Out of the 15 challenge entries five were \u2018clean\u2019: In entries 3, 4, 10, 11 and 14 there\u2019s no sign of dashes or ellipses. I wonder whether this is deliberate \u2018purity\u2019?<\/p>\n
Below are the lists of all the usages and abusages I found in the entries (1-12 for dashes and a-r for ellipses). I\u2019ve referred to them in what follows: (you\u2019ll need to scroll down)<\/p>\n
Entry # 1 has one legitimate omission of words (a). But do we need the space before and the comma after the ellipsis?<\/p>\n
Entry #6 (g and h) has genuine, unfinished sentences. Entry #15 (12) has one perfect abrupt interruption.<\/p>\n
Of the remaining entries #13 (p, q, r) uses an excess of dots for pauses. The ellipsis should be typed as 3 dots. If you backspace once after these, they all go away because they make up one punctuation mark: the ellipsis.<\/p>\n
#2 (b) has just the one pause, typed as space-3 dots-space. Is that first space superfluous? Would a colon do? Or a dash?<\/p>\n
That leaves ## 5, 7, 8, 9, and 12. I do believe some of those may be hooked on a not always carefully considered use of dramatic punctuation.<\/p>\n
#8 is the eye-opener; or it was for me. I\u2019ve never seen the em dash, as it is correctly named, written out in that way, i.e. as two hyphens with no spaces. It\u2019s called the em dash because it\u2019s as wide as the letter M was on the typewriter. In the days of secretarial courses and typing pools pupils were taught to type the dash as seen in #8. However, most computer programmes now automatically convert two consecutive hyphens into an em dash, and I wonder how #8 managed to keep them apart (in most cases, at least). I prefer to type my em dash with space-hyphen-space, and I think it\u2019s fun to watch the hyphen lengthening into a dash. Like this \u2013 you see. But if I type in two hyphens with no spaces\u2014this is the result. Quite classy, really! I can\u2019t get the two hyphens to stay put. Another way of doing it is to hold down ALT and type in 0151 on the number pad\u2014as I\u2019ve just done.<\/p>\n
So all #8\u2019s dashes \/ double hyphens may look unfamiliar, but they are perfectly correct both as they stand and as they are used (5, 6, 7): Abrupt changes of subject matter and in (7) an even more abrupt end!<\/p>\n
#5 has two correct uses (1 and e) and three feeble ellipses (c, d, f). #7 is overly fond of dashes, I think. Are they abrupt interruptions? #9 sometimes leaves a hyphen in the dash space and also uses two-dot ellipses. I wonder if (9) and (10) should be trailing off ellipses rather than abrupt interruptions. #12 seems to be overly fond of ellipses. Is anything omitted? Shouldn\u2019t (k) be a dash?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve skimmed through too many articles on this subject and I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that\u2014if I can control myself\u2014I\u2019d prefer to stick to the stricter definitions about omissions and abrupt interruptions. One thing is certain: Effective use of punctuation enhances your writing. The opposite is equally true.<\/p>\n
Here are the examples from the \u2018Dust\u2019 entries (referred to in the above):<\/p>\n
I:\u00a0 Dashes.<\/p>\n
1) #5: Acarids \u2013 dust mites \u2013 don\u2019t scare me any more. 2) #7:\u00a0 she\u2019d confuse Thursdays with Wednesdays \u2013 even Tuesdays. 3) #7:\u00a0 was always welcome \u2013 and she liked to go. 4) #7:\u00a0 I went in with her \u2013 and it was clear that 5) #8:\u00a0 The plan–5 day’s walking in the desert, a 3 day silent retreat and then another five days of walking–quickly unravelled. 6) #8:\u00a0 The edge of the ridge we’d camped behind crumbled and fell \u2013 so that’s what caused all those caves 7) #8\u00a0:\u00a0 The tree– 8) #9:\u00a0 I had a \u2013 a vision.\u201d 9) #9:\u00a0 Dust was important, but \u2013 10) #9:\u00a0 She wasn’t sure that she believed in Pullman either, but – 11) #9:\u00a0 Wait though – what if the Pen had created 12) #15:\u00a0 the next \u2013 there!<\/p>\n
II:\u00a0 Ellipses.<\/p>\n
a) #1:\u00a0 \u201cBut, er …,\u201d\u00a0 b) #2:\u00a0 all she could see was dust … motes of dust hanging everywhere c) #5:\u00a0 I never open the door for longer than absolutely necessary\u2026 to be on the safe side. d) #5:\u00a0 She was tiny and scrawny\u2026 not even five; e) #5:\u00a0 inhalers, syringes, pills\u2026 it was like a hospital emergency ward. f) #5:\u00a0 I tried not to sleep\u2026 kept the light on in my bedroom g) #6:\u00a0 Once a week times 52 weeks times 40 years of marriage\u2026 h) #6:\u00a0 The saw stands guard above as if it knows\u2026 i) #9:\u00a0 \u201cI saw it. I saw.. Pullman\u2019s Pen.\u201d j) #9:\u00a0 Except.. if everything was nothing but a fiction k) #12:\u00a0 if recent figures are to be believed\u2026 ah yes, don\u2019t think we lack access l) #12:\u00a0 knee-deep in your own slough-off\u2026 bolstering your over-zealous m) #12:\u00a0 My faeces\u2026 well, our faeces, have n) #12:\u00a0 We\u2019re on your side\u2026 our faeces are your faeces! o) #13:\u00a0 and see what happens…… p) #13:\u00a0 I get it…. q) #13:\u00a0 Dust love me….. loada nonsense r) #13:\u00a0 dust over their hair….. unlike our dustbin women<\/p>\n
I\u2019d very much like to hear other people\u2019s opinions, please!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Out of the 15 challenge entries five were \u2018clean\u2019: In entries 3, 4, 10, 11 and 14 there\u2019s no sign of dashes or ellipses. I wonder whether this is deliberate \u2018purity\u2019? Below…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[6,7,5,11,4],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-thoughts","tag-alpha","tag-alpha-writers","tag-challenges","tag-punctuation","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}