Thursday, December 22, 2005
The Dash - - -
I will be the first one to admit that I have retained little of the
proper method of punctuation which was taught to me some
60 years ago......This can be attested to by the fact that
I use ....., a series of periods, when I end a sentence..... (I know
there should be one period but it is an habit from using a
teletype machine in my younger days.)......
What gets me is that even today, where it should be used, the dash
is not......Today's computer "scribes" can make it very confusing
when they print fractional numbers in their texts.....Let us take
ten and one half percent as an example......
They will write it as 101/2 percent.....The New York Post
reports pay increases, in the subway strike, as 3/4/31/2 percent.....
Where is the needed "dash"?.......3/4/3-1/2 percent does improve
the text greatly, just as 10-1/2 percent would......Pumps
proper method of punctuation which was taught to me some
60 years ago......This can be attested to by the fact that
I use ....., a series of periods, when I end a sentence..... (I know
there should be one period but it is an habit from using a
teletype machine in my younger days.)......
What gets me is that even today, where it should be used, the dash
is not......Today's computer "scribes" can make it very confusing
when they print fractional numbers in their texts.....Let us take
ten and one half percent as an example......
They will write it as 101/2 percent.....The New York Post
reports pay increases, in the subway strike, as 3/4/31/2 percent.....
Where is the needed "dash"?.......3/4/3-1/2 percent does improve
the text greatly, just as 10-1/2 percent would......Pumps
# posted by Pumps @ 3:40 PM 
