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Tag Archives: “Shady Characters The Secret Life of Punctuation Symbols & Other Typographical Marks” Keith Houston

QUOTE MARKS REDUX

THE QUOTATION MARK is the anonymous hero of written clarity. As described in Keith Houston’s entertaining Shady Characters, it is “quietly competent, thank you very much, and would like to … Continue reading

September 14, 2020 · 3 Comments

MAY I “QUOTE” YOU ON THAT?

HERE’S ANOTHER of my tidbits on punctuation, today concerning quote marks. This is part of a continuing series here at SimanaitisSays, most recently with “☞Hurrah for the Manicule.☜” Encouragement for both … Continue reading

May 6, 2020 · Leave a comment

FROM TABLET TO SCROLL TO CODEX TO BOOK

WE THINK OF books as being on particular topics. Even anthologies have a common theme: mysteries, short stories, and the like. But it wasn’t always that way. Here are tidbits … Continue reading

October 8, 2019 · Leave a comment

☞ HURRAH FOR THE MANICULE! ☜

PERHAPS I GOT your attention today thanks to a pair of manicules bracketing the headline above. I hadn’t known their typographic name until reading about it in Keith Houston’s Shady … Continue reading

September 21, 2019 · Leave a comment

DASH IT ALL!

THERE’S A MULTIPLICITY of punctuation marks that look quite similar: -, –, —, and ―. These are, respectively, the hyphen, the en dash, the em dash, and the horizontal bar. … Continue reading

February 12, 2019 · Leave a comment

CELEBRATING &

I WORKED 33 years at a magazine (R&T) carrying an ampersand, so I have an affinity with this symbol. And, guess what, it’s one of the things described in Keith … Continue reading

February 18, 2018 · 2 Comments