Questions And Exercises: Chapter VI. Punctuation, An Art. Part 3

13. Bring your needs to Tom, who will meet you face to face.

14. I got to Sandusky last night, where I shall stay two days.

15. I had just come in to Sandusky, when I learned that there is a chance here for a big sale if I can make good.

§ 29. 1. Copy the following, inserting four question marks in the right places, but not changing any small letter to a capital:

Do you consider, when you send out your catalog, all the hands it must pass through, the hard knocks and rough treatment it must experience before it reaches the desk of the buyer the jounces and jolts of the mail bag in car and wagon the wrenching, cutting grip of the carrier's strap

2. (a) Would you change the punctuation of the following? If so, how?

A Battle Creek manufacturer, long retired, walked stiffly into the office where so much of his vitality had been expended. His son, now the president, held up a monthly statement

"I've broken all records, father!" he shouted.

"Son, half of those sales were made before you were out of the cradle,*9 re torted the veteran explosively.

(b) Write a sentence that might properly end either with an exclamation point or with a question mark.

(c) Write a sentence in which the word No should obviously be followed by an exclamation point; another in which it had better be followed by a comma; another in which it should be followed by a question mark.

§ 30. 1. Bewrite one of the following paragraphs, using no dash. See if you cannot get just as forcible ads by the use of short sentences.

(a) Then - why economize at the wrong end of your sales - by - mail campaign? Where economy is fatal to success. Economize on the manufacturing end if you will - economize on the question of overhead expense - but spend liberally on the selling end. And thus reap the full harvest of results - orders. Buy the best material obtainable for your sales literature - experience plus brain power - plus-power to compel patronage.

Buy that for your Catalogues - your Booklets - your Follow-Up Literature. Secure ripened experience - which has produced returns again and again - far in excess of my clients' best laid plans.

(b) Each with a separate field - each read by the man who can SIGN a REQUISITION - -each with the character and definite purpose that draws attention and serious consideration - they typify TO-DAY'S idea of the technical magazine in its right meaning - that of giving the subscriber correct and positive information about HIS OWN WORK - they "bunch their hits." editorially - no scattered shots - a bull's eye every issue - therefore your advertising in them is INTENSIVE, PRACTICAL, DIRECT - compared with some other kinds of railroad advertising it is as the latest Locomotive to a Stage Coach - are you on?

2. Which would you use - colon or dash - to introduce the short lists in the following? Consider each case separately.

1. A good transcriber must have three qualifications accuracy, speed, and neatness.

2. These then are the three necessary qualifications of a good transcriber accuracy, speed, and neatness.

3. In the following sentences the parentheses are set off by carets, to indicate that the punctuation is missing. Consider each case by number, and say whether you would use dashes, curves, or commas.

1. Most manufacturers of textile machinery find that the best ^ the most influential, prestige-building way ^ for closely identifying their name with their product is by regular advertising in a trade paper regularly read by these buyers.

2. Do we get his business then? We do, and without very much trouble ^ either ^ and ^ what's more ^ we hold it

3. Here is a clip that effectually overcomes the defects of all other paper clips ^ a clip that gives you the very kind of service that you would like to expect ^ a clip that you have been looking for ^ a clip that will hold any number of papers together with absolute security.

4. When his catalogue came from the press, a manufacturer found the strong points of his product unexpectedly scattered and hidden in the "logical develop* ment" of the copy-writer's story. He succeeded in giving these points greater prominence by printing for insertion ^ just inside the front cover ^ a small twocolor slip headed "Principal Contents" On this slip the six biggest points in the booklet gained special distinction by appearing in red.

9. There can be no boundaries to a telephone system as it is now understood and demanded. Every community is a center from which people desire communication in every direction ^ always with contiguous territory ^ often with distant points.' Each individual user may at any moment need the long distance lines which radiate from his local center.

6. If you make any kind of footwear, and want to get your line into the stores ^ want the effective co-operation of the wide-awake shoe retailer ^ this is the medium that can give you the greatest help at the smallest cost

7. The various devices mentioned before A namely display, italics, and spacing ^ will be inadequate if the copy itself is not interest-compelling.

8. In other words, the advertiser ^ if he wishes to cover the suburbs ^ must use the surburban papers.

9. Although its advertising rates are a little the highest ^ space alone considered ^ it carries vastly more advertising than its nearest weekly competitor.