Re: Ellipsis Points, Part II

["George Scithers" owlswickpress@xxxxxxxx]

----- Original Message -----
From: "J R FOX" 
To: 
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 8:36 PM
Subject: Ellipsis Points, Part II
I
have recently been given these follow-up questions,
which I hope will elicit some additional advice.

Jordan

------------------------------------------------------------------>> I have been following his advice re Ellipsis Points.>> He said re margins, 1" top, left side and bottom.> Indent the first line of every paragraph 5 spaces. Use> 12-point, monospaced font, spaced every 24 points. I> don't know what a monospaced font is, nor spaced every> 24 points.A monospaced font is like an ordinary typewriter -- that is,every letter is the same width."Spaced 24 points" means that the lines are 24 points apart. It'sthe same thing as "double spaced" (that is,  double-LINE-spaced"on a typewriter. There are 12 points to a pica, and 6 picas tothe inch.Double-line spacing or 24-point spacing, using a 12-pointmonospaced font will put down about 63 characters-and-spaced perline. and about 27 or so lines per page (plus the header thatgoes at the top right of each page). This will come out at about270 "words" per page -- where a "word" is 6characters-and-spaces, and partially blank lines are tr!
eated asif they are 63 characters-and-spaces long. Counting "words" likethis is called "printers' rule," and is the most generous of thecommonly accepted ways to describe the "word"-count of amanuscript. Basically, it's a measure of space, rather than acount of how many times you hit the space bar.> I am using Windows Word, Ariel font, size 11.> Indenting first line of a paragraph 1/2" which is more> than his five spaces. Side margins are 0.7. Top and> bottom margins 0.7" plus header and footer 0.1". Left> and right margins 1".>> A manuscript that was 465 pages single spaced grew to> 742 pages at 1 1/2" spacing. I can't believe that with> my font he means double spacing.Your manuscript is roughly 275,000 "words" long. How long arebooks in the genre you are writing for?> Your correspondent is a Xy user and may not know the> answer to this next question. I started this Ms in> 1986 and have worked on it over the years using WORD> which I was not too familiar with back then.!
 Over time> the indent in the first line of a paragraph was not> alway

s the same and I have been correcting it as I go> along. I wonder if there is a mass correction that> would standardize it to whatever correct spacing for> my font is? Should I change the font?In XyWrite, yes. In Word, I haven't the remotest idea.Do shift to a 12-point font. Do try to convert the whole thing(saving it on a spare disk first!) to Courier, but don't worryif you can't.> I noticed that Harriet Hodges said that Commas are> always omitted before ellipses. Is there a global> search and replace in WORD to find whose commas? I> liked what George Scithers said about leaving the> commas in if it makes the sentence clearer.>> One last question regards Quotes. My Manuscript is a> Memoir, basically letters, and this will not be a> scholarly work. Possibly it will be self published. I> have been using Quotes at the beginning of every> paragraph within the letters. I am making comments and> including extra material between letters which> obviously do no have quotation mar!
ks. Occasional> comments are put within letters using these brackets [> ] to indicate them. Does this make sense? I am trying> to be consistant in whatever I do even if it is not> absolutely correct.If you self-publish, then your final copy will be typeset ratherthan in manuscript format. Standard manuscript format is useful(and virtually essential) when submitting a literary work to apublisher. Typesetting is beyond the scope of the presentdiscussion; there are excellent books on the subject, however.Remember to put in closing quotes whenever you step out of quotedmaterial, and then put in opening quotes whne you step back inthe text of a letter -- and of course, use closing quotes at theend of each letter. Using square brackets when your interpolationis of less than paragraph length does indeed make sense.I strongly urge that, considering the size of your work, you buya copy of the CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE, published by theUniversity of Chicago Press, and consult it in d!
epth.George H Scithers