| The Slash
Use the slash, sometimes called the virgule (/), to separate common paired
terms. Do not leave a space between the slash and the paired words or
letters.
The Arab/Israeli conflict will
continue to engage our American allies, even if Canada's role remains
limited to some observers and some diplomatic initiatives.
The mission of the new DND/CF Synthetic
Environment Coordination Office (SECO) is to provide a full-time focal
point for information, coordination, and support concerning DND/CF
modeling and simulation (M&S) activities.
When citing two to three lines of poetry in an essay, use the
slash to separate the lines. A space is needed before and after the slash
in this case.
The poet John Milton writes in Paradise Lost, "who
overcomes / By force hath overcome but half his foe."
A slash is used with uncommon numeric fractions (3/5, 5/7). And the cataclysmic
events of September 11, 2001 are commonly indicated with the notation
9/11.
DO NOT use the slash in such constructions as he/she, his/her,
and especially not s/he. Write he or she, and so forth.
| Help!
Most language commentators caution against the use of and/or,
which is frequently used incorrectly, and should be avoided in academic
writing. Three options are suggested in and/or: one or the other or
both. The and/or construction most often appears in legal and business
writing, where it causes much confusion. If you are presenting two
options, use and if you mean both and or if you
mean either. An unambiguous solution is to use the formula A or B
or both: "You will need either a shovel, a pick, or both to dig
the trench." |
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