Index talk:Austen - Emma, vol. I, 1816.djvu

Punctuation

Validation of this text requires very careful checking of the punctuation. The text may have been copied from another source and there are many added commas and changes to other punctuation and even a few word differences. I have found punctuation changes on every page of the first chapter (except the first), mostly in the form of added commas, but also changes to colons/semicolons, dashes, periods/end of sentence/capitalization, archaic spellings, and even the occasional word substitution. Look out for capitalization and italics.

This text is important because it is the first edition of the novel. Scholarly analysis of Austen's punctuation has produced some controversy in recent years, and later texts, including those that have come to be considered the standard, were edited, perhaps with an intention to correct or improve them. But my understanding is that WS includes the text exactly as on the printed page, including even the most obvious printer's errors. Errors can be marked with {{sic}} or {{SIC}} as appropriate. Laura1822 (talk) 14:15, 4 September 2014 (UTC)