Writing Guide

This page is intended as a help for people interested in writing for this wiki. Unlike the related guide on Page Layout, which deals with the general structure of wiki articles and the available tools, this text focuses solely on formal aspects of writing. However, it is not meant to be a substitute for a linguistics textbook or an extensive treatise on spelling and grammar like the writing guides you can find in bookstores, which I have neither the experience nor the expertise to write; rather, I merely intend to elaborate on some basic guidelines regarding spelling and punctuation (among other things) that are useful to keep in mind when doing professional writing in any capacity, as well as some conventions within this wiki.

Please don’t take anything within this article too seriously, and don’t feel discouraged from editing out of fear of making mistakes; the subjects discussed here are absolutely trivial, and if your article contains a few or even a lot of errors, that’s no big deal – what matters first and foremost is the content of your contribution. Besides, your version of whatever article you’ve decided to create or expand most likely won’t be the last, and it’s basically certain that a proofreader will, at some point, look over your work and correct any mistakes they may catch. You really don’t have to agonize over these details that are essentially irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, though it is appreciated if you pay attention to them.

## What Is “Proper English”?

Before outlining what constitutes “proper English,” it is first important to establish the meaning of such a phrase. After all, language is but a mere means of communication, and so it is natural to think that any piece of linguistic expression that is understood by the target audience is equally valid. And in fact, for most of history, humans didn’t have a notion of a correct language; people would speak regional varieties wherever you went, and as long as you could make yourself understood, you were fine. In stark contrast to this fact, students in schools today spend a vast amount of time learning about “correct” spelling and grammar, a phrase that is completely meaningless in and of itself, without even knowing where these essentially arbitrary conventions originate or why they should abide by them. In my view, it is therefore crucial to briefly explain how what we know as “Standard English” came to be (though this section is definitely not intended as a complete historic overview – in fact, much of the development of English standard language is still not very well-understood) and why we should even care about these matters. For more information, the reader is referred to the cited literature and to this excellent article in particular.

In order to motivate the purpose of written standard language in particular, I’d like to start with a short anecdote about a guy named Konrad Duden. Duden was a high school principal in the city of Schleiz, which was located at the intersection of three major dialectal regions of the German language. Since students and teachers came from all around the city’s surroundings, they would grow up in different linguistic traditions, which had a major impact on the students’ experience in the classroom. At the time, German orthography was not standardized; there were major works on grammar which served as helpful guides for writers of texts intended for interregional distribution in particular, but spelling was essentially up to the author’s preference. If you’d had three different German teachers from one dialectal region each over the course of your high school career, there’s a good chance they’d teach you different spellings and even “correct” variants your previous teacher had propagated. This was particular troubling for weaker students, who potentially had to relearn a subject they were already struggling with several times over. Seeing this problem first-hand, Duden dedicated much of his life to solving this problem. He began to keep track of his students’ vocabulary, publishing a few short treatises on orthography just two years after assuming his position that, while originally solely intended for use at his school, gradually earned him considerable fame in philological circles. He became more and more influential despite the stark opposition of Chancellor Bismarck until, around three decades later, his work became the standard of written German. Today, the Duden dictionary remains the most famous dictionary of the German language, with his name being essentially synonymous with German orthography.

It is critical to realize that Duden was not motivated by some notion of linguistic purity, but by a pragmatic desire to facilitate learning for people from less educated backgrounds in particular. To him, it was of vital importance that education be accessible to everyone, an objective that motivated many of his efforts. At the time, he was viewed as a radical, having been inspired by the simplicity of Italian orthography, which led him to advocate for so-called “phonemic spelling” (i. e., “write as you speak”); whilst not all of his ideas gained traction, his influence has made German spellings considerably simpler than their English counterparts. Realizing this is crucial – standard language isn’t given to us by God; it’s a set of conventions that have been decided on for the purpose of simplicity. Now, in a lot of ways, it’s not as simple as it could be in practice, and there most definitely is potential for reform; these proposals, however, are out of the scope of this article.

The rise of standard language is inextricably tied to the written word. Unlike oral language, which (at least before the digital age) you will mostly use in communication with people around you, written language is often and has often been intended for people a greater distance away; however, this means regional variations of a language that inevitably develop become more significant. You might not understand people all that well if their linguistic background is completely different, even if you speak the same language on paper. (Note that the cut-off point of when a dialect turns into a separate language is really arbitrary and generally rooted in political considerations.) Historically, the way early English writers (who were mainly, though not exclusively, officials of the Catholic Church) got around this problem was by writing in Latin (or, more precisely, classical Latin); efforts to encourage writing in English were eventually undertaken, most notably by King Ælfred the Great, and the general conventions in written language were oriented around the Kingdom of Wessex – the territory he ruled over. This was abruptly stopped when England fell under Norman rule, degrading English to the language of the common people and making its use in writing highly limited (since the common people were generally illiterate).

Starting towards the end of the Middle Ages, a series of circumstances led to the development of a written norm, largely influenced by the East Midland Dialect spoken north of London; the rise of wealthy merchants who traveled a lot, English versions of the Bible (first introduced by the famous reformer John Wycliff and becoming more influential with the Protestant reformation), the gradual emergence of schooling, and other developments in this lane set the basic conditions. However, what really accelerated this development was the printing press, which finally spread the existing norm in England. All of this was still far from a standardized language, which doesn’t really exist even to this day (think not just of regional variations, but also of how aspects like punctuation are far from uniform – in German, by contrast, there are strict punctuation rules that are outlined in official orthographical works). Nevertheless, it is reasonable to say that this development of a written norm first introduced the idea of a “correct” way to write into the English language – before, differences in spelling had been viewed as mere facts of life. The notion of “proper English,” which eventually also made it into oral language, grew to be associated with status and education as soon as the 16th century. Efforts to standardize English orthography were far from successful, however, and would only gain traction in the 18th and 19th century due to the works of Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster, laying the groundwork for modern British and American English spelling, respectively.

## Punctuation and Typography

This section will focus on the usage of punctuation within English writing, as well as the implementation of these rules on a computer. The objective of punctuation is to structure your piece of writing so as to facilitate following your train of thought to the reader. Reading a well-punctuated text feels somewhat akin to hearing the words spoken out loud; by contrast, a lack of punctuation makes it more difficult to discern the meaning and the grammatical structure of the utterance in question. It is therefore vital to use punctuation in a sensible way – as a rule of thumb, it is advisable to more or less follow intonation when converting a spoken sentence into written form.

This was actually the intention when the Greek librarian Aristophanes (not to be confused with the much more famous dramatist) proposed an early form of punctuation to denote pauses in speech. At the time, Greek had no punctuation or spaces at all – everything was written in one go without even as rudimentary a distinguishing feature as capital letters. This made it quite difficult to read long texts; the reason it wasn’t seen as a bother is that the mere idea of being able to immediately read out unfamiliar material was considered absurd in the first place. Similarly, after becoming the most influential power in the Mediterranean, the Romans discarded his conventions, as they were considered impractical when applied to rhythmic speaking – a form of speech considered culturally vital to the Romans. Punctuation assumed a more prominent role with the rise of Christianity, who placed much more importance in the written word. Over the course of the medieval period, this would lead to the development of many different punctuation symbols, some of which stuck around and some of which did not. These symbols were finally standardized by the printing press, which gave rise to the modern inventory of punctuation symbols.

When writing something others are supposed to read at some point, it is important not just to use correct punctuation, but also to make the text visually appealing. To illustrate my point, I’ve slightly adapted the introductory paragraph of an article on this wiki:

***Mielle Roscente** is a main character in the series ``The Villainess Turns the Hourglass .´´Following Aria Roscente ´s rise in status ,she plotted to ruin Aria on a personal and social level .The success of Mielle ´s schemes ultimately led to Aria ´s execution ,at which point she was sent back in time .This forms the basis of the series ´ events.*

All of this is technically correct; however, I think you will agree with me that this passage is simply unreadable and that it doesn’t exactly provoke interest in reading the rest of the article. Issues like this are the domain of the art of typography, which deals with arranging typed material in a readable and visually appealing way. The typography of punctuation symbols will thus be a secondary focus.
### Periods

The **period** (**.**) – also known as **full stop** – is the most basic punctuation symbol in the English language. It originates from the original punctuation symbols of Aristophanes, initially denoting a brief break in speech. In modern English, the period is used for three main purposes:

1. To mark the end of a sentence: *Aria Roscente is the main protagonist of the series* The Villainess Turns the Hourglass***.***
2. After an abbreviation: *Mr**.** Asher, you’re twenty now, but I’m almost thirty.* (chapter 203)
3. As a decimal point: *Annual per capita meat consumption in the United States is around 62**.**6 kg.*

The first usage should be fairly self-explanatory and routine for those acquainted with the Latin alphabet; depending on the native tongue of the reader, they may, however, be accustomed to different conventions regarding the latter two. Most of Europe, for instance, tends to use commas rather than periods to denote decimal numbers.

The usage of periods for abbreviations, however, deserves special attention. It is important to note that different manuals recommend different usages in this regard – in British English, it is customary *not* to use periods after abbreviations if they consist of the first and last letters of a word:
*Mr Asher, you’re twenty now, but I’m almost thirty.*

Even more confusingly, acronyms are generally not accompanied by periods – *US, EU, FDA,* etc. –, but there are some stylized versions of certain acronyms in American English that are. If you’re writing an official document, you might have to worry about these details; however, for the purposes of this wiki, I would recommend simply using a period to mark abbreviations and not doing so for acronyms for the sake of simplicity.
Note that, in general, periods are always followed (but never preceded) by spaces (unless they are used as decimal points). This applies even if periods are used in abbreviations – think of the abbreviation in question as shortening the word it stands for, and set spaces as you would if you wrote out the word in question.
*Konrad Duden advocated phonemic spelling (i. e., “write as you speak”).*

**→** “i. e.” is a Latin abbreviation that stands for “id est” (meaning “that is” in English) – treat it exactly as you would treat the English phrase.

This, however, can have typographically undesirable consequences if multiple words are abbreviated (as is the case in common abbreviations such as “i. e.,” “e. g.,” and “w. l. o. g.”); namely, line breaks may cause the abbreviation to be separated. At a high level, the way to solve this problem in professional writing is to use so-called “non-breaking spaces” – the interested reader is referred to the Wikipedia page on this subject for more information. However, as I don’t consider that to be anywhere close to essential for the purposes of this wiki, feel free to ignore this technical remark.
Lastly, the usage of periods in combination with other punctuation symbols shall briefly be elaborated on. Periods in abbreviations are generally omitted before other periods but remain before commas, question marks, colons, semicolons and exclamation marks – without spaces in the latter case.

### Commas

Another important punctuation mark in the English language is the **comma** (**,**), originally introduced in the 12th century in the form of a slash to mark pauses. It is used to structure longer sentences, separating the components of a sentence according to grammatical structure and preventing misreadings. More specifically, modern English authors tend to use commas for the following purposes:

1. Lists of clauses: *I couldn’t even figure out what they were doing**,** so there were more people who thought I was the wicked woman in the rumor.* (chapter 251)
2. Lists of words: *There are a few common mistakes with regards to spelling, punctuation, and typography.*
3. After introductory words, phrases, and clauses: *In fact**,** I was just a puppet with nothing but appearance.* (chapter 251)
4. Before quoted material: *Mielle screamed**,** “Somebody! Somebody, help me! My sister pushed my father down the stairs!”* (chapter 166)
5. To separate adjectives: *She was not the kind of stupid, wicked woman who pretended to be blind and good.* (chapter 141)
6. To mark additional information: *But Mielle**,** whose most precious thing in the world was herself**,** couldn’t do anything for Emma, who was cornered and couldn’t find a hole to escape.* (chapter 140)
7. Around interruptions of the sentence flow: *Aria, on the other hand, was never able to find influential benefactors in the original line of events.*

For the fourth usage, see the section on quotation marks. The other points shall be elaborated on in the following.

**Commas in lists of clauses:** For the following, it is important to understand the grammatical difference between dependent clauses and independent clauses. Any clause has a subject and a predicate at the very least, and depending on their role within the complete sentence, clauses are categorized as being dependent or independent:
*She couldn’t say no **when he asked her so nicely**.* (chapter 123)

*You seem to have capital, **so what’s your intention in trying to get investors**?* (chapter 123)

**→**The difference between the highlighted clauses is a bit subtle, so let’s take a closer look at the semantics of these two sentences. The former clause is dependent on the main clause in terms of its meaning; it wouldn’t make sense as a stand-alone sentence. The conjunction “when” links it to the main clause and gives it its contextual meaning within the text. On the other hand, the latter clause is not dependent on the clause at the beginning of the sentence; you could just as well make it a separate sentence without sacrificing its meaning. The given sentence, unlike the first one, is really more of a list of clauses.

This distinction forms the basic rule of comma usage in sentences consisting of multiple clauses; use commas before conjunctions such as “and,” “but,” “so,” and “yet” – that is, conjunctions that link two independent clauses. However, using commas when a dependent clause follows is generally excessive; it distracts more than it helps.
In accordance with the flow of the sentence, it may be advisable to omit the comma between two independent clauses. This may be the case when both independent causes are simple in structure. Most notably, however, if the subject in the second independent clause is omitted because it is the same as that of the first, it’s generally a good idea to leave out the comma because doing otherwise would obfuscate the analogous structure:
***You** seem to have capital**,** yet **you** are still so keen to get investors?*

***You** seem to have capital yet are still so keen to get investors?*

Before moving on to the next usage of commas, it would be remiss of me not to mention a common mistake made by inexperienced writers. Some inexperienced writers attempt to link two independent clauses with a simple comma but without a conjunction:
*You seem to have capital, what’s your intention in trying to get investors?*

Doing so is really bad style, and no serious publisher would ever publish a work written like this. If using a period to separate two independent clauses is too excessive in a given case, there are much better intermediate ways to do so; one of them is using a suitable conjunction (as in the examples above), and another way, which we’ll discuss in the corresponding section, is using a semicolon – which is essentially a weaker version of a period.
**Commas in lists of words:** Commas are used to separate items in a list:
*Aria’s most important allies are Asher**,** Sarah**,** and her mother, Carin.*

Note that the comma before the word “and” (which introduces the final item) is optional – it’s known as the “Oxford comma,” and it is your choice as a writer to use it or omit it. All you have to do is remain consistent – make up your mind as to whether you want to use it or not, and apply this convention throughout your work.
For poetic purposes, lists like the one above may include repeated use of the word “and,” using it to separate any two items. These instances do not require the use of commas, as they would distract from the structure of the sentence:
*Aria’s most important allies are Asher **and** Sarah **and** her mother, Carin.*

**Commas after introductory words, phrases, and clauses:** Some adverbs (such as “however” and “indeed”) are commonly used at the beginning of a sentence; so are certain phrases (such as “by the way” and “in fact”) as well as dependent clauses and participle constructions. In all of these cases, a comma is essential for the purpose of marking the beginning of the main clause:
*Besides**,** next to him was Mielle of the rumor.* (chapter 159)

*In the first place**,** he was in a position that didn’t make it strange for him to ignore them.* (chapter 159)

*Whether they had practiced all day and night**,** the movements of the attendants were so neat that they made no mistake.* (chapter 159)

**Commas to separate adjectives:** When multiple adjectives are used to describe a noun, the use of commas is a bit subtle.
*Isis is a twisted**,** highly calculating individual.*

*Isis is a tall young woman.*

**→** In the former sentence, both adjectives describe Isis’s personality, and so they are categorically interchangeable. On the other hand, in the former sentence, the first adjective describes her physical attributes, and the second one describes her age. Clearly, these are not interchangeable in their function, which means no comma is used.

When in doubt, there are a couple of ways to see whether a comma should be set. A common one is to think of placing the word “and” in between the two adjectives. When they serve the same function, an expression of this form would still make sense – “Isis is a twisted and highly calculating individual” is a perfectly fine English sentence, but “Isis is a tall and young woman” is not. Another way is to interchange the two adjectives in question; the English language has an almost universal order of adjectives in terms of their function; their functions are identical if and only if their order is interchangeable. A sentence like “Isis is a young tall woman” is something you’ll almost never read because it’s a nearly universal convention to list physical appearance before age.

**Commas marking additional information:** Sometimes, additional information is added to a sentence, be it in the form of relative clauses, participle constructions, or without any distinguishing structure at all. A comma is used both before and after the piece of information:
*What is the difference between Mielle**,** who would marry him and become a duchess**,** and Aria**,** who became a lady of the family of Count Roscente with her mother’s marriage?* (chapter 75)

*Isis**,** satisfied**,** disappeared into the mansion**,** leaving only her brother in the garden everyone had left.* (chapter 76)

Note that a relative clause may or may not require commas depending on whether or not it constitutes supplementary information; the attentive reader will notice that the following two sentences have slightly different meanings:
*Aria swore to get revenge on her sister who had wronged her.*
*Aria swore to get revenge on her sister**,** who had wronged her.*

**→** The latter sentence marks Mielle wronging Aria as supplementary information, meaning that Mielle is uniquely identified as Aria’s sister. The former sentence, however, does not do so, marking Mielle’s actions as essential information and implying Aria has more than one sister.

**Commas around interruptions of sentence flow:** If the sentence flow is interrupted by remarks, phrases, or even simple words, a comma is necessary:
*Aria had**,** in fact**,** been investing in businesses she knew would be successful based on her knowledge of the future.*

*Mielle**,** however**,** could not do anything for Emma, who had been cornered.*

This concludes our discussion of comma usage. Before moving on to the next section, we shall briefly discuss the combination of commas with other punctuation marks, as well as a few typographical aspects.
Since commas are “weaker” than periods, question marks, exclamation marks, semicolons, and colons, they are omitted if followed by any of those. This rule is really much simpler than it sounds – it’s a natural convention to choose and one that has already been followed in this article so far.

Lastly, here’s something really important: a comma is always followed but never preceded by a space. Many inexperienced writers set spaces incorrectly around commas, and it just makes their writing unreadable. Keep in mind that a comma is sort of saying that a train of thought is over – please use a space after but not before it.

### Question marks

This is a very short section because there’s not much to say. The **question mark** (**?**) is a special punctuation mark that denotes an interrogative sentence, replacing the period at the end of a question. However, the question mark is really only used for direct questions – don’t make the mistake of using it at the end of an indirect question.
*Lady Aria! Can you hear me**?*** (chapter 166)

*I wonder if Lady Aria can hear me**.***

In the English language, the convention is to use spaces after a question mark whilst omitting them before it; that is, the question mark is directly attached to the end of the sentence’s final word. This is different from French, for example, where spaces are generally set both before and after a question mark; much like with abbreviations, using a non-breaking space prevents typographically undesirable consequences.
### Exclamation marks

The **exclamation mark** (**!**) is a symbol used in place of a period to add additional emphasis; orders in particular are often accompanied by exclamation marks, and so are interjections as well as expressions of strong emotion.

Note that exclamations should be used rather sparely, as overuse devalues their impact. As the exclamation point (in comparison with the period) displays some level of emotion, its use should be refrained from when writing purely descriptive work such as wiki articles. Spacing around exclamations is identical to spacing around question marks.

### Quotation marks

After two rather short sections, there’s a bit more to get into here. **Quotation marks** (**“…”**) enclose material adapted from a different source, such as direct speech or writing. When the printing press was invented, they were used to highlight arbitrary sections of importance; however, the much narrower usage around quotes eventually caught on. There are many different quotation marks that are used in different languages, and some languages may even have more than one pair – in German, for instance, one pair (**„…“**) dominates in handwriting whilst a different one (**»…«**) is generally preferred in printed material. English also has two pairs of quotation marks, single (**‘…’**) and double (**“…”**) quotation marks, though the latter are much more common.
*Mielle screamed**,** **“**Somebody! Somebody, help me! My sister pushed my father down the stairs!**”** (chapter 166)*

Note that the use of quotations implies exactness. In the example, the exact words of Mielle in the situation described are quoted. It is an absolute taboo to modify quoted material in any way, even if the change only goes so far as to correct spelling mistakes. In indirect speech, it is perfectly fine to paraphrase or resort to different word choices – but it’s not fine in direct speech. It’s **either** “She said she wanted me to die from the very beginning” **or** “She said, ‘I wanted you to die from the very beginning.’” – using quotations in the former case is terrible style at best and active deception at worst.
If you want to shorten quoted material, the way to do so is to insert brackets with an ellipsis inside (**[…]**) where the omitted material would have been. In general, using brackets inside quotation marks suggests that what is contained inside them is not part of the quote – this makes them an excellent place for annotations that may make a piece of writing easier to understand, especially if they contain unusual spellings or word choices. Finally, brackets can be used when a quote begins mid-sentence to signify that, while the word was not capitalized in the source material, its position in this sentence demands so.
*In chapter 250, Asher told Mielle, “[Y]ou’re the villain you’re talking about, not Lady Aria.”*

**→** Here’s the source text:

*“Other people couldn’t see the scene, but I saw it clearly. As you said, I moved the space and appeared there. So I think you’re the villain you’re talking about, not Lady Aria.”*

As is apparent, the quote in the example actually begins mid-sentence in the reference text, and so simply capitalizing the first word isn’t allowed; however, as the quote assumes the role of a complete sentence here, the first word has to be capitalized. This problem also occurs when quotes are at the beginning of a sentence, as that instance requires capitalization as well. The solution is to put the capital letter inside brackets as shown.
However, while these strict guidelines are very important to follow in professional publishing, rules are a bit more lax in this wiki because, as of writing this, the novel for *The Villainess Turns the Hourglass* has no official English version – there are only a few fan translations, all of which are quite flawed in terms of grammar and punctuation in particular. As there is no official reference work to go off of and the original version is not in English either way, slightly adapting sections of your translation of choice by improving word choice or correcting erroneous grammar is acceptable, even if the material is then marked as an exact quote. What matters is only that the basic meaning remains unchanged.

For quotes inside quotes, single quotations are used as a kind of secondary quotation mark; if single quotations are employed as primary quotation marks, this role is analogously filled by double quotations. Aside from their usage in quotes, quotations are often also used to denote unusual or technical usage of terms. Sometimes, this use is interchangeable with italics. On a related note, titles are commonly surrounded by quotations, though italics are usually preferred for longer works – using this convention, an article in this wiki would be referred to as “the article ‘Aria Roscente’” whereas the subject of the wiki would be referred to as “the series *The Villainess Turns the Hourglass.”*

We’ll now get into something a bit subtle – the placement of other punctuation inside and outside quotations. It’s subtle because there are two main conventions with regards to this aspect – British quotation, also known as “logical quotation,” and American quotation. If a complete sentence is quoted, the conventions do not differ:
*“The blood of vulgarity deserves to remain shallow forever,” Mielle said.*

*Mielle said, “The blood of vulgarity deserves to remain shallow forever.”*

In the latter case, note the use of a comma to introduce the quoted sentence; in the former case, note the analogous use of a comma to close it. The quote ends in a period, and as a result, the second sentence adapts this (whilst the original period that would’ve closed the sentence is omitted). The first sentence, however, changes the period to a comma to signify its connection to the rest of the sentence – doing otherwise might cause the quote to be misread as a standalone sentence. This convention is a bit confusing because it only applies to periods; if the period were to be replaced by an exclamation mark or a question mark, they would not be replaced.
*“Do you really think you’re going to be the wife of the Crown Prince?” Mielle said.*

*Mielle said, “Do you really think you’re going to be the wife of the Crown Prince?”*

*“Don’t insult the princess!” Mielle said.*

*Mielle said, “Don’t insult the princess!”*

Where the two main conventions differ is when dealing not with quoted sentences, but with quoted words (or quoted sentences that are treated as subjects or objects). This may seem like an obscure and pathological case, but in fact, this article following American quotation has already made a noticeable difference, and there would be quite a few mistakes if British quotation were instead used as a standard. Scrolling up just three paragraphs already yields an example:
*On a related note, titles are commonly surrounded by quotations, though italics are usually preferred for longer works – using this convention, an article in this wiki would be referred to as “the article ‘Aria Roscente’ ” whereas the subject of the wiki would be referred to as “the series* The Villainess Turns the Hourglass*.”*

The end of this sentence is a classical example of American quotation – the period is not a logical part of the quoted material, but it goes inside anyway for aesthetic purposes. This practice is something quite unique about the English language, and most other European languages prefer logical quotation, which would dictate the period go outside. The same difference in convention occurs with commas – however, it does not occur with colons, semicolons, question marks, or interrogation marks, whose position is always dictated by their logical place to avoid misunderstandings.
Finally, a few notes on typography are really important – if you’ve spent any time on the internet, you might have seen slightly different symbols (**"…"**) being used as quotation marks. These are replacement symbols that originate from the time of typewriters, which, as a result of their limited keys, combined the two curly quotations of different appearance into one straight symbol. Computer keyboards have inherited this, which means the correct quotation symbols are not directly available – however, using special key combinations that depend on your operating system, it is possible to type them out (see Wikipedia for more information). Even though this might seem pedantic, it is well worth getting used to the correct symbols if you ever want to write a professional document; some word processors, such as Word, correct replacement symbols as part of their auto-correction software, but, as is so often the case, they may or may not do so correctly.

With regards to spacing, quotations are fairly straightforward; in English, spaces follow but do not precede quotations (differing from French, for example). The one exception lies in British quotation, where a quotation symbol followed by a period or comma does not require a space. There’s only one subtlety I’m sweeping under the rug here – the case when primary and secondary quotations directly follow one another. However, conventions here are far from uniform; for this article, I’ve decided to use a non-breaking space in between for the purposes of readability. As is so often the case, it’s your choice – choose a convention you like and apply it consistently.

1. ↑ Thomann, Björn: *Konrad Duden.* In: rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de (accessed 07/30/2020) [in German]
2. ↑ Richter, Jörg: *Konrad Duden.* Bayerischer Rundfunk (2011) [in German]
3. ↑ Hutterer, Claus Jürgen: *Die germanischen Sprachen: Ihre Geschichte in Grundzügen.* 3rd edition (1990), Drei Lilien Verlag GmbH Wiesbaden. *p. 222 ff.* [in German]
4. ↑ Unknown: *The Standardization of English.* In: courses.nus.edu.sg (accessed 07/30/2020)
5. ↑ Kemmer, Suzanne: *Spelling and Standardization in English: Historical Overview.* In: ruf.rice.edu
6. ↑ Houston, Keith: *The mysterious origins of punctuation.* In: bbc.com (accessed 07/30/2020)
7. ↑ Unknown: *How to use punctuation in abbreviations.* In: lexico.com (accessed 07/31/2020)