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[9] [7] Sentences may either be clearly acceptable or clearly unacceptable, but there are also sentences that are partially acceptable. Hence, according to Sprouse, the difference between grammaticality and acceptability is that grammatical knowledge is categorical, but acceptability is a gradient scale.
The sentence could be misread as the turning action attaching either to the handsome school building or to nothing at all. As another example, in the sentence "At the age of eight, my family finally bought a dog", [3] the modifier At the age of eight is dangling. It is intended to specify the narrator's age when the family bought the dog, but ...
Where more than one style or format is acceptable under the MoS, one should be used consistently within an article and should not be changed without good reason. Edit warring over stylistic choices is unacceptable. [b] New content added to this page should directly address a persistently recurring style issue.
A caption may be a few words or several sentences. Writing good captions takes effort; along with the lead and section headings, captions are the most commonly read words in an article, so they should be succinct and informative. Not every image needs a caption; some are simply decorative. Relatively few may be genuinely self-explanatory.
The author adds the caveat that in certain instances a writer may want to use two spaces between sentences. The examples given are: when one space "may not provide a clear visual break between sentences", if an abbreviation is used at the end of a sentence, or when some very small proportional fonts (such as 10-point Times New Roman) are used.
Writers use scare quotes for a variety of reasons. They can imply doubt or ambiguity in words or ideas within the marks, [18] or even outright contempt. [19] They can indicate that a writer is purposely misusing a word or phrase [20] or that the writer is unpersuaded by the text in quotes, [21] and they can help the writer deny responsibility for the quote. [19]
also – Some contend this word should not be used to begin a sentence. AHD4 says "63 percent of the Usage Panel found acceptable the example 'The warranty covers all power-train components. Also, participating dealers back their work with a free lifetime service guarantee. ' " [14] See also and and but (below).
Acceptability is an amorphous concept, being both highly subjective and circumstantial; a thing may be acceptable to one evaluator and unacceptable to another, or unacceptable for one purpose but acceptable for another. Furthermore, acceptability is not necessarily a logical or consistent exercise.