{"id":2657,"date":"2018-06-16T10:30:48","date_gmt":"2018-06-16T17:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=2657"},"modified":"2020-02-21T20:18:26","modified_gmt":"2020-02-22T04:18:26","slug":"im-sick-tired-of-symbols-being-used-in-prose-running-text","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=2657","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m sick @ tired of symbols being used in prose & running text"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In addition to hearing professional news announcers use singular verbs with plural nouns (There\u2019s thousands of reasons to do this…), which makes me very grumpy, I often see symbols like @ and & used in running text. This is offensive to the seasoned typographer. Don\u2019t do it!<\/p>\n

Remember the overarching theme of these essays: Never interrupt the reader!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is an exaggerated example of the use of @ and & in running text. If you squint, you\u2019ll see the blobs. These, in addition to being visually unpleasant, cause the reader to stop, translate, and then continue. It\u2019s typographically unwise.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In general, the ampersand and the at-symbol are used to abbreviate things when space is tight. In running text \u2013 books and similar typography \u2013 one should not abbreviate any word. The words \u201cand\u201d and \u201cat\u201d should be spelled-out. This is also true of abbreviations for states \u2013 CA, MO, AZ, etc. These should always be spelled-out, except when used as an address. California is a beautiful word; CA is an ugly postal code. Don\u2019t use the postal code in text.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

These characters \u2013 @ & and abbreviations like CA, create visual blobs. Blobs interrupt reading because the reader has to stop and interpret them, converting them back to words. This takes time and it interrupts the reader. That violates our objective of never interrupting the reader.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2026and this is the same text (from Les\u00a0Miserables) with the words at and and used correctly. It reads smoothly.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And excellent typography does not interrupt the reader.<\/p>\n

Read about getting the typographic tremors in the next blog.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In addition to hearing professional news announcers use singular verbs with plural nouns (There\u2019s thousands of reasons to do this…), which makes me very grumpy, I often see symbols like @ and & used in running text. This is offensive … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[753,63,64,728,754,752],"class_list":["post-2657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-typography-2","tag-in-text","tag-blognosticator","tag-brian-lawler","tag-excellent-typography","tag-using-state-abbreviations-in-text","tag-using-symbols-in-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2657"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2874,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657\/revisions\/2874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}