Читать книгу The Writer's Desk Book - William Dana Orcutt - Страница 17

1. Whenever the construction or the sense is suddenly changed or suspended: e.g., You cannot believe—but I will not humiliate myself by asking the question.

2. To connect extreme dates in specifying periods of time: e.g., 1912–1918.

3. When the sentence is abruptly terminated: e.g., “If he is alive, I can make him one from this time; and if—if—”

4. To secure rhetorical emphasis: e.g., We are ready—we are more than ready to meet the issue.

5. To define verse references in the Bible: e.g., Matt. 1 : 4–8; or to indicate page references in a book: e.g., See pp. 21–42.

6. Between short, snappy sentences to increase the speed of the discourse: e.g., Hullo! ho! the whole world’s asleep!—bring out the horses—grease the wheels—tie on the mail!

7. Between the subject-matter and its authority.

8. To indicate the omission of letters: e.g., Mrs. B——.

9. At the end of a series of phrases which depend upon a concluding clause: e.g., Courtesy and attention, patience and judgment, accuracy and carefulness—these are but a few of the elements which constitute successful business relations. {14}

10. To precede expressions which are added to an apparently completed sentence, but which refer to some previous part of the sentence: e.g., The question of hearing was seriously troubling the minister—they probably had heard too much.

¶ Dashes may be substituted for commas or marks of parenthesis before and after expressions having closer connection with the main sentence than could be indicated by marks of parenthesis: e.g., They might have been talking for a quarter of an hour or more, when Monks—by which name the Jew had designated the strange man—said, etc.

¶ Use the dash preceded by the colon before a long quotation forming a new paragraph. The dash is not otherwise used with other punctuation marks unless demanded by clearness.

¶ In France, printers use the dash as a frequent substitute for quotation-marks in dialogue, placing quotation-marks only at the beginning and the end, even though extended over several pages.