Should I write "module/theme" or "module / theme"?
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Chapters
00:00 Should I Write &Quot;Module/Theme&Quot; Or &Quot;Module / Theme&Quot;?
00:19 Accepted Answer Score 49
01:14 Answer 2 Score 11
01:44 Answer 3 Score 10
02:05 Answer 4 Score 10
02:31 Thank you
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Tags
#punctuation #spacing #slash
#avk47
ACCEPTED ANSWER
Score 49
You should remove the spaces. Unless, of course, you are quoting a poem, in which case the slash indicates a line break:
We review a module
theme per user.
Wikipedia has more info:
There are usually no spaces either before or after a slash. Exceptions are in representing the start of a new line when quoting verse, or a new paragraph when quoting prose. The Chicago Manual of Style (at 6.112) also allows spaces when either of the separated items is a compound that itself includes a space: Our New Zealand / Western Australia trip. (Compare use of an en dash used to separate such compounds.) The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing prescribes "No space before or after an oblique when used between individual words, letters or symbols; one space before and after the oblique when used between longer groups which contain internal spacing", giving the examples "n/a" and "Language and Society / Langue et société".
ANSWER 2
Score 11
In print I would leave no space, but for online usage I bracket the "/" with spaces because it is a non-breaking character and results in huge, clunky amalgamations that take up a whole line, leaving the previous line with but a couple of words. This is the kind of break I mean:
If you wanted to use some long words, you could
go the
antidisestablishmentarianism/pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
route.
The two long words won't break at a line end because of the slash, but will if the slash is surrounded by spaces.
ANSWER 3
Score 10
I believe the correct usage is word/word unless you're writing a line break in a poem:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate: / Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, / And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
ANSWER 4
Score 10
Punctuation surrounding a slash is a matter of style. The Chicago Manual of Style, for example, allows for a space on either side of the slash when either of the separated items has a space itself. For your example a space on either side of the slash would be appropriate according to that style convention.
Regarding line breaks, you probably want the front space padding the slash to be a non-breaking space, as starting a new line with a slash would be jolting for a reader.