Just finished proofing an NSF grant proposal for a client. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of quotes by supporting scientists, and a lot of acronyms. My research told me that NSF pretty much defers to the Chicago Manual of Style, and expects submitted grant proposals to do likewise. But there were two issues that even the CMofS seemed to waffle on.
1. The use of spaces before and after an em-dash (where they say no spaces, but admit that it's becoming more a matter of style).
2. The use of periods within acronyms. Obviously NASA is preferred over N.A.S.A, probably because it's a pronounceable acronym. But for USA the CMofS says it's becoming increasingly common to use USA vs. U.S.A. And of course, USA is not really an "acronym" since the letters are still pronounced individually when spoken. It's not like POTUS or SCOTUS.
My question to the experts on this forum is simply to gather some opinions about these two usage patterns. Any input would be appreciated. If there are some evolving usage trends, I should probably know about it. And my usual online sources disagree on these two questions.
The client is a US citizen currently stationed in Capetown, and originally wanted to use the British spellings for several words. Said they looked "softer" to him (whatever the hell that means) and that he'd gotten used to it after nearly a year there. I finally convinced him to use the standard American English spellings, but not until after a few email exchanges. He's a smart guy, but can be a little stubborn on occasion.
An em-dash replaces the space between words. I therefore put no spaces before and after the em-dash. If you don't put spaces on either side of an en-dash, it's indistinguishable from a hyphen.
That being said, I don't recall any rules saying where to use ens and where to use ems. When I took grammar, documents were usually handwritten, and for documents in Sunday-go-to-meetin' presentations, were typewritten. If I'm not careful, I find myself double-spacing between sentences, single-spacing between words (single and double spaces turning iinto ens and ems).
I rebel against computer typography anyhow. There are NOT 72 points to an inch. A cursory look at a line gage show that ten inches is about 723 or 724 points. Gaebel has it right; Apple/Adobe got lazy. And the width of an em is neither twice the width of an en, nor is it equal to the height. It all depends on the design of the type face.
Some interesting points, deaconB. Thanks. I too learned on a mechanical typewriter ... not even an electric at first. Took close to a year to break outa the double space habit, and still find myself doing it occasionally. And when I prepare something for a client, my final proofing includes a text search for double spaces. Pretty cool how that works in MS Word.
There are some quite specific distinctions made by the style guides regarding hypens, en-dashes, and em-dashes, regardless of how you feel about digital typography. Here's what the Chicago Manual of Style has to say about it, and that's the manual I needed to use for that NSF grant proposal.
In another Q&A the CMofS states that the use of spaces before and after an em-dash is becoming more a matter of style. But the only style guide that mandates the use of spaces is AP.
The few online polls I've seen have been pretty much split (space vs. no-space). But most of the discussion centers around how it just "looks better" and is "more considerate to the reader" if you use spaces. Sounds like the kind of metaphors you'd use when describing a fine wine.
Anyway, that's why I posted the question here. Just trying to get some feedback on a forum I trust. Would be cool if the forum software actually let us do polls.
Heimhenge said -------------------
In another Q&A the CMofS states
Nice. I've only ever seem it abbreviated before as CMS or CMOS.
I automatically think of the CMS caralog. Curtin Matheson Scientific is a lab supply house I did a lot of business with in the latte 1970s. (Incidentally, Matheson Gas made flow maters, and mt wife, who did QC for them says they shipped a lot of flow maters she hasd downchecked, and one of their cusromers was the 3 Mile Island plant.
CMS also is "Content Management Software", which I dealt with a lot when I ran a hosting company.
And CMOS is "complementary metal oxide semiconductor. The 6502 chip, heart of the original Apple, was a CMOS chip.
So I like the CMoS or CMofS initialism.
Would be cool if the forum software actually let us do polls.
This site is in Word Press. It can be configured to allow polls, but I suspecrt they'd more a nuisance then helpful. We aren't making decoisions, generally, about the "right" answers to questions, but rather observing the way others use this maddening language.
deaconB said: Nice. I’ve only ever seen it abbreviated before as CMS or CMOS.
Yeah, that was one of the things I asked about in my original post. Seems the usage of acronyms/abbreviations is evolving of late. We are indeed running into a lot of duplicate acronyms, as you point out. Wondering if that might be a consequence of "texting"? Likewise the omission of periods in USA?
Since CamelCase seems to be increasingly accepted these days, it strikes me as a natural evolution of the language. So I took the liberty of using "CMofS" for Chicago Manual of Style. Maybe I just coined a new acronym, since a Google search for "CMofS" comes up bust.
I did not know this forum was a WordPress site until I clicked on the link for Simple:Press. Looks like there is a poll plug-in available. Not so sure they'd be a "nuisance" if Grant decided to activate that feature. I've been in a lot of threads on AWWW where a poll of members would be informative. Like this one.