Rules for compositors and readers at the University Press, Oxford · Oxford University Press
PUNCTUATION
The compositor is recommended to study attentively a good treatise[49] on the whole subject. He will find some knowledge of it to be indispensable if his work is to be done properly; for most writers send in copy quite unprepared as regards punctuation, and leave the compositor to put in the proper marks. ‘Punctuation is an art nearly always left to the compositor, authors being almost without exception either too busy or too careless to regard it.’[50] Some authors rightly claim to have carefully prepared copy followed absolutely; but such cases are rare, and the compositor can as a rule only follow his copy exactly when setting up standard reprints. ‘The first business of the compositor’ says Mr. De Vinne, ‘is to copy and not to write. He is enjoined strictly to follow the copy and never to change the punctuation of any author who is precise and systematic; but he is also required to punctuate the writings of all authors who are not careful, and to make written expression intelligible in the proof.... It follows that compositors are inclined to neglect the study of rules that cannot be generally applied.’[51]
In business there is something more than barter, exchange, price, payment: there is a sacred faith of man in man. Study to acquire a habit of thinking: no study is more important.[61] Always remember the ancient maxim: Know thyself. _The Period or Full Stop._ Examples of its ordinary use: Fear God. Honour the King. Pray without ceasing. There are thoughts and images flashing across the mind in its highest moods, to which we give the name of inspiration. But whom do we honour with this title of the inspired poet? _The Note of Interrogation._ Examples of its ordinary use: Shall little, haughty ignorance pronounce His work unwise, of which the smallest part Exceeds the narrow vision of the mind? Was the prisoner alone when he was apprehended? Is he known to the police? Has he any regular occupation? Where does he dwell? What is his name? What does the pedant mean? Cases where the note of interrogation must not be used, the speaker simply stating a fact: The Cyprians asked me why I wept. I was asked if I would stop for dinner. _The Note of Exclamation._ Examples of its ordinary use: Hail, source of Being! universal Soul! How mischievous are the effects of war! O excellent guardian of the sheep!—a wolf![62] Alas for his poor family! Alas, my noble boy! that thou shouldst die! Ah me! she cried, and waved her lily hand. O despiteful love! unconstant womankind!
_Marks of Parenthesis._ Examples: I have seen charity (if charity it may be called) insult with an air of pity. Left now to himself (malice could not wish him a worse adviser), he resolves on a desperate project.[63] _The Bracket._ These marks are used chiefly to denote an interpolation or explanation. For example: Perhaps (alarming thought!), perhaps he [Death] aims Ev’n now the fatal blow that ends my life.[64] They [the Lilliputians] rose like one man. _The Dash._ Em rules or dashes—in this and the next line an example is given—are often used to show that words enclosed between them are to be read parenthetically. Thus a verbal parenthesis may be shown by punctuation in three ways: by em dashes, by ( ), or by commas.[65] Omit the dash when a colon is used to preface a quotation or similar matter, whether at the end of a break-line or not. The dash is used to mark an interruption or breaking off in the middle of a sentence.[66] _Marks of Omission._ To mark omitted words three points ... (not asterisks) separated by en quadrats are sufficient; and the practice should be uniform throughout the work. Where full lines are required to mark a large omission, real or imaginary, the spacing between the marks should be increased; but the compositor should in this case also use full points and not asterisks.
_Punctuation Marks generally._ The following summary is an attempt to define in few words the meaning and use of punctuation marks (the capitals are only given for emphasis): A Period marks the end of a sentence. A Colon is at the transition point of the sentence. A Semicolon separates different statements. A Comma separates clauses, phrases, and particles. A Dash marks abruptness or irregularity. An Exclamation marks surprise. An Interrogation asks a question for answer. An Apostrophe marks elisions or possessive case. Quotation marks define quoted words. Parentheses enclose interpolations in the sentence. Brackets enclose irregularities in the sentence.[67] _Quotation Marks, or ‘Inverted Commas’ (so-called)._ Omit quotation marks in poetry, as instructed on p. 45. Also omit them in prose extracts broken off in smaller type, unless contrary instructions are given. Insert quotation marks in titles of essays: e.g. ‘Mr. Brock read a paper on “Description in Poetry”.’ But omit quotation marks when the subject of the paper is an author: e.g. ‘Professor Bradley read a paper on Jane Austen.’ Single ‘quotes’ are to be used for the first quotation; then double for a quotation within a quotation. If there should be yet another quotation within the second quotation it is necessary to revert to single quotation marks. Sometimes, as in the impossible example in the footnote, quotation marks packed three deep must be omitted.
All signs of punctuation used with words in quotation marks must be placed _according to the sense_. If an extract ends with a point, then let that point be, as a rule,[68] included before the closing quotation mark; but not otherwise. When there is one quotation within another, and both end with the sentence, put the punctuation mark before the first of the closing quotations. These are important directions for the compositor to bear in mind; and he should examine the examples which are given in the pages which follow: ‘The passing crowd’ is a phrase coined in the spirit of indifference. Yet, to a man of what Plato calls ‘universal sympathies’, and even to the plain, ordinary denizens of this world, what can be more interesting than ‘the passing crowd’?[69] If the physician sees you eat anything that is not good for your body, to keep you from it he cries, ‘It is poison!’ If the divine sees you do anything that is hurtful for your soul, he cries, ‘You are lost!’[70] ‘Why does he use the word “poison”?’ But I boldly cried out, ‘Woe unto this city!’[71] Alas, how few of them can say, ‘I have striven to the very utmost’!{71} Thus, notes of exclamation and interrogation are sometimes included in and sometimes follow quotation marks, as in the sentences above, according to whether their application is merely to the words quoted or to the whole sentence of which they form a part. The sentence-stop must be omitted after ? or !, even when the ? or ! precedes the closing ‘quotes’.
In regard to the use of commas and full points with ‘turned commas’, the general practice has hitherto been different. When either a comma or a full point is required at the end of a quotation, the almost universal custom at the present time is for the printer to include that comma or full point within the quotation marks at the end of an extract, _whether it forms part of the original extract or not_. Even in De Vinne’s examples, although he says distinctly, ‘The proper place of the closing marks of quotation should be determined by the quoted words only’, no instance can be found of the closing marks of quotation being placed to precede a comma or a full point. Some writers wish to exclude the comma or full point when it does not form part of the original extract, and to include it when it does form part of it; and this is doubtless correct. There seems to be no reason for perpetuating a bad practice. So, unless the author wishes to have it otherwise, in all new works the compositor should place full points and commas according to the examples that follow: We need not ‘follow a multitude to do evil’. No one should ‘follow a multitude to do evil’, as the Scripture says. Do not ‘follow a multitude to do evil’; on the contrary, do what is right.
When a number of isolated words or phrases are, for any reason, severally marked off by ‘turned commas’ (e.g. in order to show that they are not the expressions which the author would prefer to use, or that they are used in some technical sense), the closing quotation mark should precede the punctuation mark, thus: ‘Such odd-sounding designations of employment as “scribbling miller”, “devil feeder”, “pug boy”, “decomposing man”, occur in the census reports.’ _in my voice_, ‘so far as my vote is concerned’. _parlous_, ‘perilous’, ‘dangerous’, ‘hard to deal with’. But when a quotation is complete in itself, either as a sentence or a paragraph, the final quotation mark is to be placed outside the point. For example: ‘If the writer of these pages shall chance to meet with any that shall only study to cavil and pick a quarrel with him, he is prepared beforehand to take no notice of it.’ (_Works of Charles and M. Lamb_, Oxford edition, i. 193.) Where a quotation is interrupted by an interpolated sentence, the punctuation must follow the sense of the passage, as in the following examples: 1. ‘At the root of the disorders’, he writes in the Report, ‘lies the conflict of the two races.’ In this example the comma is placed _outside_ the quotation mark, as it forms no part of the original punctuation.
2. ‘Language is not, and never can be,’ writes Lord Cromer, ‘as in the case of ancient Rome, an important factor in the execution of a policy of fusion.’ In this example the comma is placed _inside_ the quotation mark, as it forms part of the original punctuation. In the case of dialogues, the punctuation mark should precede the quotation mark, as: ‘You hear him,’ said Claverhouse, smiling, ‘there’s the rock he splits upon; he cannot forget his pedigree.’ _Punctuation in Classical and Philological Notes._ In notes on English and foreign classics, as a rule[72] follow the punctuation in the following examples: 5. _Falls not_, lets not fall. (That is, a comma is sufficient after the lemma where a simple definition follows.) 17. _swoon._ The spelling of the folios is ‘swound’. (Here a full point is used, because the words that follow the lemma comprise a complete sentence.) Note, as to capitalization, that the initial letter of the word or phrase treated (as in _Falls not_ above) should be in agreement with the text. The lemma should be set in italics or clarendon, according to directions. _Punctuation Marks and References to Footnotes in juxtaposition._ The relation of these to each other is dealt with on p. 70. Examples of the right practice are to be found on many pages of the present work. _Points in Title-pages, Headlines, &c._ All points are to be omitted from the ends of lines in titles, half-titles, page-headings, and main cross-headings, in Clarendon Press works, unless a special direction is given to the contrary.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.