RE: off-topic: curly brackets

["Ambos, Paul" PAMBOS@xxxxxxxx]

"Curly brackets" are normally termed "braces" and function as parentheses.
I think the only reason you are seeing them in casual print is that they
appear on the IBM American keyboard. Unless you are presenting programming
or linguistics, I'd forego them in writing.

Regards,

Paul Ambos
pambos@xxxxxxxx



> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Judith Davidsen [SMTP:jdavidsen@xxxxxxxx]
> Sent:	Thursday, March 20, 2003 12:13 AM
> To:	xywrite@xxxxxxxx
> Subject:	Re: off-topic: curly brackets
>
> Sorry--this needs clarification.
>
> I am reading page proofs because I am the author.
>
> The layout artist is putting topic names inside curly
> brackets, as though curly brackets were decorative devices,
> but it seems to me that they have *meaning*, that they are
> directions about how to approach the material between them.
>
> I managed to get the curly brackets taken off this afternoon
> by saying I felt they turned the topic names into asides. I
> won, but was I correct?
>
> After Leslie goaded me, I came up with some better terms to
> narrow my google search and found a few entries dealing with
> math, formatting documents for editing, foreign languages
> and...I forget what the fourth one was. But nothing about
> what curly brackets mean when they enclose words in a mass
> publication.
>
> I've been seeing a lot of heads, subheads and call outs in
> curly brackets in "hi-design" magazines, so I think I'm
> going to be seeing more of them in my own work, too.
> I'm looking for an argument based on standards or
> conventions in order to (a> convince layout artists to stop
> using them or [b} convince myself that I'm wrong.
>
> {Thanks}(now doesn't that sound like the merest whisper?)
> Judith Davidsen
>
> Emery Snyder wrote:
> >
> > The other possibility is that your author was using LaTeX and some
> > conversions got messed up: the syntax there for headings would be
> > something like
> >
> >      \heading{heading name}
> >
> > ---------------------------
> > Wednesday, 19 March 2003, 3:10:30 PM, Leslie wrote:
> >
> > > Judith Davidsen wrote:
> >
> > >> What do curly brackets mean?
> > >>
> > >> I'm proofing pages right now and find some subheads in curly
> > >> brackets. I've seen this in other publications and always
> > >> found it unnerving, as though the material within the curls
> > >> were asides rather than something the reader is being asked
> > >> to zero in on.
> > >>
> >
> > > Assuming the pages you're proofing do not deal with some exotic
> > > discipline (i.e., these are not the proofs for the Spring issue of the
> > > Journal of Tantric Alchemy), or the work is not a translation from
> early
> > > Icelandic, which as we all know did not employ subheads and so the
> > > translators are merely trying to show these heads are _theirs_ and not
> > > in the original, I think it is fair to say that the author of the work
> > > in question has some sort of {fetish} and that they may be safely
> > > eliminated.
> >
> > >>
> > >> Is this just my quirky interpretation or is there a
> > >> standard? Should I ask the layout artist to get rid of them?
> > >>
> >
> > > Therefore my answer would be {quite probably}.
> >
> > >>
> > >> Thanks for any info. I've tried googling, but the 11,000
> > >> results all seem to be about programming.
> > >>
> >
> > > Excuse me, but I believe your search needs some narrowing down here,
> > > yes?
> >
> > > ;-)
> >
> > >>
> > >> Judith Davidsen
> >
> > > --
> > > Leslie Bialler, Columbia University Press
> > > lb136@xxxxxxxx
> > > 61 W. 62 St, NYC 10023
> > > 212-459-0600 X7109 (phone) 212-459-3677 (fax)
> > >> http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup