171. Of the ticks included in the list just given, all may be used initially (that is, at the beginning of a phrase), and when so used they occupy the position they would occupy if standing alone, the second and subsequent words of the phrase accommodating themselves to the position of the first. Most of these ticks are also legible when attached to a preceding stroke, because (though they can have no distinctive position except when standing alone or at the beginning of a phrase) they may, by reason of the context, be read just as well out of position as in it. For instance.

in the phrase for it should be, should is perfectly unambiguous, although the reader cannot tell the normal position of the tick from its position in the phrase. The exceptional ticks which require to preserve their positional distinction, because without it they may be misread, will be enumerated and explained hereafter.

172. Each of the ticks embraced in the preceding list is invariably written downward except on, should and he, which, for convenience in phrasing, may be written either upward or downward.