for quotes within quotes and vice versa.
This post was last edited by Lorraine, 07 Oct 2008, 21:09
The ABC Checklist for New WritersVisit my website: Lorraine Mace
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Nox
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Thank you.
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Nox
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I've just spent the last hour changing my double spaces to single spaces. And then a thought hit me, what about 'find and replace'? I knew it works with words and letters but I didn't think it worked with spaces. I tried it and yeah, instant change.
What a dunce.
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awrigley
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A character does not have to be a letter. It could be whitespace. And whitespace could be " " or it could be a line return, or a tab. So long as you have a way of representing a character using your keyboard, find and replace will do it. For everything else, you would have to use code and know how to represent the character you are dealing with. Most characters in English and other European languages can be represented using a keyboard, so you should be OK. A line return might challenge you, but that is it. Now if you are trying to use Find and Replace with sanskrit or urdu using a UK keyboard, then I wish you luck... Andrew
This post was last edited by awrigley, 08 Oct 2008, 18:37
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tomkeal
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Quote: Nox, Tuesday, 7 Oct 2008 20:43What is the commen rule for speach marks? Is it a double "hello" or a single 'hello'? I prefer the double but most of my stories are using the single because I read that that is the way publishers like it. Also does anyone put two spaces after a fullstop? Or a single space after a fullstop? Again I am using double because I read it somewhere, I wish I could remember where I read it. Anyway, anybody help? Hi Nox, For US publishers double quotation marks are the norm, whereas in the UK single quotation marks are more common. But it's entirely a matter of house rules. Putting two spaces after a full stop is a hangover from the days of typewriters. When using fixed-width typefaces it makes the text easier to read (and it's still the done thing in this case, e.g. for screenplays, which by convention used the fixed-width Courier font). But when using proportional fonts the word processor will take care of this extra spacing for you, so there's no need to put in double spaces yourself. Tom
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Nox
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Ah, thanks for that.
I know now where I read about the double spaces, it must've been the books I read when I tried my hand at screenwriting.
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KRobb
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Oh dear. Way back when I was taught to touch type on a secretarial course and was taught 'two spaces after a full stop'. Hence I use them. Will go and strip them out forthwith (now there's a word I haven't heard since secretarial school).
Just another one on formatting - left justified or full justified? Published books seem to be full in general but it can put some funny spacing in.
Any know anything?
thanks
K
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PeteJGarbett
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Quote: KRobb, Tuesday, 14 Oct 2008 13:52Oh dear. Way back when I was taught to touch type on a secretarial course and was taught 'two spaces after a full stop'. Hence I use them. Will go and strip them out forthwith (now there's a word I haven't heard since secretarial school). Just another one on formatting - left justified or full justified? Published books seem to be full in general but it can put some funny spacing in. Any know anything? thanks K Justified looks far more professional than left-aligned. To avoid erratic spacing, go to Paragraph options, and make sure that "Don't hyphenate" is UNCHECKED. Then MS Word will hyphenate words to keep everything in proportion - just like in a published book. Pete J Garbett
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RandomNotes
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What I find irratating is that I use my mobile phone to type in some ideas and dialoge that might occur to me, but when I copy and paste it into Word, it uses straight speech marks "" while Word when normaly use a more curlier speech mark - if you see what I mean...
Trick is to spot it.
I only mention it in case someone else is doing a copy and paste from some other application and wondering why their speech marks are not conisitent.
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"She said" or 'She said'
07 Oct 2008, 20:43
