s put below the crossed word mean:
Cancel the correction first made, and let the types stand
as they were.
[**] Over two or three letters. Change for the diphthong or
for a logotype, as _ae_, _ffi_.
[**] Straighten lines.
///// Diagonal lines crossing the text indicate that the
composition is out of square.
Out, see Copy Here is an omission; see copy.

Corrections or textual improvements suggested to the author should be
accompanied by the interrogation-point and be enclosed in parentheses or
"ringed."

Corrections should always be made in the margin, and never in the text:
faults in the types or text to be indicated only by light pen marks.

* * * * *

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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

There are many other signs and abbreviations used in works on the various
sciences. Approved modern text-books are the only safe guides to the proper
use of these.

In printing dialect, slang, and colloquialisms the only general rule is to
follow copy.

Such abbreviations as _I've_, _you'll_, _'t'was_, _'t'is n't_, and the like
are more clearly expressed when a thin space is put between the words.

Old Style contractions should follow the original even if special sorts
have to be obtained for the purpose.

Abbreviations like _dept_, _dep't_, _gov't_, _sec_, _sec'y_, _sect'y_,
_pres't_, and _treas._ are indefensible. Even in letter heads and the like
it is better to spell out the words in two lines.

* * * * *

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SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Correct Composition. By Theodore Low De Vinne. Oswald Publishing Co.,
New York.

The Writer's Desk Book. By William Dana Orcutt.

The list of abbreviations and signs in many of the principal
dictionaries may be studied with profit.

Scientific text-books may be profitably used to study the abbreviations
and signs used in mathematics and the sciences.

* * * * *

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QUESTIONS

1. How and why were abbreviations used before typography?
2. How did the early printers use abbreviations?
3. What is the best usage with regard to abbreviations?
4. What is the general rule for the use of abbreviations?
5. What is the difference in usage between book work and some other kinds
of printing?
6. What use of abbreviations do we find in