[68.] Quote-marks, single. When especial attention is called to a word the single quote-marks are used in lieu of the old way of double quotes or italic. Thus: He said he thought the word ‘grafting’ applied to politics, not to horticulture. See De Vinne’s Correct Composition, page 213, where authors are advised to make one such emphasis of a word suffice, because repetition irritates the reader.

[69.] Reverend and the reverend. Never say Reverend John Brown. It must always be the Reverend John Brown, for reverend is not a title to be used like captain or doctor. Honorable should be used in the same way, if at all.

[70.] Saviour and savior. Preserve the historic way of spelling the Saviour when Jesus Christ is meant. Other saviors are without the u.

[71.] Specials. Print birdsnest, birdseye, bullseye, heartsease (a plant or flower), calvesfoot and neatsfoot as single words, without apostrophe or hyphen, except when signifying the actual nest of a bird, the eye of a bird or of a bull, etc.

[72.] Spellings. The Chicago Proofreaders’ Stylebook has given the following list of generally misspelled words. The spellings here given are in accordance with the Century, the Standard, and Webster.

[73.] United States are or United States Is. If the expression is used as a collective term, designating one great nation, the singular is correct, but there are many sentences in which the plural verb must be used. It is proper to follow copy or query the expression, if there is doubt as to its correctness.

[74.] Verbs, singular or plural. There should be no hesitation in using the singular form of a verb when the subject has a singular meaning. Sometimes the logical subject is singular, the grammatical plural, as in, Ten dollars was paid. By ellipsis, the sum of is understood.

[(a)] Addition. Shall we say “two and two is four?” Professor William Dwight Whitney decided for the Century Dictionary (of which he was one of the editors), that two and two is four, because the full meaning is the sum of two and two, or something “similarly unifying in the sense of two and two.”

[(b)] The singular verb should be used when the subject is plural in form, though it represents a number of things to be taken together as forming a unit. Here is an example: Thirty-four years affects one’s remembrance of some circumstances. De Quincey.