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Darkfrog24 (talk | contribs) 1) Article Quotation marks is now Quotation marks in English, which has been reorganized so that it no longer has a separate section on B/l style; 2) rm unnec. quotation marks: term is not being discussed as a term. |
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|q=Why does the Manual of Style require logical quotation? |
|q=Why does the Manual of Style require British/logical quotation? |
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|a=The rule requiring [[ |
|a=The rule requiring [[Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Punctuation_inside_or_outside|this system]], called both "British style" and "logical style," and the exclusion of others has been debated here many times. Proponents of this rule maintain that it is more in keeping with the principle of minimal change and less prone to misquotation, ambiguity, and the introduction of errors in subsequent editing. Many also say that Wikipedia, as an electronic encyclopedia, has specific needs that British/logical style addresses better than other styles do. Opponents of this rule maintain that other styles, most notably American style, do not generally cause confusion, ambiguity or misquotation under actual use. They also point out that American style is actively preferred by most American English style guides, both print and electronic. See [[Quotation_marks_in_English#Order_of_punctuation|Quotation marks in English]] for more background information. Please use extreme delicacy when raising this issue for discussion.}} |
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Revision as of 22:11, 25 February 2015
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. Wikipedia's editors have discussed them in great detail and have reached consensus that these conventions serve our purposes better than those of other style manuals. 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 ban 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 require British/logical quotation?
The rule requiring this system, called both "British style" and "logical style," and the exclusion of others has been debated here many times. Proponents of this rule maintain that it is more in keeping with the principle of minimal change and less prone to misquotation, ambiguity, and the introduction of errors in subsequent editing. Many also say that Wikipedia, as an electronic encyclopedia, has specific needs that British/logical style addresses better than other styles do. Opponents of this rule maintain that other styles, most notably American style, do not generally cause confusion, ambiguity or misquotation under actual use. They also point out that American style is actively preferred by most American English style guides, both print and electronic. See Quotation marks in English for more background information. Please use extreme delicacy when raising this issue for discussion.
Why does the Manual of Style distinguish between hyphens (-), en dashes (–), em dashes (—), and minus signs (−)?
The use of the full range of these glyphs is normal in typeset English. The sole use of hyphens in articles 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). The use of hyphens to approximate other glyphs was due to the mechanical limitations of the typewriter (en and em dashes were not present on typewriter keyboards).