I'd really like to meet Nelson Mandela the 800-year-old demi-god and dildo collector, he seems fun 
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If you see something written with en-dashes and em-dashes, you know it involved artificial intelligences competent writers and editors.
I like to put U+202F NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE between numbers and units, such as:
2,345 mi
3.95 kg
25.7 °C
These diminutive slivers add just enough space between numbers and letters to make them easier to read, but still keep them together.
I also like to use the script ℓ for liters to keep it legible.
1.0 gal ≈ 3.79 ℓ
Spaces around en-dashes, or no?
Love a semi-colon.
Love a pair of em-dashes (yes, I know), though actually I use the space—en-dash—space formation these days to match with my single quotation mark*.
And on this WIP, I’ve finally given in and allowed brackets too**.
I also have a single occasion in the WIP on which it would very apt to use a footnote*** but I haven’t decided if it’ll pass the first draft yet or not.
https://zirk.us/@grammargirl/114780005280908908
*If you pay attention to punctuation in trad-published books, and why would anyone, you might notice a general pattern of US = double quotation marks and em-dash, UK = single quotation marks and spaced en-dash. I was AU mix-and-matching, but the wrong way round (AU books sometimes use double quotations but en-dashes) until I couldn’t take it anymore
**Funny how the subconscious brain works: my POV MC is quiet and keeps a lot of secrets, OF COURSE HE THINKS IN BRACKETS…
***yes, a Terry Pratchett reference
This is a delicious tribute to the sensual semi-colon. Enjoy!
"Witness this gorgeous specimen by Christopher Marlowe, in ‘Hero and Leander’:
Come thither; As she spake this, her toong tript.
For vnawares (Come thither) from her slipt.
And sodainly her former colour chang’d.
And here and there her eies through anger rang’d.
That slight, erotic pause after the first ‘thither’; it’s heavenly."
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Could the Semicolon Die Out? Recent Analysis Finds a Decline in Its Usage in British Literature and Confusion Among U.K. Students
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As someone who loves learning languages I had to report on this. It is thought that the semi-colon is set to die out in English literature. Most young people apparently do not know how to use it correctly. It has been in use since the end of the 15th century. In 1701 it appeared in a ratio of 1:90 words, whilst today it appears just once for every 390 words. A huge fall. It is thought people are afraid of using it incorrectly. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/could-the-semicolon-die-out-a-recent-study-finds-a-marked-decline-in-its-usage-180986689/
The Laws of the Spanish Language, Chapter 3, Section 4, Subsection 9, Verse 2, Item c:
Thou mayest use one exclamatory symbol customarily, two in times of need, three as an extreme measure, but four exclamatory signs are right out, and five are out of the question.
Reading a university style guide that recommends "eleven year-old children".
This does not mean what they think it means, but on the plus side it could lead to some wildly amusing data.
I don't think any punctuation marks need protecting, by the way. The Apostrophe Protection Society, for example, is a dogmatic organisation with an appetite for shaming people and no apparent understanding of the apostrophe's diverse history and continuing mutability.
Punctuation patterns ebb and flow and change with the times. If people see the need for a particular mark, they'll keep using it.
In all the recent fuss over the semicolon's apparent decline (see e.g. https://theconversation.com/semicolons-are-becoming-increasingly-rare-their-disappearance-should-be-resisted-257019 ), I've seen no mention of Cecelia Watson's book, which I reviewed here: https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2019/08/12/book-review-semicolon-by-cecelia-watson/
Why aren't any of our elected leaders addressing this situation that's approaching crisis levels! We're already down by 50% and the trend is accelerating!
Decline in semicolon usage, and thank goodness, not least because people generally don't know how to use them correctly.
I try to get my non-native English-speaking colleagues to cut down on their use and to please do not use them in bullet lists.
"Too academic for our purposes!" I say.
Although a careful, considered semicolon, a literary semicolon, I can get behind.
Is there a Firefox add-on that could help me learn proper use of commas?
I think commas are used differently in German and English but I'm always unsure. A little add-on making suggestions would be great.
Punctuation is the writers only natural enemy
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'Punctuation controls two things: logical separation and breath… Writers weigh each role differently.'
Matthew Zipf on Renata Adler's commas:
https://theamericanscholar.org/in-the-matter-of-the-commas
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And Michael Tomasello's book "Origins of Human Communication" has a sentence 261 words long that's more intelligible than many sentences one tenth its length.
Clarity hinges on structure and sense, and his line uses 11 semicolons – here, the right choice – to form a precisely executed parallelism.
There are exceptions. Halfway through Patrick deWitt's first novel "Ablutions" is a sentence 207 words long that made me want to stand and cheer.
Not to be all leave-it-to-the-pros, but you do need to have certain skills to attempt a sentence of such length and hope to keep readers firmly on track.
Sometimes four short sentences are better than a single 140-word behemoth built with creaky semicolons and sticky tape.
