Tip #27: The Difference between Obliques and Italics
Most people don’t realize this, but Italics are actually an entirely different alphabet than the lowercase roman alphabet. Italic letters are constructed differently to resemble hand writing—they do not have to be slanted. I repeat: Italic does not mean slanted. …
Tip #14: Use curly quotes when quoting
There are two different marks that look pretty similar, hatch marks (' & ") and curly quotes(‘, ’, “, & ”) Hatch marks show feet: 4'; and inches: 11". Curly quotes show contractions: can’t; and quotes: “No way, I’m not …
Tip #11: Use a true ellipses, not 3 full stops
When you’re typing, make sure to swap in a true ellipses (…) in place of three full stops (…). Your computer may do this on its own, so double-check by clicking the left arrow key and making sure it’s one …
Tip #3: Know your dashes from your dashes from your hyphen
There are three main horizontal strokes, not counting an underscore, used in English: the em dash (—), the en dash (–), and the hyphen (-). Em dashes are the longest at about the width of a capital M. They’re used …
