Preface: This article is the reading notes for the third chapter of the book "The Element of Style".

The element of style.
Link to the electronic version of this book: http://www.jlakes.org/ch/web/The-elements-of-style.pdf

Chapter I Elementary Rules of Usage Reading Notes: link
Chapter II Elementary Principles of Composition Reading Notes: link

Content

III A Few Matters of Form

III A Few Matters of Form

Colloquialisms (colloquial word)

When you're going to use a colloquial or slang word or phrase, go ahead and use it; never put it in double quotes to draw attention. Otherwise, it's posturing, as if you're inviting readers to join an elite circle of learned people.

Exclamations (exclamation sentences)

Do not use an exclamation point to emphasize a simple sentence, example:
- It was a wonderful show! should be changed to:
- ```
It was a wonderful show.
```
Exclamation points should be used after real compliments or commands, example:
- ```
What a wonderful show! 
```
- ```
Halt! 
```

Headings

If you are publishing a draft, remember to leave enough space at the top of the first page. The editor needs this blank space for the typesetting staff to write some bullet points. Place your title or title at least a quarter past the top of the page. Leave a blank line or the equivalent of a line after the title. For the pages after the title page, write from the top of the page, but not so close to the top that it feels crowded. Omit the period at the end of the title or title. Question marks and exclamation points can be used at the end of the title if necessary.

Hyphen (hyphen)

A hyphen is usually required when two or more words are joined together to form a compound adjective, examples:

He belonged to the leisure class and enjoyed leisure-class pursuits.

She entered her boat in the round-the-island race.

Compounds that can be written as one word are best left unhyphenated, example: water-fowl→ waterfowl. Common sense will help you determine if a hyphen is needed, but a dictionary is more reliable in this case. Language evolution seems to be more towards unions: usually two words end up as one after a hyphen is used, example:
- ```
bed chamber → bed-chamber → bedchamber
```
- ```
wild life   → wild-life   → wildlife
```
- ```
bell boy    → bell-boy    → bellboy
```

If you're not careful, you can get tricked by hyphens. Like the merger of the News and the Free Press in Chattanooga . Someone put a hyphen in the combined name, and the paper became The Chattanooga News-Free Press , which sounds like it's news-free or lacking in news. When we ask hyphens to do their magic and connect words that shouldn't be, we're clearly asking too much for hyphens.

Margins (page margins)

Keep the left and right margins of each page roughly the same width. Exception: If extensive annotation or editing is required, the left margin should be large enough.

Numerals

Do not spell out dates or serial numbers in words. They are represented by numbers or Roman notation where appropriate. Example:
- ```
August 9, 1988 
```
- ```
Part XII
```
- ```
Rule 3 
```
- ```
352d Infantry
```

Exception: When numbers appear in dialogue scenes, it is best to spell out the date or number. Example:

```
"I arrived home on August ninth."
```

"In the year 1990, I turned twenty-one."

```
"Read Chapter Twelve." 
```

Parentheses

When a sentence contains statements enclosed in parentheses, the punctuation of the sentence should be placed outside the closing half parentheses, as if there were no parentheses. The statement in brackets is punctuated separately according to its own situation; however, except for the question mark or exclamation mark, the punctuation mark at the end of the statement is omitted, for example:
- ```
I went to her house yesterday (my third attempt to see her), but she had left town. 
```
- ```
He declares (and why should we doubt his good faith?) that he is now certain of success.
```
- ```
（当完全独立的语句或句子放在圆括号内时，最后的断句符号放在右边圆括号之前。）
```

Quotations

Formal quotations as written proof are led by a colon and enclosed in quotation marks, for example:

The United States Coast Pilot has this to say of the place: "Bracy Cove, 0.5 mile eastward of Bear Island, is exposed to southeast winds, has a rocky and uneven bottom, and is unfit for anchorage."

A reference that is grammatically an apposition or the direct object of a verb, followed by a comma and enclosed in quotation marks, examples:

I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor, "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating."

Mark Twain says, "A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."

Commas are enclosed in quotation marks when the quotation is followed by a qualifying phrase, example:
- ```
"I can't attend," she said.
```
Typographic convention states that commas should be placed within quotation marks, although logically it often seems that they shouldn't, example:
- ```
"The Fish," "Poetry," and "The Monkeys" are in Marianne Moore's *Selected Poems*.
```
Quotations of one or more lines in poetry or prose that are typographically distinct from the text, as in this book, start on a new line and are indented inward. Quotations are generally left unquoted unless they appear in the original text, as in dialogue, for example:
- ```
Wordsworth's enthusiasm for the French Revolution was at first unbounded: 
  	Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, 
  	But to be young was very heaven!
```

Quotes led by thatare indirect speech, so quotes are not used, example:

Keats declares that beauty is truth, truth beauty.

Dickinson states that a coffin is a small domain.

Proverbs and well-known literary phrases do not need quotation marks, examples:

These are the times that try men's souls.

```
He lives far from the madding crowd.
```

References

In scholarly works that require accurate citation of references, frequently appearing titles may be abbreviated, and only the full titles listed alphabetically at the end of the book. It is common practice to place references in brackets or as footnotes rather than in the body of the sentence. Omit the following words: act, scene, line, book, volume, page, unless only one of them is mentioned. Punctuation marks are used as follows:

in the second scene of the third act → in III.ii (Better still, simply insert m.ii in parentheses at the proper place in the sentence.)

After the killing of Polonius, Hamlet is placed under guard (IV.ii.14).

```
2 Samuel i: 17-27 
```

Othello II.iii. 264-267, III.iii. 155-161

Syllabication (syllable division)

When a word must be broken on a newline at the end of a line, look it up in a dictionary for its syllable division to determine where the word breaks. Let the students look at the divisions of syllables in some pages from any well-printed book, and they will learn how to divide the syllables well.

Titles

For titles of literary works, the academic practice is to use capitalized italics. Different editors and publishers do this differently, with some in italics and others in roman with or without quotation marks. Unless a journal requests otherwise, titles are italicized and underlined in the manuscript. When the possessive case is used before the title of the book, the article A or The at the beginning of the title should be omitted . For example:

A Tale of Two Cities; Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities.
The Age of Innocence; Wharton’s Age of Innocence.

References

"Style Elements 4" Chinese translation catalog and links: the century-old classic The Elements of Style (4th) - Zhihu (zhihu.com)

"The Element of Style" Reading Notes - Chapter III A Few Matters of Form