Ricorso Housestyle
The following remarks are
offered as a rough guide to editing and formats in the Authors A-Z
region of the Ricorso website.
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Introduction
In principle the Ricorso website adheres throughout to a distinctive
and consistent set of rules for the presentation of biographical and
bibliographical information, along with commentary and quotation, all
based on a simple grammatical and diacritical formula. That formula
arises from the need to present information in single text-blocks with
adequate distinction between successive items, levels of quotation included
in them, and and editorial remarks upon them.
How this formula works out in practice
is a matter of some flexibility, though established practice brings
with it a certain range of options which are indicated in the following
sections. This page embodies our experience of editing the materials
of the website both in word-processors and web-editors over ten years
past. As such, it is tantamount to a statement of the Ricorso Housestyle.
It is not, however, writ in stone, and any useful suggestions and real
improvements discovered or developed by members of the Ricorso Team
are sure to be adopted.
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Authors A-Z: Syntax
Records in this region of the Website are invariably displayed in the
form of unified text-blocks organised under various headings according
to the type of information (i.e., biographical records, bibliographical
listings, summary, quotation, and so on), each of which can be reached
through the corresponding button in the navigation bar that appears on
each page of Author AZ files.
The attempt is made to develop an
appropriate syntax for each section while striving to condense the records
to the briefest form consistent with accuracy and accessibility. In compiling
them, much reliance is placed on the semi-colon as a means of presenting
data, commentary and quotation in a condensed form. In the leading instance,
biographical facts placed in the Life record are recorded
in a form shared with The Shorter Dictionary of National Biography
(UK). Only details such as names, events and matters of chronology
are dealt with here, leaving the interpretation of cause and effect, motive
and response, largely to the reader to determine.
William
Camden
1551-1623; ed. Oxford, but not awarded a degree; became a schoolmaster,
Westminster School, 1575; travelled through Britain to pursue
his antiquarian interests; learned Welsh and Anglo-Saxon; Britannia
sive florentissimorum regnorum, Angliae, Scotiae, Hiberniae, chorographica
descriptio (1586), with two further editions up to 1590; also
a de luxe folio edition in the translation of Edmund Gibson (1695),
published by himself; issued a Greek grammar for schools; became
headmaster of Westminster, 1593; Clarenceux king-at-arms, 1597,
an appt. that caused some bad feeling; attacked by Ralph Brooke
for plagiarism and genealogyical inaccuracy in Britannia,
replying in appendix to 5th edn., 1600; issued enlarged edn. 1607;
published Giraldus’s Topographia and Expugnatio in 1602;
also Annales rerum anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha
... ad annum 1589 (1615), said to reflect an account
of the reign of Mary altered to please James I and at variance
with his account given to Jacques de Thou; founded chair of ancient
history at Oxford, 1622; also issued Actio in Henricum Garnetum,
Societatis Jesuiticae in Anglia superiorem in caeteros,
an official account of trial of Gunpowder Plot conspirators; d.Chislehurst,
9 Nov.; friend of Ussher, Cotton, and other notables; Britannia
first trans. into English by Philemon Holland (1610); other
translators incl. Richard Gough, 3 vols. 1789 (4 vols. 1816);
Annales ed. Thomas Hearne, 1717; French and English trans.
1635, 1675, and 1688. DNB FDA
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Abbreviations in use are generally
commonsensical, or at least self explanatory: b.=born; ed.=educated; grad.=graduated;
m.=married; publ.=published; trans.=translated; ed.=edited; d.=died; bur.=buried,
and so forth. The very longest biographical entries in Ricorso tend to
resort to the present indicative tense rather than the past preterite
since this better suits close narrative. For examples of this manner of
summation, see files on James Joyce and W. B. Yeats.
In cases where there is pseudonymic
information or variant spellings and signatures associated with an author,
all such information should be supplied in square brackets after the bio-dates
and before the semi-colon, thus:
Andrew
E. Malone
1888-1939 [pseud. of Laurence Patrick Byrne]; b. Dublin; critic
of Irish literary drama; author of the first history of Irish
theatre during the period of the literary revival, and semi-official
historian of the Abbey in his day; published The Irish Drama
1896-1928 (1914; rev. edn. 1929); drama critic for The
Irish Times up to his death; contrib. The Bookman,
et al.; d. 13 April in Dublin. DIL2
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This example offers a second point
of interest in that the author cited is known exclusively in the literature
by his pseudonym and therefore appears under it in Ricorso. If, however,
information is added to Authors AZ indicating that the writer left a
significant trace of literary or social memory under his proper name,
such a link would be warranted; and if the preponderant point of interest
were proved to be connected with that name, then the entire fire would
have to be recast and entered in the "B" folder of the dataset. Outside of those conditions the alternative form of entry -
Laurence
Patrick Byrne
1888-1939; b. Dublin; critic of Irish literary drama; wrote as
Andrew E. Malone [pseud.]; author of the first history of Irish
theatre during the period of the literary revival, and semi-official
historian of the Abbey in his day; published The Irish Drama
1896-1928 (1914; rev. edn. 1929); drama critic for The
Irish Times up to his death; contrib. The Bookman,
et al.; d. 13 April in Dublin. DIL2
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- is erroneous on two counts: firstly,
the author is entered in Authors AZ under the less appropriate of the
names available; secondly, the pseudonym is not properly packaged in
initial square brackets (as in the example above). As a result of the
former error, a link must be provided from Malone, Andrew E.,
in the "M" index - in the circumstances a redundant measure
since no one is likely to look elsewhere than under "M" for
information on this invariably pseudonymic writer.
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Works, Criticism,
&c.
In the Works and Criticism sections, the semi-colon is likewise
used as a separator in bibliographical listings, though it also serves
also to indicate parallel elements when placed within the publishing-details
bracket of an individual citation. Supplementary information is occasionally
supplied in square brackets, including brief notes on the contents, series-name
and number, or previous publication dates, &c. E.g., under Flann OBrien,
Criticism:
Kate OBrien, Fiction
[review of At Swim-Two-Birds], in The Spectator (14
April 1939), pp.645-46; Anthony West, New Novels,
in New Statesman (17 June 1939), pp.940, 942 [incl. review
of At Swim; rep. as Inspired Nonsense in Rüdiger
Imhof, Alive-alive O!, 1985]; Nigel Heseltine, At
Swim-Two-Birds by Flann OBrien, in Wales (1939),
pp.308-09; Thomas Hogan [pseudonym of Thomas Wood, of the Dept.
of External Affairs; aka ‘Thersites’ of The Irish Times],
‘Myles na gCopaleen’, in The Bell, XIII, 2 (1946), pp.126-40
[a witty ad hominem attack]; John Jordan, The Saddest
Book Ever to Come Out of Ireland, in Hibernia, 24,
46(5 Aug. 1960), p.5 [review of At Swim]; Vivian
Mercier, The Irish Comic Tradition, Chap. 2, Fantasy,
Humour and Ribaldry (London: Souvenir Press 1962), pp.11-46;
Risteárd Ó Glaisne, Scríbhneoireach
Ghaeilge Myles na gCopaleen, in Comhar, 21, 4 (Aibréan
1962), pp.16-19; Vivian Mercier, The Irish Comic Tradition,
Chap. 2, ‘Fantasy, Humour and Ribaldry’ (London: Souvenir Press
1962), pp.11-46; [...].
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Elsewhere in the Website, a comparable text-block method is employed.
E.g., Bibliography/Journals, where the Table of
Contents of a given issue of the Irish University Review is
listed in this way:
Christopher Murray, ed., Irish
University Review, 27, 1 [‘Literature, Criticism & Theory’]
(Spring/Summer 1997). CONTENTS: Murray, ‘Introduction: Stirring
the Pot Withershins’ [1]; Luke Gibbons, ‘Some Hysterical Hatred:
History, Hysteria and the Literary Revival’ [7]; Eibhear Walshe,
‘Angels of Death: Wilde’s Salome and Shaw’s Saint
Joan’ [24]; Patricia Lynch, ‘A Stylistic Approach to Irish Writing’
[33]; Shaun Richards, ‘Placed Identities for Placeless Times: Brian
Friel and Post-Colonial Criticism’ [55]; Ciaran Benson, ‘The Artist
and Society: Krino, 1986-1996’ [69]; Anne McCartney, ‘Transported
into the Company of Women: A Feminist Critique of Francis
Stuart’ [74]; S. J. Caterson Joyce, ‘The Kunstlerroman and Minor
Literature: Francis Stuart’s Black List, Section H’ [87]
[...] |
It is worth nothing that each item
listed here will have been transported into Authors AZ in an modified
bibliographical format to supply the contents of the Criticism section.
Commentary and Quotations will have been augmented likewise
through a scrutiny of the actual contents, while Life and Works
may be similarly amplified or emended on the basis of information
given in those articles and their footnotes. All of this is part of the
updating practice of the Project in regard to nominated sources.
In addition, the intellectual thrust of each article will be summarised
as a Descriptive Bibliography in the course of a separately commissioned
process.
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Authors AZ: Grammar
The attempt is made to furnish all records in Authors AZ with true
grammar as far as possible. Given the syntactical features described above
[see Authors AZ: Syntax], this is by no means easy
- particularily when the text treated includes further summaries and excerpts
from primary and secondary texts, one nesting inside another. The simplest
way of doing this is to arrange the nested material within a corresponding
framework of punctuation using single and double-quotation marks or round
and square brackets to indicate different levels of discourse. Special
care should be taken to avoid ambiguity or confusion arising from the
failure to supply closure for any item.
In paraphrasing critical reviews,
articles and monographs terms such as writes that and remarks
that or even maintains that serve well to introduce
sentences summarised or reproduced. This grammar may be taken as a signal
that the whole is a report on rather than a copy of the source treated.
The treatment of sources by such means itself constitutes a worthwhile
form of analysis, though the risk of misrepresentation is real enough.
However interesting to the individual editor a given comment or quotation
may be, therefore, the overall sense of the source should remain paramount
in any record of it.
If many sources can be dealt with
in a single sentence using semi-colons to mark successive items (comment,
quotations, bibliographical reference), others invite more lengthy treatment
and seem to call definite pauses. In such cases, the terms Further
and Also suggests that comments quoted follow on more-or-less
directly or arise at a somewhat later moment in the text if not in a different
writing by the same critic. Hence, under Sir Richard Musgrave:
Kevin Whelan, The
Tree of Liberty: Radicalism, Catholicism, and the construction of
Irish Identity, 1760-1830 [Field Day] (Cork UP 1996), describes
Musgraves memoir as the matrix of memory, portraying
1798 as the result of a deep-seated popish plot [
].
It sought to establish parallels between 1641 and 1798, to depoliticise
the 1790s, and to establish disreputable sectarian motives as the
sole grounds of state, and especially to argue th case against Catholic
Emancipation being part of the Union settlement. (p.135; cited
by Mary C. King, Hewitt Summer School, 1998 [as infra].)
Further, Musgraves material was written down from oral
examination of the deponents, while informants were personally
paid by him for transport and accommodation costs in Dublin (allegedly
from fears of swearing affadavits in their own counties).
(Whelan, p.136; King, op. cit.). See also Kevin Whelan,
Origins of the Orange Order, in Bullán: An
Irish Studies Journal, 2, 2 (Spring/Summer 1996), p.28, noting
his role in the encouragement of the Orange Order.
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The Referencesection
of the Author files in Authors AZ cites many works listed or excerpted
in a given anthology, reference work or booksellers catalogue. Here
the aim is once again to cast the information in the form of a report.
To this end the verbs lists, selects and gives
provide a suitable means of introduction. In this context, selections
from the matter quoted in reference works may inserted using square brackets.
Thus Charles Kickham: Reference:
Reference
Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington:
University of America 1904), gives extracts from Knocknagow
and Sally Cavanagh; also verse, "Rory of the Hill"
[‘That rake up near the rafters. / Why leave it there so long?’],
"Patrick Sheehan" [‘My father died; I closed his
eyes / Outside the cabin door; / The landlord and the sherriff
too / Were there the day before’.] (See further in Quotations,
supra.)
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Editorial comments on the part
of the Ricorso compilers are usually signified by square brackets
but in cases where these are already in use in the immediate context
(i.e., adjacently or in nesting-form), round brackets may be used
instead to signal variation in the level of comment. In the above
case, the square bracket is used to mark off a specimen of the poem
cited, and the round bracket to signify an editorial intervention.
Square brackets are commonly used to indicate a variant or error,
as in:
Morgan Kavanagh
1800-1874 [var. 1802;
Morgan Peter Kavanagh; M. P. Kavanagh]; b. Tipperary [or
Dublin]; prob. self-educated; visited London on literary
business, 1823, and lived chiefly in London therafter;
issued The Wanderings of Lucan and Dinah (1824)
[...] |
In bibliographical entries,
the square bracket signifies that the date and/or other details
give inside it are conjectural. This may be emphasised by resorting
to a question mark - e.g., [?1802] or by adding the term for "query"
in square brackets, thus: [Qry]. The terms [chk] for "check"
has similar connotations. If the reading of a word is conjectural
or open to suspicion of miscopying, it should be marked in one
of these ways both to warn the website user and to notify the
compiler of the necessity for checking. In general, such marks
of editorial uncertainty are considered an intrinsic part of Ricorso
and not a trait to be disguised: better issue a clear caveat
that purvey false information.
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Bibliography:
Citations
The basic for of bibliographical citation in all parts of the Ricorso
Website follows the MHRA Style-sheet, with some modifications arrived
at through practice. In all sections of the Bibliography region
of the Website, surname is followed by first name in the alphabetical
listing. Where more than one author/editor is concerned, the first name
only is inverted into the surname/first name order. (Et al. can
also be used for multiple editors.) In the Works and
Criticism sections of Authors AZ, the order of
citation is strictly chronological - though order of publication within
a given year is not necessarily indicated - and the authors is given
in the natural order (first name/surname).
In broad contrast to the text-block
method of display used throughout Authors AZ, the Bibliography
region of the Website typically employs down-the-page listings. The
wide spacing imposed by web browsers in response to paragraph marks <p>
can be obviated by using a soft break, but in view of the
inability of web browsers to display hanging indents, each item in such
lists is prefaced by the bullet point produced by the line-break code
<li> instead. The resultant record reads as follows:
Brown, Malcolm, The Politics of Irish Literature: From Thomas
Davis to W. B. Yeats (Seattle: Washington UP; London: Allen
& Unwin 1972), 431pp.
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Bibliographical listings in the Works & Criticism
sections of Authors AZ are subject to much variation
according as different levels of detail are included. The following information
might be given in a critical listing for Flann O'Brien in 1985:
Charles Kemnitz,
Beyond the Zone of the Middle Dimensions, a Relativistic Reading
of The Third Policeman, in Irish University Review,
15, 2 (Spring 1985), pp.56-72; Rüdiger Imhof , ed., Alive-alive
O!: Flann OBriens At Swim-Two-Birds (Dublin:
Wolfhound Press 1985, 1993) [contribs. incl. Graham Greene, Anthony
West, Thomas Hogan, Anthony Cronin]; Augustine Martin, Fable
and Fantasy, in Martin, ed., The Genius of Irish Prose (Cork:
Mercier 1985), pp.110-20; [...] |
In a further editing session bibliographical details of the collection
edited by Imhof might be specified in this form:
Rüdiger Imhof,
ed., Alive-alive O!: Flann OBriens At Swim-Two-Birds
(Dublin: Wolfhound Press 1985; 1993), incl. early pieces by Graham
Greene (A Book in a Thousand, p.42), V. S. Pritchett (Death
of Finn, p.55), Antony West (Inspired Nonsense,
p.55), Niall Sheridan (Brian, Flann and Myles, p.74);
J. C. C. Mays (Literalist of the Imagination, p.83), Anthony
Cronin (After Swim, p.112), Rüdiger Imhof (Two
Meta-Novelists: Sternesque Elements in Novels by Flann OBrien,
p.162), John Coleman, The Use of Joyce, et al.,
incl. Thomas Hogan [pseudonym of Thomas Wood, of the Dept. of External
Affairs; also wrote as Thersites in Irish Times],
Myles na gCopaleen, in The Bell, XIII, 2 (1946),
pp.126-40 [a witty ad hominem attack]. |
In which case, the earlier reference changes to a bookmark:
[...] Rüdiger
Imhof, ed., Alive-alive O!: Flann OBriens At
Swim-Two-Birds (Dublin: Wolfhound Press 1985, 1993) [...] |
Likewise, the earlier reference to Clune and Hurson could be expanded
in a separate record to read:
Anne Clune & Tess
Hurson, eds., Conjuring Complexities: Essays on Flann OBrien
(Belfast: IIS/QUB 1997), 233pp. CONTENTS: Acknowledgements and
Abbreviations [vii]; Tess Hurston, Suspension of Disbelief
[viii]; Anne Clune, Introduction [xi]; Daniel Jacquin, Flanns
Savage Mirth [1]; Caoimhghin Ó Braolchain, Comparatively
Untapped Sources [9]; Cathal Ó Hainle, Fionn
and Suibhne in At Swim-Two-Birds [17]; Anthony Cronin,
Squalid Exegesis: Biographical Reminiscence, Part the First
[37]; Michael Cronin, Mental Ludo - Ludic Elements in At
Swim-Two-Birds [47]; Sue Ashbee, At Swim-Two-Birds:
Readers and Literary Reference [53]; David Cohen, Arranged
by Wise Hands: Flann OBriens Metafictions [57]; Hugh
Kenner, The Fourth Policeman [61]; Paul Simpson, The
Interactive World of The Third Policeman[73];
Alf Mac Lochlainn, The Outside Skin of Light Yellow: Flann
OBriens Tribute to Berkeley [83]; Jane Farnon,
Motifs of Gaelic Lore and Literature in An Beal Bocht
[89]; Steven Young, Fact/Fiction: Cruiskeen Lawn
[111]; Hurson, Conspicuous Absences: The Hard Life
[119]; Chris Morash, Augustine ... OBrien ... Vico
.... Joyce [133]; Jose Lanters, "Unless I am a
Dutchman by Profession and Nationality": The Problems of Translating
Flann OBrien into Dutch [143]; Rüdiger Imhof, The
Presence of Flann OBrien in Contemporary Fiction [151].
Notes [165]; Primary Bibliography by John Wyse Jackson [185]; Secondary
Bibliography by Anne Clune [187; containing listings of critical
studies, reviews of works and critical studies, newspaper notices
(per journal), dissertations, &c.]; Contributors [231] ISBN
0 9853890 675 5 pb. [x hb]. |
- this being the product of a scanning and/or copying operation based
upon an examination of the book in question. As a rule, the Research Officer
is encourage to scan TOCs and record specimen contents of all works, primary
or secondary, that come to notice, while the Informatics Assistant will
be charged with specific scanning taskings in regard to nominated journal
series in each Project session.
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Bibliography:
Pagination
Throughout the Website the attempt is made to register full pagination details for all publications when
citing them in the relevant kinds of record (e.g., Works or
Criticism in Authors AZ or Select Annual
Bibliography). Where monographs are concerned, the total page-number
is at issue; for articles, the first and last pages; for chapters in collections,
ditto. Differences between pagination in journal sources and chapter-form
reprints can also be noted, as in the Heaney instance cited above. Specific
page references should be used for any textual material quoted.
The usages p./pp. and p/.pp. are used
respectively for page numbers and the number of pages. Queries
may be registered by means of the usages Q.p/q.pp. where the precise page
or pages of an article or reference are unknown, while c.p./c.pp. offers
approximation given based on a one-page citation (viz., circa).
Conjectural page-numbers and variants may be indicated using square brackets
(e.g, pp.19[-20]) while a question mark indicates that the page-reference
is in uncertain (e.g., pp.19[-?22]). or that the record is irrational
(e.g., pp.29-22[?]). The terms [q.p.] or [q.pp.] serves to indicate that
the page(s) are unknown. The term [qry] can be introduced as a reminder
to examine the original or another reference source.
In extended quotations the reference
can be marked effectively by placing the page number in square brackets
precisely where the sentence is broken by the turn of page. This method
is well-suited to copying practices since the number is easily and securely
recorded in progress. It only then remains to add to infer the standard
round-bracket citation and add this to the final record on the Website.
E.g., from Francis Hackett:
Quotations
Henry the Eighth (1929), ‘[...] if Henry was anointed
with holier oil than Rockerfeller-Morgan or an Inchcape-Leverhulme,
he pursued power in a manner no less typical and no less instinctive.
He was [12] a magnate before he was a king. (p.12); Further,
Such men are as necessary as door-knobs are to doors. They
must [225] be sauve, smooth, hard and solid. They must fit the palm
of their master. A soul in such a man would be needed if he had
to mould policies, but for one who is essentially a subaltern it
would be incongruous.’ [226] (Ibid., pp.225-26.)
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Quotations and citations should not be removed from the Website during editing
because of uncertainty about page-references but that uncertainty should
be either resolved or marked with appropriate punctuation.
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Headword
Formats
Boldface type is applied to the first phrase of text-blocks in certain
Authors AZ record types (i.e., Commentary, Quotations,
References, Notes) as providing a clearly visible headword
in the monitor display. This also serves as a title and may be reflected
in the Table of Contents. Where the record in question does not front
a suitable phrase, this can be added editorial before the opening quotation
marks. Some editorial discretion may be used in selecting a pertinent
brief phrase, preferably with some eye-catching quality and a certain
levity if not unsuitable.
In Reference sections
of the Authors AZ, the name of author, compiler, or editor(s)
of reference works, anthologies and so forth generally forms the first
element in the record. As front-element, it is the author whose name is
emboldened to form the heading of the text-block. E.g.,
Seamus Deane, gen. ed.,
The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day
Company 1991), Vol. 1, selects [...]
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rather than
The Field Day Anthology
of Irish Writing, ed. Seamus Deane, et al.(Derry: Field
Day Company 1991)
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or
Seamus Deane [et al.], eds.,
The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field
Day Company 1991)
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Similarly in Quotations sections
the title of the work quoted should be emboldened if this is placed as
headword of the text-block. However, numerous quotations on the Website
have been posted less as examples of literary writing than as instances
of the authors outlook. In such cases the opening phrase may serve
as headword and should therefore be emboldened. If not, a summary phrase
can be prefixed to the quotation and the bibliographical details deferred
to the end of the passage. Examples may be found in the file on Sir Richard
Musgrave:
[T]he great
antipathy which ever existed between these sects [viz., Catholicism
and Presbyterianism]. I am much at a loss to know how they could
ever be made to unite. I have been assured that the Presbyterians
quitted the papists as soon as they discovered that they were imprelled
by the sanguinary spirit which was ever peculiar to their religion.
(quoted in Whelan, op. cit., p.137; cited in King, supra).
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How United?: The
only point in which the papists and the Presbyterians cordially
united was, Revolution; but their views and expectations from it
were widely different. The former considered it as the only means
of recovering their ancient estates,a ndof acquireing a complete
ascendancy; whereas, the establishment of a republican goverment
was the chief object of the latter. (1995 Edn., p.161; cited
by Nancy Curtin, review of Steven W. Myers & Dolores E. McKnight,
eds., Memoirs of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, 1995 Edn.;
as supra.)
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Under Notes, the subject of
the annotation should appear in boldface in the front position. If the
involved does not supply a suitable head-phrase, this can be often be
supplied by editorial revision of the sentence; otherwise, a summary phrase
can be inserted invented to suggest the pertinence of the record. Again,
it is permissible to introduce some humour suggesting avenues of thought
or research. In this context, a question mark might suggest an unresolved
issues raised by the information cited, or else a measured scepticism
on the part of the editor. The following is from the Notes record
on Elizabeth Bowen:
Lunchtime express: Elizabeth
Bowen is identified to as a reader for the publisher to whom Briony
sends her manuscript in Ian MacEwans shortlisted Booker novel
Atonement (Jonathan Cape 2001): Simply put, you need
the backbone of the story. It may interest you to know that one
of your avid readers was Mrs Elizabeth Bowen. She picked up the
bundle of typescript in an idle moment while passing through this
office on her way to luncheon, asked to take it home to read, and
finished it that afternoon. Initially, she thought the prose "too
full, too cloying", but with "redeeming shades of Dusty
Answer" (which I wouldnt have thought of at all). Then
she was "hooked for a while" and finally she gave us some
notes, which are, as it were, mulched into the above. (p.314.)
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When listing details of booksellers
and library catalogues in the Reference section, the proprietor or institution
should be fronted and emboldened,E.g.,
Hyland Catalogue (Oct.
1995) lists Correspondence respecting the Scale for the Ordnance
Survey & upon Contouring & Hill Delineation (1854), 373pp., incl.
letters of Larcom, Colby, Griffith, et al.
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Listings from Library and Booksellers
catalogues copied in the Reference section do not italicise the
titles as in the Works & Criticism sections of Authors AZ,
or in the Bibliography region of the Website. This difference arises from
the variable practice in such sources as well as from the fact that listings
acquired from online catalogues commonly lose their formatting in transit
since MS Notepad, the most efficient tool for this process, is
confined to ASCII characters and disregards tables and related formats.
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Punctuation
Ricorso punctuation generally adheres to the rules of standard English;
however, punctuation also serves specific purposes on the Website as regards
the creation of unified text-blocks reflecting discrete sources of information.
These procedures might be called respectively analogue punctuation
and digital (or website) punctuation. Ricorso observes
the former practice in regard to the actual text quoted and any comments
on it but resort to the latter in effecting the concatenation of such
items within a single web-page paragraph.
Again, the punctuation marks in Ricorso
are commonly embedded in material quoted or else arise in the course or
summarising it in the ordinary way of reportage (viz., direct and indirect
quotation). In other instances, however, the punctuation serves to mark
the termination of a given citation or record and the beginning of the
next within a wider summary or series of quotations of a given source
(primary or secondary). For these purposes the semi-colon is the best
suited diacritical without resorting to such relatively arcane symbols
as <> - which would, in any case, cause problems in relation to
the underlying html source-document.
The worst effect of the mixed punctuation
agendas reflected on the Ricorso website is the occasional occurrence
of irrational series such as < .; > or even < ).;
>. These are barbarisms, and it remains to be seen if such barbarity
will be tolerated for the benefit of delivering and receiving extensive
amounts of mixed information on a single contents page.
In the main, the comma and full-stop
are used to demarcate the beginning and end of phrases, clauses and sentences
just as in standard grammatical practice (presumed to be based on sensible
and expressive speaking habits). Likewise, the colon normally denotes
a list of items or events corresponding to nature of condition stated
in the preceding clause when it figures on a Contents page in Ricorso,
as it does in almost every Index title.
By contrast, however, the semi-colon
is very widely used in Ricorso to mark a between items whether biographical
facts or units of paraphrase and quotation. Square brackets signify editorial
intrusion and sometimes relatedly the insertion of material at a different
level of record such as brief summary of a given text or keynote phrases,
or else bibliographical information added from a secondary source.
While nested punctuation is a necessity
of Authors AZ in many places, redundant punctuation is to be avoided.
Punctuation such as the following is unnecessary and irrational:
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland,
(Dublin: Hodges, Figgis 1912)
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Here the comma before the bracket is clearly superfluous. This should read:
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland
(Dublin: Hodges, Figgis 1912)
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On the same principle, the first semi-colon is redundant here:
John
Lloyd
1741-1786; [also Seán Luid]; b. Co. Limerick, a wandering schoolteacher;
[...]
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In a similar way, unnecessary nesting can be avoided by substituting commas
for brackets in a complex bibliographical citation, as in the following
example from Criticism section of the Authors AZ record
on Patrick Kavanagh:
Seamus Heaney, ‘The Poetry of
Patrick Kavanagh: From Monaghan to the Grand Canal’, in Douglas Dunn,
ed., Two Decades of Irish Writing (Cheshire: Carcanet Press
1975), pp.105-17 [rep. in Preoccupations, 1980, p.115ff.]bb |
This, when cited in the adjacent Commentary
section, where it serves to attribute a remark that Seamus Heaney has
made about Kavanagh, takes the following modified form:
Seamus Heaney: ‘Kavanagh’s
technical achievement here is to find an Irish note that is not
dependent on backward looks towards the Irish tradition’. (‘The
Poetry of Patrick Kavanagh [... &c.]’, in Douglas Dunn, ed.,
Two Decades of Irish Writing, Carcanet Press 1975, p.108.)
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It is also possible to produce the
same citation placing a the full-stop at the end of the editorial sentence,
thus leaving it open whether sentence quoted, thus reflecting the grammar
of the original. In this instance, the citation might come from the Quotations
section of the Heaney folder, instancing his opinion of Patrick Kavanagh.
Viz.,
Patrick Kavanagh: ‘Kavanagh’s
technical achievement [...] is [...] not dependent [...] on backward
looks ’ ( ‘The Poetry of Patrick Kavanagh’, Douglas Dunn, ed., Two
Decades of Irish Writing, Carcanet 1975, p.108).
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Finally, the whole might be produced in a form that indicates precisely
where the full-stop comes or doesn't come:
‘Kavanagh’s technical achievement
here is to find an Irish note that is not dependent on backward
looks towards the Irish tradition [...]’. (Seamus Heaney, ‘The Poetry
of Patrick Kavanagh [... &c.]’, in Douglas Dunn, ed., Two
Decades of Irish Writing, Carcanet Press 1975, p.108.)
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These examples also illustrate the
wide-spread use of square-brackets to designate editorial lacunae. Where
an ellipsis is given without these brackets, the presumption is that they
belong to the original, or else to the intermediate source of the quotation.
Note, in passing, the use of ampersand
(&) in &c. (et cetera; &c.), which is standard throughout
Ricorso. Likewise, ampersand is preferred in cases where two authors/editors
or two publishing names are cited - e.g., Brian Cleeve & Ann
Brady or Faber & Faber. Allowing for general principles,
therefore, flexibility and good sense are clearly needed in the application
and use interpretation of variable forms of punctuation.
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Special
Characters
Special Characters not usually available at the keyboard can be inserted
in word-processed documents using the Insert Special Character Command
in MS Word or else by copying from the Character Set Menu in Windows.
(The keyboard combination CTRL + Numeric Keypad can be used to print the
ASCII characters if the numeric code is known.) Dreamweaver does
not support a range of characters used by Ricorso, among these chiefly
the Irish-language and European accented vowels. Other useful symbols
include the so-called smart quotes version of apostrophes
and inverted single commas and these should be added to Website documents
whenever possible.
Wherever possible, special characters
should be added to the original text before installation on the Ricorso
Website. When saved as HTML in MS Word, these appear in their correct
form. Otherwise they can be added to the document by entering the ASCII
code into the Source Document or - more simply - by copying from the following
table:
á
|
à
|
Æ
|
æ
|
ä
|
â
|
é
|
è
|
ê
|
É
|
í
|
ï
|
î
|
Ó
|
ó
|
ö
|
œ
|
ø
|
Ø
|
ú
|
ü
|
Ü
|
Ç
|
ç
|
§
|
°
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
It should be noted that double-inverted
commas are widely used in the Website to denote the title of a story or
a poem, and that these are displayed in the Internet browser as flat
punctuation (viz., " ") unless the smart version is deliberately
inserted. [Versions of the above chart can be found on model
pages placed at
html/az-data/authors/0/Some,Author/life.htm
html/about_Ricorso/managemt/char_set1.htm] |
[ top ]
Conclusion
The Ricorso House-style, though provisional and subject to correction,
reflects a fairly stable method of record and manner of reportage based
on ten years logging of a wide variety of sources. Innovations,
though always welcome, will be made the subject of rigorous discussion
in Project Meetings before approval - though this is not to say that they
should not be ventured. Once approved, they will be added to the current
Web Page, which itself is subject to emendation and improvement in style
and substance. Ricorso Team-members and Website Visitors are equally invited
to offer criticisms and make suggestions.
Besides the issue of formatting conventions,
what the discussion of punctuation on the Ricorso site raises is the question
of editorial techniques as regards web-editing methods. Although these
differ somewhat from those developed by even the most adept word-processor
users, they nevertheless involve a good deal of clever mouse action, cutting
and pasting, and artful use of global replacement. Much of the technique
involved being digital in a very literal sense, it is pointless to talk
about it at any extent in such a context as this.
The Ricorso Project makes provision
for hands-on editing sessions when the techniques espoused by each team-member
are displayed using a digital projector. The result of this is to develop
a kind of editorial cultural within the Ricorso team, and this has proven
the most effective way of addressing all questions of methodological consensus.
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