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#Post#: 30033--------------------------------------------------
On Emphasis and Dialogue
By: Jack Date: December 30, 2024, 11:33 am
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First of all, please keep in mind that this is NOT a criticism
of any author. This is simply a discussion on how other authors
do things.
I was reading a story from David M. Katz recently, and I came
across this sentence
[quote author= David. M. Katz - Dirty Laundry on MMSA] Frank,
yes, this is going to hurt. I mean for it to. You’re not going
to like it – that is the point[/quote]
At first this comment read really unnatural and stilted to me.
Then I realized I might have said the same thing, but I would
have written it much different. For instance:
"Frank... Yes, this is going to hurt. I mean for it to. You
aren't going to like it, but that IS the point."
The only difference in words is that it feels more natural to me
to phrase you are not as you aren't as opposed to you're not,
but there could be any number of reasons for that.
So, what I'm really asking is, do you have any little tricks you
use to try to add emphasis to parts of a comment or any that
work better for you as a reader?
#Post#: 30034--------------------------------------------------
Re: On Emphasis and Dialogue
By: Zyngaru Date: December 30, 2024, 12:19 pm
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All the punctuation does for me is to let me know where the
author wishes me to pause.
Emphasis is when you capitalize a word or phase. "IS" for
example. That lets me know to emphasis that word when I read
it.
"You ARE going to be in trouble when your dad gets home."
It's not a question of might be in trouble or possibly be in
trouble or maybe in trouble. That capitalized ARE says it all.
I AM in trouble when dad gets home.
#Post#: 30035--------------------------------------------------
Re: On Emphasis and Dialogue
By: Plagosus Date: December 30, 2024, 12:40 pm
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Everyone has their favoured way of doing things. I use italics
for emphasis. I reserve capitals for something which in real
life would be in capitals, such as a sign or placard. I reserve
three dots for something unfinished or perhaps to indicate
hesitation.
I think I would write the extract as follows:
Frank. Yes. This is going to hurt. I mean for it to. You’re not
going to like it – that is the point.
or
Frank. Yes. This is going to hurt. I mean for it to. You’re not
going to like it. That is the point.
#Post#: 30038--------------------------------------------------
Re: On Emphasis and Dialogue
By: David M. Katz Date: December 30, 2024, 1:56 pm
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No criticism taken. ;D
#Post#: 30039--------------------------------------------------
Re: On Emphasis and Dialogue
By: Jack Date: December 30, 2024, 2:50 pm
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[quote author=Plagosus link=topic=3349.msg30035#msg30035
date=1735584036]
I use italics for emphasis. I reserve capitals for something
which in real life would be in capitals, such as a sign or
placard.
[/quote]
I have done it that way in the past, but I write on Google Docs
these days for a variety of reasons, and their RTF format
doesn't play nicely with the MMSA parser. By uploading in clear
text, I lose most formatting, so it's easier (for me) to stress
with caps instead of trying to find the places I intended to use
italics. That is also a very good way to stress a word, though.
#Post#: 30040--------------------------------------------------
Re: On Emphasis and Dialogue
By: David M. Katz Date: December 30, 2024, 2:54 pm
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Can you type <i> stress</i> into a Google doc? Will that
translate to html in parse or symbols?
#Post#: 30041--------------------------------------------------
Re: On Emphasis and Dialogue
By: Jack Date: December 30, 2024, 3:00 pm
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[quote author=David M. Katz link=topic=3349.msg30040#msg30040
date=1735592072]
Can you type <i> stress</i> into a Google doc? Will that
translate to html in parse or symbols?
[/quote]
I just checked, and it actually does work that way. When I
tried doing spaces and horizontal lines, it totally messed up
the parser's formatting. That probably means you can do
italics, bold, underline, and strikethrus in clear text without
a problem. Learn something new every day.
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