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A quick punctuation question or two

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rwsteward

Experienced
Joined
Jun 16, 2009
Posts
90
Hi gang,

A couple of quick ones. Example below:

“This doesn’t concern you, buddy!” the stranger hissed back.

OR

“This doesn’t concern you, buddy!” The stranger hissed back.

Notice the "The"

AND

"Is that your father?" she asked.

OR

"Is that your father?" She asked.

I can't find my copy of CMS, but sure could use a reference to it. Which one is correct?

Second one...

Here comes uncle Bob. The used car salesman.

OR

Here come Uncle Bob. The used care salesman.

Does one capitalize 'uncle' ? In this example, no one is saying that uncle bob is their uncle. But here someone is.

"My Uncle Bob sells used cars."

?

Thanks,

RWS
 
No caps in the exclamation point and question mark examples. They function like commas in this context.

"Uncle" is capped as either a directly preceding title ("Uncle Bob" has fleas) or direct substitute for the name "Thanks, Uncle." But not in indirect use ("Bob, my uncle, has fleas") or ("I thanked my uncle").
 
Thanks!

I've been told both ways, by various editors.

would this be correct then?

"Oh my manners, I'm Charles Patterson, Amy's second oldest brother, but please call me Uncle Charlie. Everyone does." He grinned ear-to-ear, and I instantly knew why everyone called him Uncle Charlie. He looked the part.

thanks!

RWS
 
rwsteward said:
Thanks!

I've been told both ways, by various editors.

would this be correct then?

"Oh my manners, I'm Charles Patterson, Amy's second oldest brother, but please call me Uncle Charlie. Everyone does." He grinned ear-to-ear, and I instantly knew why everyone called him Uncle Charlie. He looked the part.

thanks!

RWS
Click to expand...

Just about right, but the edited version of that would be: "Oh, my manners. I'm Charles Patterson, Amy's second-oldest brother, but please call me Uncle Charlie. Everyone does." He grinned ear to earhyphenated as a direct adjective; not in this context], and I instantly knew why everyone called him Uncle Charlie. He looked the part.

On the direct titles/titles in apposition question you asked, since you noted the Chicago Manual of Style, the applicable guidance can be found in 8.18 and 8.20 (CMS 16). (So editors using American style shouldn't have varying opinions on this.)
 
sr71plt said:
hyphenated as a direct adjective; not in this context
Click to expand...

I confess, I often overuse hyphens. Only found out recently my publishers house style is:

When two words are combined to form an adjective there needs to be a hyphen between them only when it is followed by a noun. Therefore we have ‘a well-dressed man’ with a hyphen but ‘he was well dressed’ does not take a hyphen.

We do not hyphenate compound adverb/verb constructions used as adjectives when the adverb ends in – ly so highly polished table not highly-polished.
Click to expand...

So a mahoosive 'find & replace' session was in order. (I love 'find & replace', I would appear such an idiot without it.)

However, this bit has challenged me:

We use space-en dash-space for a break in mid-sentence, not space-hyphen-space or em dash. (An en dash is produced by combining CTRL and the minus sign on the number pad.)

(For avoidance of doubt this is a hyphen -
this is an en dash –
this is an em dash —)

We use space-en dash to indicate breaking off in speech – ‘blah blah –’

We use space-ellipsis-space for hesitation, etc., not three full points and not closed up before or after. If the ellipsis comes at the end of a sentence of reported speech, we don’t put a space before the closing quotation mark – ‘I’m not sure …’ If it comes at the beginning of a sentence of reported
speech, indicating a pause before speaking, we don’t put a space after the opening quotation mark – ‘… OK, I agree

For the spaces around ellipses (…) and en-dashes (–), we use non-breaking spaces. This is because the non-breaking space keeps words and punctuation together which needs to be, rather than having it run on to the next page. (Non-breaking space is formed by pressing shift, ctrl, and space bar at the same time)
Click to expand...

Non-breaking space? Wha'?:confused: I've tried doing that but there doesn't appear to be any difference.

I think I'm leaving those ones for the editor to sort out. :eek:
 
redzinger said:
I confess, I often overuse hyphens. Only found out recently my publishers house style is:
Click to expand...

An en-dash isn't used as your publisher indicates. I think they need to review 6.78–81 [this example itself one of the few correct uses of the end dash] in CMS 16. (and there wouldn't normally be spaces on either side of any form of dash) But, then, your publisher can have any rules it wants.
 
Thanks, sr71, for your input.

Now, all I have to do is find my copy of CMS. It's in the office someplace.


RWS
 
sr71plt said:
An en-dash isn't used as your publisher indicates. I think they need to review 6.78–81 [this example itself one of the few correct uses of the end dash] in CMS 16. (and there wouldn't normally be spaces on either side of any form of dash) But, then, your publisher can have any rules it wants.
Click to expand...

Could this be a US/UK thing (they're UK)?
 
It's more likely an individual publisher's quirk. They all have something they want to march to their own drummer on.
 
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