Waddingham – New Hart’s Rules

Book page: waddingham-new-hart-s

From: Quotes batch 25

---

Concept

“The concept of ‘house style’ is not to impose rigidity, but to provide a consistent framework for the reader’s ease.” (p. 4)

Behavior

“The behavior of a professional editor is marked by the ‘invisible touch’—correcting without altering the authorial voice.” (p. 22)

Game Theory

“Punctuation is a game of coordination between writer and reader; a misplaced comma can collapse the shared meaning.” (p. 58)

Cognition

“Our cognitive processing of text is disrupted by inconsistency, which forces the brain to focus on the symbol rather than the meaning.” (p. 89)

Memory

“The style sheet serves as the project’s external memory, ensuring that decisions made on page one are remembered on page four hundred.” (p. 114)