[bksvol-discuss] Re: More Questions about proofreading.
- From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 14:51:07 -0500
#
The last I heard, we were to leave the m dashes in place with no spaces
between them and the words. When I was using Open Book 6 my scans
replaced the m dashes with nothing, not even a space, and the words were
run together. I had to manually separate each case and replace it with a
double hyphen. When I was forced to switch to Open Book 9 when I
upgraded to Windows 7 I noticed that the m dashes were showing up and I
asked on this list how to handle them. It was Mayree who told me to
leave them alone and to not even put in spaces.
On 11/16/2013 6:49 AM, Ann Parsons wrote:
Hi all,
Yes, it would be very helpful, as I just converted all the m-dashes in
my recent proof to double hyphens, as I have been doing since I
started proofing. BTW, converting an m-dash to a space is no good
because it takes away from the meaning of the text. the long dash
indicates a pause of some length or a change of subject. this is
*not* indicated by a space. Converting m-dashes to two hyphens
preserves the grammatical meaning of the text. You can check this I'm
sure, but it may make a significant difference because replacing an
m-dash with a space doesn't preserve the text at all, it changes it
significantly.
<English teacher mode on>
Punctuation is there to indicate the sound and the tone of voice in
which text must be read. It is the way we tell a reader how to
phrase when reading. Remember The panda eats, shoots and leaves?
And remember, the panda eats shoots and leaves. the comma is telling
here. the same is true for an m-dash.
<English teacher mode off>
The necessity of converting section breaks to page breaks has been a
bugaboo which has been discussed over and over. The need to do this
was stressed. Judy is right in saying that we were told categorically
to reject books which had section breaks for page breaks unless we
knew how to convert them manually. Maybe we need a phone call or a
chat with tech to find out just exactly what the newest build of the
conversion tool can and can't do.
Hmmm, seems I need to go to google this morn' to see what can be found
about m-dashes and their use. Expect more on this shortly. I hate to
be didactic without proof.
Ann P.
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