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Subject:Using Punctuation in and out of Quotes From:Justin Ressler <JRessler -at- ewa-denver -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 08 Dec 2004 08:20:04 -0700
It is likely that this has been hashed out before, so feel free to respond only
off list.
Brief research indicates that there is a difference between American
usage and other countries (primarily British controlled territories) of
punctuation inside of quotation marks. It is something that I have
concerns over in my own writing, not just technical writing. Is there a
more widely way of doing this, or is the preferred method your own as
long as you are consistent?
I am more apt to follow logic than silly conventions based on the
printing press, if that is truly why we Americans do it that way. I read
most of my information from the site listed below.
*There are peculiar typographical reasons why the period and comma go
inside the quotation mark in the United States. The following
explanation comes from the "Frequently Asked Questions" file of
alt.english.usage: "In the days when printing used raised bits of metal,
"." and "," were the most delicate, and were in danger of damage (the
face of the piece of type might break off from the body, or be bent or
dented from above) if they had a '"' on one side and a blank space on
the other. Hence the convention arose of always using '."' and ',"'
rather than '".' and '",', regardless of logic." This seems to be an
argument to return to something more logical, but there is little
impetus to do so within the United States.
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