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I've encountered a situation where it would be very convenient to utilize a typographical symbol to indicate that the immediately preceding content was authored by an individual. Is there a symbol in use (albeit perhaps uncommon use) for this case? I realize that I can use the word "by", but a single glyph would be preferential and is what I'm asking about.

Here's what I mean, but in place of the emoji pencil:

  1. Thinking in color
    A book about color theory, exploring its history and psychology with application examples in various design industries ✏️️ Greg Williams

  2. Twenty Pirates: The Adventures of Jack Sparrow
    Take on the high seas with Jack Sparrow and his crew in this thrilling novel about pirate adventures ✏️️ Nabeel Strong

  3. Etc.

jsejcksn
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  • Yes, put an asterisk after the content and then at the bottom of the page put a matching asterisk followed by a note of attribution. In an alternate interpretation of your question you could follow all statements authored by an individual with an asterisk and all statements authored by a committee with a double asterisk. – Jim Jan 12 '17 at 05:39
  • @Jim Thanks for responding. I edited the question to provide an example of my usage. In this case, I want all of the content to stay together. If I have to resort to using "by", that's ok, but I'd prefer an existing convention of a single symbol which would help stand out in the reader's flow of skimming a list of titles and descriptions. – jsejcksn Jan 12 '17 at 06:01
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    If you mean the attribution of an actual quote, then yes, this is often indicated with a long dash. Exactly how long is something of a style choice; I usually use an em-dash: "This is the text of a quote." —Me More on that here: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/28601/appropriate-dash-to-use-when-attributing-a-quotation. However, if you mean you want a symbol to indicate the author of an entire work then I don't know that there's a standard symbol. I would probably stick with a long dash in your examples, but a comma or colon would work in different situations. – 1006a Jan 12 '17 at 07:24
  • @1006a Exactly—the entire work! This seems like something which should exist and would have use cases in many documents and professions. – jsejcksn Jan 12 '17 at 08:02
  • I would probably place the author's name in parentheses immediately following the title (though not following a description instead). "Thinking in color" (Greg Williams): A book about color theory, exploring its history and psychology with application examples in various design industries. Or, ... – Kris Jan 12 '17 at 09:40
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    Author first -- Greg Williams, "Thinking in color": A book about color theory, exploring its history and psychology with application examples in various design industrie – Kris Jan 12 '17 at 09:41
  • It also depends on the style you need to follow (applicable) in the given case. – Kris Jan 12 '17 at 09:42
  • If you're not using footnotes, a common style I've seen is to put the author name in parentheses after the quote. If you have multiple works by the same author in the bibliography, you add the year of publication after the name. So it looks like "Blah blah blah (Strong)" – Barmar Jan 16 '17 at 18:46
  • I've also seen "~" used, though more so in informal texts. – Teacher KSHuang Jan 24 '17 at 12:17

1 Answers1

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I think that using 'by' is the clearest option. However, an em dash (— U+2014) would also be reasonable (by analogy to attribution for quotes and poems). If you want something more ornate (but even less standard), consider a fullwidth tilde (～ U+FF5E).

I would also add it directly after the title, to make clear that you are attributing the work rather than the description:

  1. Thinking in color, by Greg Williams
    A book about color theory, exploring its history and psychology with application examples in various design industries

  2. Twenty Pirates: The Adventures of Jack Sparrow —Nabeel Strong
    Take on the high seas with Jack Sparrow and his crew in this thrilling novel about pirate adventures

  3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ～Douglas Adams
    A post-apocalyptic contemplation of the meaning of life

Quantum7
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