danoff
The way I remember it is that "its" is like "his" and "hers", possessive.
I’m not sure if you were aware, but that actually
is where it originated from. The three singular possessive adjectives used to be
his,
hers, and
hits. Over time, the
h from
hits was dropped off to form our present-day
its.
Famine
You should never put any punctuation inside parentheses. Ever (and I mean ever).
But what if I have a side-idea? (Seriously!)
G.T
I TRY to use a dash, but I just get confused on when to use it. It's the same with the semi-colon,which is the same thing, apparently...
keef
Ahh, the dash.
Okay, why not--and and what happens if I have a question?
I use two dashes with no spaces, like that^, because that's how you type it into Word to format the proper symbol, the single long dash that has no space between the adjacent words. I notice most of you guys use one single dash with spaces: ...blah - blah... I go like this: ...blah--blah... Same effect, different look. Blame it on Microsoft.
I have always been somewhat confused about where to use that dash and where to use a semicolon (
. I know a basic rule of semicolons that goes something like "a semicolon replaces a word like 'and' or 'but'." Beyond that I don't know any more details or if that rule applies to the dash. And does that dash have a name?
Okay, first,
semicolon. There are two main instances when you use a semicolon:
1 If you want to join two independent clauses. Independent clauses are sentences structures that can stand as individual sentences. So, let’s say we have these two sentences:
I am hungry. I will go make a sandwich.
Those are so short that they’re awkward, so they probably should be joined by a semicolon to emphasize the cause-effect relationship between them:
I am hungry; I will go make a sandwich.
In other words, you can use a semicolon to join two sentences if you feel that they are so closely associated with each other that they should be one sentence.
2 Semicolons can also be used when you have two clauses set off by an adverb (and the adverb is followed by a comma). For example:
This bone is the missing link; therefore, we should take great care in transporting it.
Don’t use a semicolon if it’s set off by a conjunction:
We should take great care in transporting this bone, because it is the missing link.
Now, for
dashes. The best way I can put it is to quote directly from
The Elements of Style: “A dash is a mark of separation stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses.”
For example:
I was bewildered – what was wrong with her?
Theoretically, I
could use a colon, but it would seem stuffy in that context.
BTW, in regards to what type of dash to use:
-: This is called a hyphen-minus. It should only be used as a hyphen though (as in,
hyphen-minus).
–: This is an en-dash, so called because it is the length of an
n. This is the dash that most typographers like to use – it should always, always be paired with spaces around it (like in this very sentence).
—: This is an em-dash, so called because it is the length of an
m. You can use this in lieu of the en-dash, but only if you don’t put space around it (for example—this). However, it was basically invented during the Victorian times, so it’s perceived as tight and stuffy. I personally hate using it.
Most people use a hyphen-minus, because they think it’s a dash. Most people also use two hyphen-minuses, because Word autoformats it. The whole trouble is that the keyboard wasn’t made with typography in mind, so most people (and programmers) just don’t care. For the Mac folks though, pressing Option+[hyphen-minus] gives you an en-dash, and Option+Shift+[hyphen-minus] gives you an em-dash.
