I "learned" a term this weekend. One it seems I "should" have known, since it's in the Chicago Manual online and probably the hard copy version, too. (I'll check when I get "home.")
The term is "scare quotes." It means, according to Chicago online, quotation marks used not to identify a quotation but "to alert readers that a term is used in a nonstandard, ironic, or other special sense."
How did I, someone who has "read" the Chicago Manual and other style guides "many" times, manage to overlook that term? I'm sure I was just focused on more "important" things.
Hope someone out there finds this "helpful."
P.S. Thanks to Cortney for edumacating me on this one!
Posts
2 comments:
I have a vague memory of this term--which means almost nothing, because I've been known to "remember" things that never happened. In any case, thanks. This is actually helpful--no scare quotes required. I use the little buggers quite often when I "write" and it's nice to know what they're called. Seems like it would be a fun expression to play with too.
Thanks for letting me know. I always hesitate before admitting I don't know stuff like this. Then I remember that, usually in these cases, I'm not alone.
Since I posted this this morning, I've come to notice that the people who DID know this, seem to be "Chicago Manual"/book people, but none of the newspaper folks I informally surveyed had heard of it.
Now they have ...
Post a Comment