User:JamesLucas/7″

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

This page in a nutshell:

A commonly accepted notation for feet and inches is prime ′ and double prime ″.
These characters are often approximated with single and double straight quotes—' and ", but these are not appropriate for formal writing.
The Wikipedia manual of style deprecates both quotes and primes and mandates ‘inch’ (or ‘in.’ when ‘inch’ absolutely cannot fit).
Both " and ″ should be replaced with ‘inch’ or ‘-inch’ (depending on context) wherever they are appear—except when they appear in titles of books, articles, or other works.

Big guns

The correct characters for denoting feet and inches are, respectively, prime ′ and double prime ″, which are similar to—but distinct from—the single and double straight quotes—' and ". The latter are not appropriate for denoting feet and inches in formal writing.

Many articles for large guns (e.g., anti-aircraft weapons) have been given titles in a format akin to 6"/53 caliber gun (using double quotes). It’s tempting to move such an article to 6″/53 caliber gun (with the double prime replacing the double quote) because that replaces the misemployed character while preserving the general look. This change, while an improvement, is not sufficient because Wikipedia’s Manual of style deprecates both quotation marks and double primes for the purpose of indicating imperial lengths. The Manual of Style specifically requires the word ‘inch’^[a].

The mandated adoption of ‘inch’ demands consideration of hyphenation. Deliberate hyphenation can help dispel ambiguity, but can, in some eyes, appear fussy. Some editors are hyphen-averse, and some gun- and military-focused editors note that hyphenation of ‘caliber’ is inconsistent even in professionally edited works (The New York Times, for example, has tended to hyphenate calibers since the 1960s but has not reliable in doing so).

When all factors are considered, many possible combinations of article titles result, but only three such combination are permitted by both English convention and Wikipedia standards:

6-inch/53-caliber gun – nice and dense, unlikely to be ambiguous, hyphenation mirrors that of {{convert}}
6 inch / 53 caliber gun – a little loose and floppy but unlikely to be ambiguous
6-inch / 53 caliber gun – somewhat closer to convention than option 2 but awkwardly asymmetric

Other options are unacceptable for various reasons:

6 inch/53 caliber gun – ‘inch/53’ can appear to be a discrete term; conventional hyphen before ‘inch’ absent
6-inch/53 caliber gun – ‘6-inch/53’ can appear to be a discrete term
6″/53-caliber gun – a double prime is the correct character by English convention but is disallowed by MOS:UNIT
6"/53-caliber gun – a quotation mark is the wrong character and is disallowed by MOS:UNIT
6"/53 caliber gun – a quotation mark is wrong/disallowed, and ‘6"/53’ can appear to be a discrete term

Some hyphen-adverse editors have favored option 2, but others find it to be problematically long and prone to bad line-wraps. Option 1 is ideal because it is dense and its symmetry makes it easier to remember.

Notes & references

^ or, when needed for space-saving reasons, the abbreviation ‘in.’

[1] r, when needed for space-saving reasons, the abbreviation ‘in.’

[a]