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7. THE EXCLAMATION-MARK (!)

The note of exclamation or ecphoneme is used after a word or phrase to express sudden emotion, and is sometimes repeated for emphasis.

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(1) Double quotation-marks or guillemets are used to designate that the matter within them is a direct quotation from another author or is dialogue.

(2) Single quotation-marks are used within double quotation-marks to designate that the matter within them is a quotation from another author or speaker cited by the first author whose matter is printed within the double marks.

EXAMPLES:

"Grant White, referring to Milton, says 'Milton calls Raphael "the affable archangel," and makes Adam say to him, as he is about departing heavenward:

Gentle to me and affable hath been

Thy condescension, and shall be honored ever
With grateful memory.""

(3) Double quotation-marks are sometimes used in citing titles, as of books, but titles are

often printed in italic type, and when this is done quotation-marks are not used.

9.-PARENTHESES-( )

(1) The parentheses are used to separate an explanatory or qualifying clause, or a sentence inserted in another sentence which is grammatically complete without it.

EXAMPLES:

The wallflower, on each rifted rock,

From liberal blossoms shall breathe down
(Gold blossoms frecked with iron-brown)
Its fragrance.

The columbine is a herbaceous plant of the
crowfoot family (Ranunculacea), with the leaf-
lets shaped like those of the meadow-rue.

(2) They are used also in connection with the titles of books (a) to separate the place and date of publication from the text, thus preserving the continuity of same; (b) to enclose references or figures denoting numerical sections or other divisions; (c) to enclose notes of interrogation inserted to express doubt of the correctness of the statement made.

EXAMPLE: (a) Mrs. Massingbird published "Sickness, Its Trials and Blessings" (London, 1868).

The uses referred to under (b) and (c) above are so frequent as not to require illustration.

10. THE APOSTROPHE (')

The apostrophe is used to denote the possessive case, which is made in the singular by adding s with an apostrophe, as also in the plural of nouns that do not end in s-as, man's, men's. The plural possessive, when the plural already ends with an s, is formed by adding an apostrophe after the word—as, horses' teeth; that is, "the teeth of horses."

11. THE CARET (^)

The caret is used only in writing, to denote where omitted words or letters are to be inserted.

12.-THE DIERESIS (" )

The dieresis or dialysis consists of two dots placed over a vowel.

(1) It is placed above one of two vowels when these follow one another, to show that they do not form a diphthong-as, Danäe.

(2) It is used sometimes (but, in general, modern practise discards it) over the second vowel in words where the vowel is doubledas, zoophyte. The "Standard Dictionary" discards the dieresis altogether.

For the explanations of other signs used in etymological punctuation, see page 41.

VIII

INDEXING

An index, or alphabetical list of matters discussed in a book or set of books, showing where each subject is to be found, is one of the most valuable adjuncts to a book. The best book in the world would lose much of its worth as a practical literary tool if devoid of an index. "The worst book," says Horace Binney, "if it had but a single good thought in it, might be kept alive by it."

So important did that eminent jurist, the late Lord Campbell, consider an index, that he suggested that the British copyright law should be amended in such a way as to deprive any author who published a book without an index of the protection afforded him by the Copyright Act.

A good index is a pass-key to the contents of a book, a pilot through strange seas of thought, without which few readers, no matter how venturesome, would care to sail. A book without an index is like a ship without a rudder.

Pope has declared that he who knows how to make a good index "holds the eel of science by the tail," and we may add that he who knows

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how to consult it knows how to dissect the eel. To consultants of works of reference or of treatises expounding the sciences an index is as necessary an implement as is the pen to the scribe or the chisel to the carpenter. "Those authors whose subjects require them to be voluminous would do well," says Henry Rogers, "if they would be remembered as long as possible, not to omit a duty which authors in general, but especially modern authors, are too apt to neglect-that of appending to their works a good index."

HOW TO MAKE AN INDEX

The making of an index is an art in itself, and on the care given to its compilation depends much of its value as a short cut to the contents of the book indexed. The author who takes pride in his work will endeavor to prepare a comprehensive one, and will find that the best method to follow is to compile it from the page proofs of the work as they reach him from the printer. To assure a strict alphabetical arrangement, an index should be compiled on cards or on small sheets of stiff paper, one card or sheet to be devoted to each subject which the author desires shall stand in alphabetical order. On this card or sheet the compiler should write, in addition to the subject, the number of the page of the book on which the subject is treated. This plan should be followed

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