A-manual-for-writers-of-research-papers-theses-and-dissertations

Use a dash or a pair of dashes enclosing a phrase to indicate a strong break in thought thatalso disrupts the sentence structure.Rutherford—how could he have misinterpreted the evidence?Some characters in Tom Jones are “flat”—if you do not object to this borrowing of E. M. Forster's somewhatdiscredited term—because they are caricatures of their names.A dash may also introduce a summarizing subject after a list of several elements.The statue of the discus thrower, the charioteer at Delphi, the poetry of Pindar—all represent the great ideal.21.7.3 Multiple DashesWhen you quote from a mutilated or illegible text or represent an obscenity, indicate amissing word or missing letters with a 2-em dash (formed with two consecutive em dashes, orfour hyphens). For a missing word, leave a space on either side of the dash; for missingletters, leave no space between the dash and the existing part of the word.The vessel left the——of July.H——h? [Hirsch?]It was a d——shame.A 3-em dash (formed with three consecutive em dashes, or six hyphens) is used inbibliographies and reference lists to represent the repeated name of an author or editor (see16.2.2 and 18.2.1).21.8 Parentheses and Brackets21.8.1 ParenthesesParentheses usually set off explanatory or interrupting elements of a sentence, much likepaired commas (see 21.2) and dashes (21.7.2). In general, use commas for material closelyrelated to the main clause, dashes and parentheses for material less closely connected. Theabbreviations e.g. and i.e., which may introduce a clarifying comment (see 24.7), are usedonly in parentheses or in notes.The conference has (with some malice) divided into four groups.Each painting depicts a public occasion; in each—a banquet, a parade, a coronation (though the personcrowned is obscured)—crowds of people are pictured as swarming ants.There are tax incentives for “clean cars” (e.g., gasoline-electric hybrids and vehicles powered by compressednatural gas and liquefied propane).Parentheses can also be used with citations (see chapters 16 and 18) and to set off thenumbers or letters in a list or an outline (see 23.4.2).