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What are some different writing forms and how do you use them? Here is a brief list of some common forms used in writing, what they are, and how to use them correctly in your writing.
Headings. Leave a blank line, or its equivalent in space, after the title or heading of a manuscript. On succeeding pages, if using ruled paper, begin on the first line.
Numerals. Do not spell out dates or other serial numbers. Write them in figures or in Roman notation, as may be appropriate.
- August 9, 1918
- Rule 3
- Chapter XII
- 352d Infantry
Parentheses. A sentence containing an expression in parenthesis is punctuated, outside of the marks of parenthesis, exactly as if the expression in parenthesis were absent. The expression within is punctuated as if it stood by itself, except that the final stop is omitted unless it is a question mark or an exclamation point.
- I went to his house yesterday (my third attempt to see him), but he had left town.
- He declares (and why should we doubt his good faith?) that he is now certain of success.
(When a wholly detached expression or sentence is parenthesized, the final stop comes before the last mark of parenthesis.)
Quotations. Formal quotations, cited as documentary evidence, are introduced by a colon and enclosed in quotation marks.
- The provision of the Constitution is: “No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state.”
Quotations grammatically in apposition or the direct objects of verbs are preceded by a comma and enclosed in quotation marks.
- I recall the maxim of La Rochefoucauld, “Gratitude is a lively sense of benefits to come.” Aristotle says, “Art is an imitation of nature.”
Quotations of an entire line, or more, of verse, are begun on a fresh line and centered, but not enclosed in quotation marks.
- Wordsworth’s enthusiasm for the Revolution was at first unbounded:
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!
Quotations introduced by that are regarded as in indirect discourse and not enclosed in quotation marks.
- Keats declares that beauty is truth, truth beauty.
Proverbial expressions and familiar phrases of literary origin require no quotation marks.
- These are the times that try men’s souls.
He lives far from the madding crowd.
The same is true of colloquialisms and slang.
References. In scholarly work requiring exact references, abbreviate titles that occur frequently, giving the full forms in an alphabetical list at the end. As a general practice, give the references in parenthesis or in footnotes, not in the body of the sentence. Omit the words act, scene, line, book, volume, page, except when referring by only one of them. Punctuate as indicated below.
- In the second scene of the third act
- After the killing of Polonius, Hamlet is placed under guard (IV. ii. 14).
- 2 Samuel i:17-27
- In III.ii (still better, simply insert III.ii in parenthesis at the proper place in the sentence)
- Othello II.iii 264-267, III.iii. 155-161
Titles. For the titles of literary works, scholarly usage prefers italics with capitalized initials. The usage of editors and publishers varies, some using italics with capitalized initials, others using Roman with capitalized initials and with or without quotation marks. Use italics (indicated in manuscript by underscoring), except in writing for a periodical that follows a different practice. Omit initial A or The from titles when you place the possessive before them.
- The Iliad; the Odyssey; As You Like It; To a Skylark; The Newcomes; A Tale of Two Cities; Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities.
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