h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry ID: A81024428 - **Status still showing as 'Recommended'.**

well endowed with

years earlier.

travelling

join it'.

press release announcing

big-city reporter.

half mast

Small-town streets

prearranging

Status showed as Edited to me, which meant I could change it.

I'm not sure about /years before/ or /half-mast/, so I've left them for now. Other changes made. Also changed ' to single apostrophe throughout. Some of those should probably be changed to double quotation marks. I'll need to reread the Writing-Guidelines to remind myself.

TRiG.

Also, I'm not sure about the references in square brackets. Shouldn't they be set off with dashes instead?

TRiG.

Hi, TRiG!

Years before/Years earlier: Oops! Caught revealing my preferences.

Halfmast: You're quite right to question that. I made a note to remove the hyphen, and ended up forgetting to open a gap. When in doubt, I always check to see how Oxford spells a word:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/half+mast

Square brackets: Yes, they do seem to stand out, although I have seen them used in other entries.

"I made a note to remove the hyphen, and ended up forgetting to open a gap."

No, it seems I didn't forget to open that gap: " half mast", so I really don't understand why you should be unsure about its spelling.

Some quotation mark errors etc I missed:

gracefully to California'.

eagle beaks'.

actresses' hearts

concrete coated'.

this new State',

California and Oregon'.

sales tax'.

between highways',

of the Nation'.


Re " half mast"

I have a rather tatty copy of the 1976 edition of The Concise Oxford Dictionary in which 'half mast' is hyphenated, while later editions separate the words. This is unusual because the evolution of these combinations is most often from separation to linkage, frequently via the hyphenated stage. I suppose it could be a typo...

Seems very quiet in here...

If the quoted section is a complete sentence, then the punctation comes before the closing quote sign:

As Marvin so beautifully puts it: 'Life. Don't talk to me about life.'

I made a few changes to this entry, including correcting those rogue curly apostrophes, which I reported at the Curator page. I didn't see this list.

Is there anything else outstanding?

English Usage in Approved Entries continues:

**"However, if it's part of a sentence, it should go outside of the quote marks, eg: The opening words to A Tale of Two Cities are, 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'."**

So the Marvin example is incorrect (as are the other examples), or not?


penny sales tax.'

The Marvin example is correct, according to the Style Guide. It is a full sentence being quoted, so the full stop belongs to the quoted sentence and goes inside the quotes.

I see now what you're saying, Elf. Those style guidelines don't appear to be completely consistent.

I've added the quote after penny sales tax.