Bulletin Board Typology

[polymath]

One of the more useful and perhaps in-demand typographic entities for posting text here at Bransford forums is a paragraph indent. The em space fits the bill. The way this particular forum is set up it doesn't support shorthand character entity codes nor ISO 8859-1 codes, the HTML WWWC standards. Like for the em space, shorthand:   ISO 8859-1:   But it can be selected from a Web page or forum post, copied, and pasted in to a text input box. Two em spaces are equivalent to six word spaces, close enough to the standard five spaces tabbed paragraph indent of Standard Manuscript Format. Two em spaces (they're spaces thus don't display visually, except for how they occupy negative space) are between the less-than and greater-than glyphs below.

<  >

Lorem Ipsum (nonsense sample, placeholder text paragraph indented)

  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
  Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. †

† From Wikipedia: Lorem Ipsum

Not all ISO 8859-1 glyphs are supported in all browsers, if there's an upright question mark or a null glyph ͣ in the left-hand column, it's not supported. I use Internet Explorer. All these glyphs are supported in IE.
Some other useful typographic entities;
é  Accute accent lower case E for cliché
à  Grave accent lower case A for vis-à-vis
ï  Circumflex lower case I for variant naïve
ê  Circumflex lower case E for bête noire
French loan words all four, for those of us who are sticklers for detail.
Currency;
¢  cent
£  pound
¥  yen
€  euro
Intellectual property;
©  copyright
®  registered trademark
™  trademark
Typography;
¶  paragraph pilcrow
·  middle dot
¸  spacing cedilla
¹  superscript 1
²  superscript 2
³  superscript 3
₁  subscript 1
₂  subscript 2
₃  subscript 3
¿  inverted question mark
‽  interrobang (question mark and exclamation mark)
ſ  long s
–  en dash
—  em dash
→  right arrow
↑  up arrow
←  left arrow
↓  down arrow
†  dagger
‡  double dagger
°  degree
℃  degree Celsius
Some fun typographic entities;
☽  waxing crescent
☾  waning crescent
☪  crescent moon and star
♥  black hearts
♔ ♕ ♖ ♗ ♘ ♙ ♚ ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞ ♟ white and black chess pieces

[rose]

It's the emdash that I need to work on, Poly, not the em space. Have you ever noticed how some people throw them around so confidently?

And, after looking at your symbology list, I have to ask, why it is that didn't we get an interrobang to use for ordinary punctuation? It would have been such a useful way to end the last sentence. I feel cheated.

rose
(on a punctuation kick today)

[polymath]

Hi, Rose,

Yes, I noticed how em dashes populate some writer's writing. Noah Lukeman promotes them and ellipsis points and semicolons and colons in The First Five Pages for varying syntax effectively. What he doesn't say is how to use them effectively, grammatically appropriately, seamlessly.

A basic principle of punctuation for em dashes is they mark strong interruptions and abrupt changes in direction of thought (self-interruptions). Below, the Standard Manuscript Format em dash, two hyphens not bracketed with spaces.

"She didn't say--"
"Uh-huh, she sure did say."
"So you know what she said too."

"I went to the--sorry, no, I didn't. I prepared to go shopping but the water heater exploded before I got to my car."

But Words Into Type recommends em dashes for marking faltering speech over Chicago Manual of Style's preferred ellipsis points for marking faltering speech. Below, publication format's proportional typeface ellipsis points bracketed with spaces and interspaced.

"In 2010? No, not this year. Wait. Yes, that . . . okay. It was definitely 2009, I think."

Whichever, single purpose and consistency and infrequency are paramount so readers aren't confused by a jumble of uses nor is impact lost from excessive frequency. Like, one viewpoint character can occasionally be interrupted or faltering in speech, but not a narrator. Certainly not every character all the time, and a narrator. Otherwise, a narrative would be a bunch of rude, gibbering, indecisive, excitable characters and narrator. I'd feel like I was reading about a kindergarten playground recess free-for-all, which would give me a headache.

I intentionally left out irony marking punctuation in the listing. Punctuation acrobatics are ineffective shorthand tricks, Tells, when context and meaning of the words are more effective.

[Claudie]

Yes, I noticed how em dashes populate some writer's writing. Noah Lukeman promotes them and ellipsis points and semicolons and colons in The First Five Pages for varying syntax effectively. What he doesn't say is how to use them effectively, grammatically appropriately, seamlessly.

Noah Lukeman also wrote A Dash of Style - The Art and Mastery of Punctuation, in which he expands on the subject of em dashes, ellipsis points, semicolons, colons, and just about every punctuation mark. It's a great book that focuses on what punctuation can bring to your style and what you can create with it rather than on the down and dirty rules of it.

So I guess he doesn't quite explain how to use it 'grammatically', but he does expand on 'effectively' and 'seamlessly'.

[polymath]

Yes, I noticed how em dashes populate some writer's writing. Noah Lukeman promotes them and ellipsis points and semicolons and colons in The First Five Pages for varying syntax effectively. What he doesn't say is how to use them effectively, grammatically appropriately, seamlessly.

Noah Lukeman also wrote A Dash of Style - The Art and Mastery of Punctuation, in which he expands on the subject of em dashes, ellipsis points, semicolons, colons, and just about every punctuation mark. It's a great book that focuses on what punctuation can bring to your style and what you can create with it rather than on the down and dirty rules of it.

So I guess he doesn't quite explain how to use it 'grammatically', but he does expand on 'effectively' and 'seamlessly'.

And of course, effectively and seamlessly are the goal, so the words and punctuation are as invisible as the page and readers are transported into a narrative's setting, at least as observing bystanders. Myself, I come by grammatical proficiency from intense study. I expect I'll have to get a copy of Lukeman's A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation and wrap my mind around it. He was so thorough on other creative writing topics in The First Five Pages and sparse on punctuation's role I suspected he'd covered punctuation stylistic arts elsewhere. But pages and novels and poetics texts to read I didn't follow up on the hunch, and apparently overlooked his Also-by listing in the frontmatter. My regional library has two of Lukeman's poetics texts but not that one. Interlibrary loan time, once I finish Jonathan Franzen's Freedom.

[dios4vida]

Wow, polymath, is there anything you don't know?! You're like our personal resident guru-of-everything. :)

[Down the well]

Wow, polymath, is there anything you don't know?! You're like our personal resident guru-of-everything. :)

Hence the self-title of polymath. Someone who knows a little something about everything. :)

[Claudie]

Wow, polymath, is there anything you don't know?! You're like our personal resident guru-of-everything. :)

Hence why I was so surprised when his answer included something about Noah Lukeman, but not about A Dash of Style!

I will take heart in the fact that perhaps, somehow, I will have contributed to the living encyclopedia that is polymath. ;)

[polymath]

Wow, polymath, is there anything you don't know?! You're like our personal resident guru-of-everything. :)

I've learnt a thing or two here and there. The more I learn the more I learn I don't know. Paradox.

Down the well is close on what a polymath is. A person of encyclopedic learning. Or in my case, encyclopedic, practical, and applied hands-on learning. If I'm a polymath at anything it's in the realms of publication. I'm first and foremost a reader, though there ain't many ways that pays the bills. I manage to make a modest living from it while I write for publication.

And thanks, Claudie, for contributing to my ever-expanding knowledge base.