I and J are often mistaken for each other. Either imitate the printed letters, or uniformly carry the loop of the J below the line.
It is often impossible to distinguish Jan. from June, in manuscript, unless the context furnishes a clew.
Whatever may be the divisions of your work (as books, chapters, sections, cantos, and the like), let your entire manuscript be paged in the order of the natural series of numbers from 1 upward. If you commence each division with 1,—as is sometimes done,—and two or three divisions are given out as “takes” to compositors, it is obvious that portions of one division may exchange places with those of another; and, further, if leaves happen to become transposed, they can readily be restored to their right {p30} places if no duplicate numbers have been used in indicating the pages.
Make sure that the books, chapters, etc., are numbered consecutively. The best proof-reader must confess to some unguarded moments; and it would be very awkward, after having had two hundred and forty chapters stereotyped, to find that two chapter V.’s have been cast, that every subsequent chapter is numbered one less than it should have been, and that compositor and proof-reader have exactly followed copy.
Examine your manuscript carefully with reference to the points. Avoid the dash when any other point will answer your purpose. A manuscript that is over-punctuated occasions more perplexity than one that is scarcely pointed at all.
Before sending it to press, get your manuscript into a shape you can abide by. Alterations made on the proof-sheet must be paid for; and, further, matter that has undergone alterations seldom makes a handsome page: some lines will appear crowded, others too widely spaced.
In writing a footnote¹ let it immediately follow
¹ In many works the footnotes, by a slight change of arrangement, might advantageously become a portion of the text.
the line of text which contains the asterisk, or other reference-mark; just as you see in the above example, and do not write it at the bottom of the manuscript page. The person who makes up the matter will transfer such note to its proper place.
If you feel obliged to strike out a word from the {p31} proof, endeavor to insert another, in the same sentence, and in the same line if possible, to fill the space. So, if you insert a word or words, see whether you can strike out, nearly at the same place, as much as you insert.