lilacstarflower

I'm editing a chapter I had written months ago. I posted it here and noted the comments from critique. Here's my problem:

I wrote this sentence:

The following Tuesday morning began like any other: Elizabeth had broken her fast and had gone into town before the others in the household had stirred

I have noted that one reviewer said I should replace : with a hyphen. I checked out the punctuation guide in writing 101 and can't see a hyphen being used to break up a sentence, just compound words. So should I just have two separate sentences or use - to break it up as was suggested

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Non Serviam

Lots of ways to do that. Two separate sentences is good. You can also use a semi-colon or an em-dash.

A colon is a bit unconventional but you can use that too if you like.

I see you're in Scotland, so I suggest treating punctuation suggestions from Americans as less than gospel... US English does have slightly different punctuation rules.

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lilacstarflower

Thanks non-serviam.

Ah, there are differences in the use of punctuation across the pond - that's why I get so confused with it! lol

really need to invest in an English punctuation book

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Sam Winchester

As Serv said, there isn't anything wrong with splitting that into two sentences. A colon is not grammatically wrong, either. Nor is a semi-colon. An em-dash and a hyphen are basically the same thing. I think one's just longer than the other. Maybe Serv can clear that up. I'm not one-hundred percent sure.

There are many differences between Commonwealth English and US English, not least the spelling. For one, they use double quotation (") marks for speech, while we use single (').

Here's a handy piece of literature that should clear most things up for you.

American and British English differences - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sam.

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Non Serviam

Here are three kinds of line: -–—

The first one, the shortest, is called a hyphen and it's used to join syllables. The second one, the middle, is called an en-dash because originally it was the same width as a letter "n". The thirt one, the longest, is called an em-dash because originally it was the same width as a letter "m", though it's grown longer than that for emphasis.

Em-dashes are characteristic of earlier, more literate ages (Charles Dickens used them a lot, for example). Nowadays they're less in vogue, but still popular with some writers and I find them quite useful myself.

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ActivateMyAccount

You need a new thread called "spelling query."

HarryG

If you don't wish to split the sentence completely, a semi-colon would be appropriate, but nowadays simple commas are used everywhere, Colons are becoming a rarity, though, technically, there's nothing wrong with the way you've written the sentence.


Thanks for that Burns link the other week, I forgot to thank you at the time.

lin

That sentence calls for a colon. No reason to separate the two, but if you have two complete sentences joined, it's a colon, not a semi-colon you're after.

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Dancer Preston

You're a writer. Grammer is your b*itch.

Use it the way you want, as a way to get the point of whatever you're writing across.

You're sentence looks perfectly fine.

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Ilasir Maroa

Yep... but you have to be careful, or the b*itch drops some "'"s and "e"s on the carpet.

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JosephB

I love em dashes. There are no specific rules attached to them, as far as I know, so I feel I have a lot of leeway. If it "sounds" good, I use one.

I have a lot of old books that were my Grandfather's. There are some from the twenties and thirties, and the em dashes are about three feet long.

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lilacstarflower

Thanks everyone for the feedback

Yeah, that link cleared up a lot, thanks Sam

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lin

I'm anti-em.

Not like the old bag in Wizard of Oz, though.

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