just for fun
M dash Versus Colon
A whole whack of new books have come in this week: Body Blows, Bridget’s Black ‘47, Laughing Wolf.
I’m breezing through Body Blows. It’s perfect reading weather for it. I got home soaked yesterday because I was wishing it wouldn’t rain and it would be the kinda day the Weather Network would get wrong. Instead it rained, and I got soaked. But, I got to relax and read the second mystery in the Joe Grundy Series, Body Blows, and I love it. It’s a fast gritty noire. It’s well written and the pacing seems just right. The author, Marc Strange, was a writer for the Beachcombers.
Today, I’m editing some stuff, and I had to break out the big book of Chi Man of Style, CHIMOS for short — that’s my invention. I also started using the word atari, id es that’s played out or that’s wack. E.G. That new shirt is atari. I just thought I’d share that. And maybe if enough people started saying atari more, “Pride and Prejudice was atari until they added zombies” it will find its way into the rap dictionary. Long story short, the weather is driving me nuts, I am editing using CHIMOS, and inventing new vernacular. And it reminded me of this link.
That’s because of a conundrum I had this morning editing a sentence that appeared with a dash in some press copy. When I had the sentence, prior to seeing the press copy, I used a colon. It just looked better, and I thought it a better choice because it showed a closer relationship to the already standing statement. But, I’m not an editor. I should ask Michael Carrol because he is the head editor, I believe that is indeed his title.
Today marks the end of another chapter in my own bildungsroman. The students of Centennial’s Publishing program had their grad ceremony today. I am now a graduate of the program, and a full-time employee. I have accrued enough knowledge to take over the publishing industry and blog about grammar that bothers me — my own writing excluded.
The rain outside is atari. But Body Blows is not. Remember I said it first.
Tags: atari, beachcombers, body blows, bridget's black '47, chicago manual of style, editing, jeffrey kiyoshk ross, laughing wolf, rap dictionary About the author
I woke up one day and said, "I outta do something I enjoy." So, I took a course in publishing and started at Dundurn as the sales and marketing intern. Luckily, my internship turned into the Sales and Marketing Co-ordinator position. I'm an energetic reader and occasional freelance journalist. Hopefully, though, I'll be a publisher one day using everything I get to learn here.
Discussion
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I remember reading an article recently claiming that semicolon is feminine and the em-dash is masculine.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/08/10/sex_and_the_semicolon/
I guess I never learned that – my own writing is covered in dashes.
Kurt Vonnegut on semicolons:
“Here is a lesson in creative writing.
First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.”