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THE WRITER’S DESK BOOK


      *      *      *      *      *      *

OTHER BOOKS BY MR. ORCUTT

 GOOD OLD DORCHESTER. _A Narrative History_

 PRINCESS KALLISTO, _and other Tales of the Fairies_

 ROBERT CAVELIER. _A Novel_

 THE FLOWER OF DESTINY. _A Novel_

 THE SPELL. _A Novel_

 THE LEVER. _A Novel_

 THE MOTH. _A Novel_

      *      *      *      *      *      *


The Writer’s Desk Book

_Being a reference volume upon questions of_ PUNCTUATION ·
CAPITALIZATION · SPELLING · DIVISION OF WORDS · INDENTION · SPACING
ITALICS · ABBREVIATIONS ACCENTS · NUMERALS · FAULTY DICTION · LETTER
WRITING POSTAL REGULATIONS · _Etc_ · _Etc_

_By_ WILLIAM DANA ORCUTT
_for many years Head of The University Press · Cambridge · Now
associated with_ THE PLIMPTON PRESS · _Norwood Mass._







New York · FREDERICK·A·STOKES COMPANY · Publishers · MCMXIII

Copyright, 1912, by
Frederick A. Stokes Co.

Second Edition

[Illustration: FAS Co. _September, 1912_]

The · Plimpton · Press
[W · D · O]
Norwood · Mass · U · S · A




CONTENTS


                                                    PAGE

 PUNCTUATION                                          1

  Importance of correct punctuation — punctuation
  marks and accents — the comma — the semicolon — the
  colon — the period — the dash — the exclamation —
  the interrogation — quotation-marks — parentheses —
  brackets — the apostrophe — the hyphen

 CAPITALIZATION                                      20

  Of religious terms — of proper names — of titles — of
  institutional terms — of references — of ordinals —
  in general — use of small capitals

 SPELLING                                            31

  Importance of adopting an authority — basic rules for
  numbers and diphthongs — simple rules of orthography
  — accented words — participles — variable endings —
  list of variable spellings

 COMPOUND WORDS                                      45

  General theory — changes in modern uses — rules and
  examples

 DIVISION OF WORDS                                   52

  Rules and examples

 INDENTION AND PARAGRAPHING                          55

  Various forms used in display — en échelon —
  irregular — hanging — reverse — lozenge — blocked —
  definition of the paragraph — its value — kinds of
  paragraphs — length of paragraph

 SPACING                                             59

  General principles — kerned letters — examples of
  varying spaces

 ITALIC                                              62

  Its origin — its uses — when required and when not

 ABBREVIATIONS                                       65

  Of dates — of proper names — of titles — commercial
  — of given names — geographical — miscellaneous —
  scriptural — monetary signs — mathematical signs —
  medical signs

 NUMERALS                                            93

  History of their evolution — lists

 CORRECT AND FAULTY DICTION                          99

  Dr. Campbell’s canons — good usage — list