6.1.3. Notice that the text begins immediately after the numbers; ideally, two blank lines would separate the new subsection from the previous one. Notwithstanding, the use of titles not only helps the reader but also requires coherence on the author’s part, because it obliges him to define the section in question (and consequently, by highlighting its essence, to justify it).
With or without titles, the numbers that identify the chapters and the paragraphs can vary. See section 6.4 for more suggestions on numbering. Remember that the structure of the table of contents (the numbers and titles of the chapters and sections) must mirror the exact structure of the text.
6.1.4. Quotation Marks and Other Signs
Use quotation marks in the following cases:
1. To quote another author’s sentence or sentences in the body of the text, as I will do here by mentioning that, according to Campbell and Ballou, «direct quotations not over three typewritten lines in length are enclosed in quotation marks and are run into the text.»1
1. William Giles Campbell and Stephen Vaughan Ballou, Form and Style, 4th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974), 40.
2. To quote another author’s individual terms, as I will do bymentioning that, according to the already-cited Campbell and Ballou, there are two types of footnotes: «content» and «reference.» After the first use of the terms, if we accept our authors’ terminology and adopt these technical terms in our thesis, we will no longer use quotation marks when we repeat these terms.
3. To add the connotation of «so-called» to terms of common usage, or terms that are used by other authors. For example, we can write that what idealist aesthetics called «poetry» did not have the same breadth that the term has when it appears in a publisher’s catalog as a technical term opposed to fiction and nonfiction. Similarly we will say that Hjelmslev’s notion of sign function challenges the current notion of «sign.» We do not recommend, as some do, using quotation marks to emphasize a word, as an underline better fulfills this function.
4. To quote lines in a dramatic work. When quoting a dramaticwork, it is not incorrect to write that Hamlet pronounces the line, «To be or not to be, that is the question,» but instead we recommend the following:
Hamlet: To be or not to be, that is the question.
Use the second format unless the critical literature that you are consulting uses other systems by tradition.
And how should you indicate a quote within another quote? Use single quotation marks for the quote within a quote, as in the following example, in which according to Smith, «the famous line ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’ has been the warhorse of all Shakespearean actors.» And what if Smith said that Brown said that Wolfram said something? Some writers solve this problem by writing that, according to Smith’s well-known state-ment, «all who agree with Brown in ‘refusing Wolfram’s principle that «being and not being coincide»‘ incur an unjustifiable error.» But if you refer to rule 8 of section 5.3.1, you will see that, by setting off Smith’s quote from the main text, you will avoid the need for a third level of quotation marks.
Some European writers use a third kind of quotation marks known as guillemets, or French quotation marks. It is rare to find them in an Italian thesis because the typewriter cannot produce them. Yet recently I found myself in need of them in one of my own texts. I was already using double quotation marks for short quotes and for the «so-called» connotation, and I had to distinguish the use of a term as a /signifier/ (by enclosing it in slashes) and as a ‹‹signified›› (by enclosing it in guillemets). Therefore, I was able to write that the word /dog/ means ‹‹carnivorous and quadruped animal, etc.››, and similar statements. These are rare cases, and you will have to make a decision based on the critical literature that you are using, working by hand with a pen in the typewritten thesis, just as I have done in this page.
Specific topics require other signs. It is not possible to give general instructions for these, although we can provide some examples here. For some projects in logic, mathematics, or non-
European languages, you can only write these signs by hand (unless you own an IBM Selectric electric typewriter, into which you can insert different typeballs that allow you to type different alphabets). This is certainly difficult work. However, you may find that your typewriter can produce alternative graphemes. Naturally, you will have to ask your advisor if you can make these substitutions, or consult the critical literature on your topic. As an example, table 6.1 gives a series of logic expressions (on the left) that can be transcribed into the less laborious versions on the right.
The first five substitutions are also acceptable in print; the last three are acceptable in the context of a typewritten thesis, although you should perhaps insert a note that justifies your decision and makes it explicit.
You may encounter similar issues if you are working in linguistics, where a phoneme can be represented as [b] but also as /b/. In other kinds of formalization, parenthetical systems can be reduced to sequences of parentheses. So, for example, the expression
can become
Similarly, the author of a thesis in transformational linguistics knows that he can use parentheses to represent syntactic tree branching. In any case, anyone embarking on these kinds of specialized projects probably already knows these special conventions.
6.1.5. Transliterations and Diacritics
To transliterate is to transcribe a text using the closest corresponding letters from an alphabet that is different from the original. Transliteration does not attempt to give a phonetic interpretation of a text, but reproduces the original letter by letter so that anyone can reconstruct the text in its original spelling if they know both alphabets.
Transliteration is used for the majority of historic geographical names, as well as for words that do not have an English-language equivalent. Table 6.2 shows the rules of transliteration of the Greek alphabet (which can be transliterated, for example, for a thesis in philosophy) and the Cyrillic alphabet (for Russian and some other Slavic languages).
Diacritics are signs that modify normal letters of the alphabet to give them a particular phonetic value. Italian accents are diacritics. For example, the acute accent «´» on the final «e» of the Italian perché gives it its closed pronunciation. Other diacritics include the French cedilla of «ç,» the Spanish tilde of «ñ,» the German dieresis of «ü,» and also the less-known signs of other alphabets, such as the Czech «ĉ» or c with haĉek, the Danish «ø» or o with stroke, and the Polish «ł» or l with stroke. In a thesis (on something other than Polish literature) you can eliminate, for example, the stroke on the l and the acute accents on the o and z: instead of writing Łódź you can write Lodz. Newspapers also do this. However, for the Latin languages there are stricter rules. Let us look at some specific examples: Respect the use of all diacritics that appear in the French alphabet, such as the cedilla in Ća ira. Respect the particular signs of the Spanish alphabet: the vowels with the acute accent and the n with tilde «ñ.» Respect the particular signs of the Portuguese alphabet such as the vowels with the tilde, and the «ç.»
Also, always respect the three particular signs of the German alphabet: «ä,»ö,» and «ü.» And always write «ü,» and not «ue» (Führer, not Fuehrer).
For all other languages, you must decide case by case, and as usual the solution will differ depending on whether you quote an isolated word or are writing your thesis on a text that is written in that particular language.
6.1.6. Punctuation, Foreign Accents, and Abbreviations
There are differences in the use of punctuation and the conventions for quotation marks, notes, and accents, even among the major presses. A thesis can be less precise than a typescript ready for publication. Nevertheless, it is useful to understand and apply the general criteria for punctuation. As a model, I will reproduce the instructions provided by Bompiani Editore, the press that published the original Italian version of this book, but we caution that other publishers may use different criteria. What matters here are not the criteria themselves, but the coherence of their application.
Periods and commas.1 When periods and commas follow quotes enclosed in quotation marks, they must be inserted inside the quotation marks, provided that the quoted text is a complete sentence. For example, we will say that, in commenting on Wolfram’s theory, Smith asks whether we should accept Wolfram’s opinion that «being is identical to not being from any possible point of view.» As you can see, the final period is inside the quotation marks because Wolfram’s quote also ended with a period. On the other hand, we will say that Smith does not agree with Wolfram’s statement that «being is identical to not being». Here we put the period after the quotation mark because only
