Leigh H. Irvine

“ System is as necessary in a printing-house as in a bank, and classification and obedience to the law of the office are absolutely essential to the production of correct composition. Since many editors and patrons, authors and others are usually either careless or untrained in the art of preparing copy, the printer must be extremely painstaking and methodic, or his work will be censured, and he will be blamed for every fault that shows itself in ‘cold type.’ The owners of newspapers printed at other men’s offices are especially unreasonable when mistakes occur. ”

“ Writers should understand that printers, though often highly competent to write or edit manuscripts better than those who present them as copy, are too busy at the case or the machine to stop and edit copy, form a style-code, consult dictionaries, verify quotations, harmonize discrepancies, and prevent the blunders of writers in general. If nobody edits copy, one of two things happens—the blunders are put into type for the public eye, or they are corrected by the proofreader. ”

“ Printers do not agree, some are incompetent, all are busy with other details than editing copy, and it is not the duty of printers to correct the blunders of writers. Again, a printer may see but a fraction of a given manuscript, and may not know, unless there is an office style-card, what system is the author’s desire. A style-card will show printers the way out of many dark places, and will overcome many of the obstacles presented by the copy of untrained editors and writers. ”

“ Just as short words and short, simple sentences save the time and energy required to gather the meaning that would be clouded by the use of long, involved sentences, so clearly written and accurately prepared manuscripts save time, energy, and money in the printing-office.
Typewritten copy is almost a necessity in this busy age, but whether penned or typed, manuscripts should be consistent in style, and above all readily legible. Fast typesetting machines should not be made slow and expensive by the carelessness and indistinct manuscripts of editors and other writers for the press. ”

“ Yet I hold stoutly to the correctness of the capital. Even careful editors are often overruled by authors. The Century printing-house can not be held responsible, with justice, for some of the eccentricities of our printing. It should be borne in mind that a printer’s business is to do what he is told. ”

“ Some editors make it a rule to quote the general style of the clipping, holding that the style of the clipping is as much a part of the author’s personality as are his words and sentences. Unfortunately there are usually so many contradictions and inaccuracies, so many evidences of no style whatever, that it is not a sensible plan to follow reprint copy. The best system is for the compositor to follow the code of his office, and the code should be so well known to him that to follow it would be a pleasure. ”

“ In many small offices, where copy-readers or copy-editors are not employed, a knowledge of the style-code by printers and proofreaders is of vital importance. It has been computed by a committee of printers of wide experience that a style-code will save from three to five per cent of the cost of composition. In offices conducted along the lines of chaos the waste of time is great. ”

“ Printing-houses that pretend to turn out careful work, such as publishing books and periodicals, should follow some model of unquestioned authority; but as proper exemplars are not often at hand, the daily newspaper, being omnipresent, is taken for a pattern. ”

“ Authors of books frequently insist upon having things their own way, and too often the printers have to make that way for them, in opposition to what the authors write. This is certainly something for which the authors should be made to pay. If an author is determined to have certain matters of style conform to a certain set of whims, or even of good, logical opinions, he should write accordingly, or pay extra for the necessary changes. Teall. ”

“ What Printers Should Edit. There is a class of matter which printers should edit as they proceed in their work, and this they should do without delay or risk of exceeding authority. Reprint should be made to conform to the office style. Often editors have ample time to read clippings with sufficient care for acceptance, but without time or means to make such excerpts conform to the governing code. Owing to lack of marginal space and space between printed lines, there is no room for certain emendations, the changing of compounds, and the rearrangement of capitals. ”

“ Collective nouns are always singular in form, but many of them, if not most, may be used even in that form with a plural verb, but such use depends upon the nature of the thought to be expressed. Considered as really singular are a crowd, an army, a multitude. It should be remembered that these words also have regular plural forms, though often used with the plural verb in the collective form. ”

“ Those in authority in publishing-houses and elsewhere should compel reporters, editors, printers, proofreaders, and others whose duty it is to know style to master the office code. In many instances the carelessness of writers adds to the cost of production in every other department of publishing. ”

“ Making Copy is an Art. The world’s universities do not teach how to prepare copy for printers. Often college men are not only poor writers of English, but they are as careless of the niceties of typography as are printers in most houses, editors of some publications, ministers, school-teachers, reporters, and public officers. In most manuscripts inconsistencies abound. Numbers, for example, should be spelled out, or written in arabic or in roman numerals, yet the three methods are sometimes seen on one page of copy. ”

“ Two wave-lines under matter mean that it is to be set in bold-faced capitals. A single line down the left side of matter means that it is to be set in type smaller than the body of the article, and two lines indicate that the matter is to be set in type of still smaller face.
79. Writers’ Absurdities. Book-offices have their own intricacies of style, with the additional bother of having to suit the varying whims of authors and publishers. “Many men of many minds” write for the papers, but their various whims need not be humored as those of book-writers need be. ”

“ There are frequent instances where a particular division of a word will aid the reader in its pronunciation at first sight, obviating a faltering or repetition, as pro-gress, verb, and prog-ress, noun ”

“ United States are or United States Is. If the expression is used as a collective term, designating one great nation, the singular is correct, but there are many sentences in which the plural verb must be used. It is proper to follow copy or query the expression, if there is doubt as to its correctness. ”

“ It is a reflection on the art preservative that the slipshod methods and unscholarly composition of the daily newspaper type often corrupt the pages of trade-and class-publications, as well as of magazines and books. See paragraph 45 of this book for an explanation of the use of hyphens in the foregoing sentence. See paragraph 68 for the use of single quote-marks herein.
The hurried work of newspapermen may be partly excused on the ground of haste, yet in another sense it requires no more time to do a thing the right way than to do it the wrong way. ”

“ No pagan holiday ever surpassed some of the heathenish performances there enacted. According to the New York Herald Ex-president Cleveland was there, accompanied by Colonel Hay, secretary of state. The President of the United States was there, and various ex-presidents’ memories were honored. There were senators, assemblymen, judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, and judges from other supreme courts in the throng—but not one from the Supreme Court of the state of Georgia, or from New York State. ”

“ Printers and writers should learn how to write the plural of proper names.
66. Quote-marks. It is sometimes a puzzle where to place quote-marks. There is no better rule than that stated by De Vinne, who says that the closing marks of quotation always should be placed after the comma or the period in all places where these marks are needed; but the fact is the proper place of the closing marks of quotation should be determined by the quoted words only; they must inclose those words, and no more; they may be before or after the points, according to the construction of the sentence. ”

“ Division of Words. De Vinne says the system most approved now authorizes the division of a word, when consistent with pronunciation, on the vowel at the end of the syllable. The system is defective in its inability to make provision for the syllables that end with consonants. Divisions of all kinds should be prevented as often as possible. The Chicago Proofreaders’ Association offers the following rules concerning divisions. The reprint ‘follows copy’ as published by the Association:
The proper division of words is an important matter. ”

“ Paper for linotype operators as well as that for hand-compositors should be about the size of commercial note, and the writing should run the long way of the page, the reason being that sheets of the commercial note size fit into the machine ‘copy-holder’ very neatly. Good margins should be left at the top and sides, this for side-notes and catch-lines for headings. Names of persons, etc., should be ‘printed out’ carefully in manuscripts, and interlineations should be avoided. Blind hands have always caused infinite trouble in printing-houses. ”

“ If the name of the play and that of the character are the same, as Ingomar, the name of the play must be quoted, the character italicized. See De Vinne’s Correct Composition, page 224. See also paragraphs 22, 39.
53. Ships and Vessels. There is not any need to either quote or italicize the names of vessels, unless there would be doubt as to what the name means. In such cases italics are preferred, though quoting the name will do.
54. Newspapers and Magazines. Names of newspapers and magazines should be set in italic. Some papers and magazines quote magazines and italicize newspapers. ”

“ Anybody, anything, anywhere, evermore, everybody, everything, everywhere, forevermore, somewhere, nobody, something, nowhere, nothing, afterpiece, crossexamine, crossquestion, countermarch, antislavery, antedate, schoolboy, schoolmate, schoolmistress, but school teacher, school children and school teaching. ”

“ Deity, God, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Jehovah, Holy Spirit, Saviour, Creator, Providence, Heaven, when used for God, and all words that refer directly to Deity as a name, heaven and hell in ordinary use. ”

“ Instructions are often obeyed, greatly to the amusement of everybody in the office, including the battery boy and the devil.
ABBREVIATIONS IN GENERAL.
13. Anno Domini should be printed with small capitals when abbreviated as A. D.
14. Apostrophes for Plural of Letters Wrong. De Vinne aptly says on page 285 of Correct Composition that the apostrophe is not proper to express plurality. Its use in print for this purpose is the repetition of an indefensible colloquialism, even though the dictionaries record the form. Letters should be spelled as follows ”

“ Do not compound such words.
Nicknames: Creole, negro, mulatto, gipsy, quadroon, greaser, coolie, peon, and like nicknames do not begin with a capital. See De Vinne.
Nation, when in lieu of the United States or of any other particular government. See state, etc.
a nation of workers, however.
nature ordinarily, except when in lieu of God. See Deity. ”

“ To wit should not be compounded.
(9) Spell out fort, mount, point, port, saint, etc. in every use.
(10) Parentheses. Inclose the names of states in parentheses when used in the following way: The Albany (N. Y.) Law School; the Milpitas (Cal.) Gazette. See paragraph 29.
(11) Pet Names. Bill, Bob, Jim, Tom, Joe, etc., are not abbreviations, and therefore they need no period after the last letter.
(12) Quarto, octavo, twelvemo, thirty-twomo, etc., are best, but 4to, 8vo, and 12mo may be used, if they do not begin a sentence. ”

“ On is usually superfluous, except in some sentences, where euphony or emphasis may make the on seem an element of strength.
(12) Welsh rarebit. Welsh rabbit is the correct expression. The use of rarebit in this connection is from ignorance long current. See Walsh’s Handbook of Literary Curiosities, Greenough & Kittredge’s Words and Their Ways in English Speech, and the late editions of standard dictionaries. ”

“ See De Vinne’s Correct Composition, page 213, where authors are advised to make one such emphasis of a word suffice, because repetition irritates the reader.
69. Reverend and the reverend. Never say Reverend John Brown. It must always be the Reverend John Brown, for reverend is not a title to be used like captain or doctor. Honorable should be used in the same way, if at all.
70. Saviour and savior. Preserve the historic way of spelling the Saviour when Jesus Christ is meant. Other saviors are without the u. ”