Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/FAQ: Difference between revisions
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for heaven's sake, get rid of all that pussyfooting (consensus is this, consensus is that, sit around and have a cup of tea) |
Darkfrog24 (talk | contribs) Do not state opinions as if they were facts. A link to WP:Consensus will explain the concept suitably. |
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|q=Why does the Manual of Style call for the use of logical quotation? |
|q=Why does the Manual of Style call for the use of logical quotation? |
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|a=[[Logical quotation| |
|a=[[WP:Consensus|Consensus]] is that [[Logical quotation|this system]] preserves the quoted text better than other systems do. |
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|q=Why does the Manual of Style distinguish between hyphens ({{xt|-}}), en dashes ({{xt|–}}), em dashes ({{xt|—}}), and minus signs ({{xt|−}})? |
|q=Why does the Manual of Style distinguish between hyphens ({{xt|-}}), en dashes ({{xt|–}}), em dashes ({{xt|—}}), and minus signs ({{xt|−}})? |
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|a= |
|a=[[WP:Consensus|Consensus]] is that using different glyphs for different purposes improves readability. Using hyphens everywhere would make certain constructions ambiguous (for example, an em dash meant to set off a short bit of text from the surrounding text could be confused with a compound adjective) or illegible (for example, a minus sign in a superscript is legible, but some fonts render hyphens so small that they become hard to read). |
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Revision as of 06:52, 8 January 2010
 | Below are answers to frequently asked questions about the corresponding page Wikipedia:Manual of Style. They address concerns, questions, and misconceptions which have repeatedly arisen on the talk page. Please update this material when needed. |
Wikipedia's Manual of Style sometimes has conventions that differ from other well-known style manuals and from what is often taught in schools. These differences are usually deliberate and have been discussed in great detail. New contributors are advised to check the FAQ and the archives to see if their concern has already been discussed.
To view an explanation to the answer, click the [show] link to the right of the question.
Why does the Manual of Style forbid the use of curly or typographic quotes and apostrophes (the characters “, ”, ‘, and ’)?
Readers may only know how to type in straight quotes (such as " and ') when searching for text within a page, and Web browsers do not currently find curly quotes when users type straight quotes.
Why does the Manual of Style call for the use of logical quotation?
Consensus is that this system preserves the quoted text better than other systems do.
Why does the Manual of Style distinguish between hyphens (-), en dashes (–), em dashes (—), and minus signs (−)?
Consensus is that using different glyphs for different purposes improves readability. Using hyphens everywhere would make certain constructions ambiguous (for example, an em dash meant to set off a short bit of text from the surrounding text could be confused with a compound adjective) or illegible (for example, a minus sign in a superscript is legible, but some fonts render hyphens so small that they become hard to read).