1. victo

    victo Active Member

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    NYT Manual of Style

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by victo, Jun 7, 2015.

    The New York Times Manual of Style gives the following example:

    a $10-to-11-billion increase

    Following its example above, do the following follow suit in terms of punctuation?

    a $10-to-15-million-a-year job

    a $10-to-15-per-month surcharge

    a $3-to-5,000-a-month savings

    Second question: Why do you think they omit the second dollar sign preceding the second dollar figure?

    Thanks.
     
  2. BrianIff

    BrianIff I'm so piano, a bad punctuator. Contributor

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    The quality about the surcharge or job that is descibed in several words becomes, effectively, an adjective to avoid confusion or ambiguity. The dollar sign is omitted since it is uderstood and would be said differently if read aloud.

    Your savings example is awkward since "savings" here is an amount unless you're talking about a savings account. Also, it's 3000 unless you mean three dollars.

    $3-5K a month in savings.
     
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2015

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