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EM Dash Question
I'm final-editing a very long document and before submitting it to a
desktop publisher need to know why WORD's Spell/Grammar checker "marks wrong" any dialogue that ends with an em dash, a quotation mark, and then two spacebar spaces before the next sentence begins. For example: "Gee, Mr. Gates, I didn't know you're thinking of buying a App--" He swallowed so hard both apples almost went down. If you were to write the above in Microsoft WORD and Spell/Grammar check the file, the checker will stop at each instance where an em dash (represented above by necessity with two en dashes) is succeeded by anything other than another letter. The checker recognizes and identifies sentence fragments but makes no distinction between those situations where an em dash is used as a legitimate end-mark and those where stuttered or incompletely articulated dialogue (*intended* as fragments) *may* logically be helped by an ensuing clause. I really need some help with knowing if Spell/Grammar Check is flawed in this regard. |
#2
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EM Dash Question
I don't claim to be the English teacher I was at one time, but the most
obvious rationale is that the line quoted in your post *is* grammatically incorrect and includes mispelled content - at least according to the Dictionary & standard rules of grammar employed by the software. You might take a look at ToolsOptionsSpelling & Grammar, then click the Settings button in the Grammar section of the dialog box. Adjust the settings to better accomodate the preferred & accepted *style* adopted within your industry. HTH |:) "Jules Vide" wrote: I'm final-editing a very long document and before submitting it to a desktop publisher need to know why WORD's Spell/Grammar checker "marks wrong" any dialogue that ends with an em dash, a quotation mark, and then two spacebar spaces before the next sentence begins. For example: "Gee, Mr. Gates, I didn't know you're thinking of buying a App--" He swallowed so hard both apples almost went down. If you were to write the above in Microsoft WORD and Spell/Grammar check the file, the checker will stop at each instance where an em dash (represented above by necessity with two en dashes) is succeeded by anything other than another letter. The checker recognizes and identifies sentence fragments but makes no distinction between those situations where an em dash is used as a legitimate end-mark and those where stuttered or incompletely articulated dialogue (*intended* as fragments) *may* logically be helped by an ensuing clause. I really need some help with knowing if Spell/Grammar Check is flawed in this regard. |
#3
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EM Dash Question
CyberTaz wrote:
I don't claim to be the English teacher I was at one time, but the most obvious rationale is that the line quoted in your post *is* grammatically incorrect and includes mispelled content - at least according to the Dictionary & standard rules of grammar employed by the software. You might take a look at ToolsOptionsSpelling & Grammar, then click the Settings button in the Grammar section of the dialog box. Adjust the settings to better accomodate the preferred & accepted *style* adopted within your industry. Thank you for responding. The reason I purposely mispelled a sample line of dialogue is to give an example of when my Spell/Grammar checker "calls me on the carpet" (although I see now it's inconsequential whether the dialogue was standard or casual English). Another poster suggested I adjust the settings to allow 2 spaces before the beginning of sentences/after a period. The only problem with this is that on my WORD 2000 software, the Spell/Grammar checker does not "slap my knuckles" about sentences that end in any other combination of punctuation beside the EM DASH + QUOTATION MARKS. I.e., it doesn't mark ELLIPSES + QUOTATION MARKS, EXCLAMATION MARK + QUOTATION MARKS"--anything other than EM DASH + QUOTATION MARKS--incorrect. |
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