: When should one use a section sign (Â§)? When I asked this on English.SE, the question was closed; it was suggested that I ask on Writers.SE instead. To be clear, I mean the section sign

When I asked this on English.SE, the question was closed; it was suggested that I ask on Writers.SE instead. To be clear, I mean the section sign Â§ (utf-8: 0xC2 0xA7), which is available via S in LaTeX, § in HTML, and Compose+s+o in the X Window System.

In the main text of a scientific article, I write out the word "section", e.g., "In Section 3, I review the details of". For references, I like to specify a section to make the reference more specific and use the section sign, e.g., "as in Smith & Bloggs (1994, Â§8.2.5)".

Is this usage wrong or otherwise discouraged? I prefer using the symbol for brevity; a reference like "Smith & Bloggs (1994, Section 30.1.5)" seems awkward to me. However, one of my co-authors, who is usually right about grammar and style, disagrees.

If using the symbol in this way is wrong, then when should one use the section sign, if ever?

I could probably sidestep the issue by referring instead to pages. Is this preferred under standard citation practices?

Load Full (2)

: I would say your question is not too open-ended, but instead that the answer is the same as most questions about interesting writing: you have to make it interesting. What makes up the "interesting

@Shanna875

Load Full 0 Comments

: English writers IDE Possible Duplicate: Is there a special software for writers? What IDE's do writers typically write in? I'm aware of Microsoft Word, but surely that is not something

@Shanna875

Load Full 1 Comments

: Perhaps you can use "such that" I'd like to do addition on the calculator in such a way that the addition function is achieved. I'd like to do addition on the calculator such that the addition

@Shanna875

Load Full 0 Comments

: Literary criticism term for character espousing author's ideas? Is there a term in literary criticism for a character who espouses the points of view of the author? Especially, but not necessarily,

@Shanna875

Load Full 1 Comments

Login to post a comment!

2 Comments

Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best

@Frith254

I see the Â§-sign mainly used in legal texts, maybe your co-author has the same problem.

If you use the section sign, I would put a space (a small non-breaking) between the sign and the numbers (Â§ 8.5.2).

Using page numbers instead is a nice thing to do, especially if you refer to a single page in a bigger section. If you want to refer to the whole section, I prefer section 3.5.6 or Â§ 3.5.6 instead of p. 254-271.

You may be interested in the Legal Research and Citation Style in USA.

Load Full (0)

@Carla500

I think your distinction is perfect. That's exactly how I'd do it.

Load Full (0)

Feed

: When should one use a section sign (Â§)? When I asked this on English.SE, the question was closed; it was suggested that I ask on Writers.SE instead. To be clear, I mean the section sign

More posts by @Shanna875

: I would say your question is not too open-ended, but instead that the answer is the same as most questions about interesting writing: you have to make it interesting. What makes up the "interesting

: English writers IDE Possible Duplicate: Is there a special software for writers? What IDE's do writers typically write in? I'm aware of Microsoft Word, but surely that is not something

: Perhaps you can use "such that" I'd like to do addition on the calculator in such a way that the addition function is achieved. I'd like to do addition on the calculator such that the addition

: Literary criticism term for character espousing author's ideas? Is there a term in literary criticism for a character who espouses the points of view of the author? Especially, but not necessarily,

Login to post a comment!

2 Comments

Back to top