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I would like to see a hyphen separating section letter from page number in a newspaper citation which uses the shorter form. Is this a unique quirk of mine or are there others who think that it may add clarity? To use the example from EE’s sect. 14.22, I would recommend the following:
longer form: Ken Ringle, “Up through Slavery,” The Washington Post, 12 May 2002, sect. F, pp. 1, 3.
shorter form: Ken Ringle, “Up through Slavery,” The Washington Post, 12 May 2002, p. F-1, F-3.
For me, the hyphen makes it clearer that I am dealing with both a section and a page.
Quirk or improvement?
George Findlen
EE users? We'd love to hear
EE users? We'd love to hear your views on this. Don't be bashful, please.
To add the section letter
To add the section letter again seems a bit redundant. Anyone checking the source would see that it includes pages 1 and 3; as it's the short form - less is best.
In my initial posting, I
In my initial posting, I think I caused confusion by using the phrases, "long form" and "short form." Those two phrases are commonly used to refer to an initial, "full" bibliographic citation and to a subsequent "abbreviated" citation. Both examples I gave are AOK to use per EE 14.22 as an initial citation.
My question remains: does the addition of a hyphen add clarity or not? I maintain that it does since it helps highlight that we are citing both a section and a page.
Quirk or improvement?
George Findlen
Dr. Findlen:
Dr. Findlen:
There are good arguments pro and con. Some researchers prefer adding a hyphen for the very reason you give: it adds visual clarity. Others prefer to conserve every byte of space and eliminate every keystroke possible.
Like all citation and style manuals, EE appreciates feedback and considers user-needs. A groundswell of calls for adding the hyphen might justify a change in a future edition. In the meanwhile, if you choose to use a hyphen in your own work and do so consistently, only a foolish hobgoblin would rap your knuckles.
Coming late to the discussion
Coming late to the discussion -- first time visiting these forums -- but my preference would be for the page number to be formatted in whatever way the document (newspaper, in this case) formats it.
I can see that an individual's preference might be influenced by the newspaper he or she normally reads. For example, readers of the Chicago Tribune would be used to pages A2, C8, and so on, as would those of the Tacoma News-Tribune or the Seattle Times. Readers of the Chicago Sun-Times, on the other hand, don't have sections as it's a tabloid-style paper with continuous page numbering. Being used to the first batch of papers, to me the hyphenized number looks strange!