Bob Sellers writes about...

Separator placement

Bob raises a point of formatting that may seem rather abstruse. Actually it’s not: it’s one of the many tiny decisions that go into editing. And it goes to show that the Devil will get into “the details” only if you let him.

Only thing that may, or may not, be amiss that I found was the placing of the section ending asterisks at the beginning of part 2. Wouldn’t they go better at the end of part 1?

That’s a very good question: I can see how one can make a case for placing the separator ( * * * ) at the beginning or at the end of a page, if that’s where it happens to fall.

And that raises the basic question: Does the separator end or begin a section of text?

I had to think about it a bit, the first time that occurred (I don’t remember when, but it must have been long ago). The choice defines an element of our standard style.

I decided early on that the separator would signal the beginning of a new section. The reason is that when a reader comes to the end of a page, he knows he’s come to the end of something. It may be a whole section, or it may be a dramatic moment, or it may simply be a paragraph where the page is approaching the word limit. Or it may be all three at once.

But when readers start a page, they may not always be coming fresh from the preceding page, whether it’s in the same issue or the previous one. In fact, the readers may not know or remember exactly where they’re starting. Putting the separator at the top at least gives them a tip to the extent of the context. It’s not much, but at least it’s something.

The question arises: why not do both? Well, I think it would look confusing. A separator at the bottom of a page wouldn’t really separate anything, and a reader might wonder if part of the page were missing.

Hope you get to enjoy the weekend!

Bob

Thanks... I’ve had an awful cold for the past two weeks, but it’s getting better. Got out to do some pruning in advance of winter.

Hope you’re doing okay! From the weather reports, you may be having snow. But that was in Winnipeg, last I heard...

Don