Subj : Re: 3xHa! To : Ardith Hinton From : alexander koryagin Date : Fri Jul 06 2018 22:01:01 From: alexander koryagin Hi, Ardith Hinton! I read your message from 18.10.2013 22:32 ak>>> So if we use a double q. mark ["] we should use US punctuation ak>>> rules, but if we use a single q. mark ['] we should use British ak>>> punctuation. AH> I like the consistency there, at first glance... but some of us AH> from the ex-colonies don't relate to "shoulds" very well. AH> Is this your opinion, or some distinguished grammarian's opinion, AH> or both?? Canadians are at liberty to adopt US and/or UK AH> conventions as they see fit. I prefer double quotation marks AH> because it is highly unlikely they'll be confused with apostrophes. AH> OTOH the idea that full stops (e.g.) *must* appear inside any AH> quotation marks, regardless of context, seems illogical to me. :-) Well, AFAIR, you also have a very serious edition of Webster's New World guide "Punctuation. Simplified and Applied" by Geraldine Woods. I could not find it at free access in the Internet (it is a pity that good textbooks hardly can be found freely by people), that's why I was forced to find some similar sources. But this is an excerpt from Woods: -----Beginning of the citation----- page 67: Whenever someone's exact words are reproduced, the words are enclosed in quotation marks. In standard American usage commas at the end of a quotation are always placed inside the closing quotation mark. In Britain, where quotation marks are called "inverted commas," this custom is reversed. The comma is placed outside the quotation marks. If the sentence includes a quotation inside another quotation, the comma goes inside both sets of quotation marks (in America) and outside both (in Britain). A comma at the end of a quoted statement takes the place of a period when the sentence continues on. The comma is a convenient way to show that the quotation is complete, but the sentence is not. (A period never appears withing a sentence unless it signals an abbreviation.) If the quoted words would normally end with a period, the period appears only if the quotation ends the sentence. Examples: "Helen boils those vegetables far too long." (A period ends both the sentence and the quotation.) "Helen boils those vegetables far too long," commented the chief. (Because the sentence continues, the period is replaced by a comma) Quoted questions or exclamation follow different rules. -----The end of the citation----- AH> makes sense to them to write in homogenized English so they can AH> broaden their audience appeal and maximize clarity, not because AH> they feel US English is invariably "better". You'll see, in my AH> preceding sentence, an example of how I would apply the rule of AH> common sense if I am citing a single word without attribution... AH> [chuckle]. I am not against logic. More of that -- in Russia we put commas and other punctuation marks outside quotation marks. But if I take a book printed in the US I always see commas insides quotation marks. I found it inconvenient, but I do the same. ;=) BTW, where are commas in the books printed in Canada? Bye, Ardith! Alexander Koryagin fido7.english-tutor 2013 --- ifmail v.2.15dev5.4 * Origin: NPO RUSnet InterNetNews site (2:5020/400) .