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Subject:Re: Re: Re: Using M-dash and N-dash From:"Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:techwr-l Date:Tue, 10 Feb 2004 21:30:31 -0500
Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
> This discussion is probably just pushing my "irate manager"
> button, but when I hear it real-time, it's usually coming
> from a bunch of writers sitting around a table arguing over
> formatting
You don't have to tell me - I usually just hit the hyphen key myself. Lately
it's been all about content, not formatting. It's been a long time since I
had a client who cared about such things. But if I was doing a
marketing-oriented piece, or a manual that gets a lot of pre-sales eyeballs,
I'd definitely give it a once-over for typographical details. I wouldn't
waste time arguing about it either; I'd just do it.
OTOH, if you are in a classic font-fondling job (and they do still exist),
where your mission is to make it pretty and you are not seriously expected
to create content, blowing off the em dashes would be a pretty serious
lapse.
