User:Hawke/Misc Guideline

Use of special characters

There are certain “generic” characters and combinations which are no longer in the preferred style. They are: ' , " , ... and -.

Final form of a release

Generic characters should be used only in cases of Artist Intent. Otherwise, editors should replace generic characters with their more specific equivalents.

Initial entry of a release

While there are several ways to enter the preferred characters—including various key combinations and copy/paste—it may be difficult in your configuration. In such cases, use the generic characters. Later edits can update to the preferred form.

The characters

For reference, here are some of the characters which are in the preferred style.

Apostrophe

A true apostrophe (’) is preferred in place of a typewriter apostrophe (').

Quotation marks

Use the mark that appears on the release, instead of " or '. Common variations include:

double quotes

“ and ”

single quotes

‘ and ’

guillemets

« » and ‹ › (note difference from < and >)

low quotes

„ and ‚ (note difference from comma: ,)

ditto mark

〃

Primes

Use single prime (′), double-prime (″), or other prime symbols where appropriate. Single prime indicates minutes and feet; double-prime indicates seconds and inches. Greater prime symbols are rarely used, but do exist.

Ellipsis

Use the ellipsis character (…) instead of three periods (...)

Dashes, hyphens, and minus signs

Use the appropriate hyphen (‐), minus sign (−), em dash (—), en dash (–), or other dash as it appears on the release. If you can’t easily enter these characters, or can’t determine which is correct, use - (hyphen-minus, the common character appearing on keyboards) for en dash, hyphen, and minus; use -- for em dash and quotation dash.

Relation to Classical Style Guide

Since the Classical Style Guide has its own rules about punctuation in titles, please follow that guideline where it applies.