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I have to say, I watch the Canadian-based Fox Soccer Report regularly,
and the Canadian anchors most definitely say "aboot". But hey, I'm a
Californian-I probably don't realize how much I say "dude!"
Chris
________________________________
From: Kevin McLauchlan [mailto:kmclauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 11:28 AM
To: Chris Vickery; Bill Swallow; Sue Heim
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com; tcp -at- techcommpros -dot- com
Subject: RE: [TCP] Article: Houston, We Have a Shuttle Typo
A big "me too!", on that quotation punctuation thing.
My rule is to put the punctuation inside if it's necessary to the
meaning of the embedded quotation, and outside if it's necessary to the
meaning of my containing sentence. I've rarely had to deal with
situations where the two would strongly conflict (pretty much never in
technical writing), and that'd be a good time to consider recasting
anyway.
My employer is an American company, so the mandate is to use US-eng
spelling in documents aimed outside, but for in-house communication -
where we have a Canadian division, an Indian division, offices in the UK
and Australia, etc. - I often write tongue-in-cheek "behavio[u]r" and
similar to cover all the bases.
By the way, I'd write Bill's second version if I were writing dialog
among young folk, pre-teen to twenty something, where they sing-song the
interrogative rise onto the end of every ^ -at- #$!! sentence!!!
Sorry. Sorry... I'm calm. I'm calm...
I think it might have been ... was it... Jaimie on "So You Think You Can
Dance" who ... er... um... held my rapt attention until they presented
one of those interview segments where she peppered her speech with that
sing-song intonation and several bushels (archaic measure, look it up)
of "y'know?"
It's similar to "Wow! Looks, talent, passion - 11 out of ten!" And then
she lights a cigarette and drops to a 6. Same idea. Probably an equally
tough set of habits to give up. Sigh.
Kevin (in Canada, eh?)
PS: I always wanted a better way to depict the Canajun "eh". To me, that
always looks more like what Bugs Bunny is saying in "Eh, what's up
doc?", a very different sound to my ear. C'mon, eh? Stay with me, now.
PPS: We do _not_ say "aboot". That'd be the Scots. I know we're hard to
tell apart... <gdr&h>
On Behalf Of Chris Vickery reported:
> I agree wholeheartedly. I went back and forth about this with a
> coworker. The American English rule of putting all punctuation inside
> the quotation marks, even for lists of terms seems nutty to me.
> -----Original Message-----
> On Behalf Of Bill Swallow
> Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 10:21 AM
> I use UK punctuation, particularly with quotes. Makes more sense to
> me. I dunno, somehow this:
>
> Can you believe he said "I think you're an idiot"?
>
> makes more sense than:
>
> Can you believe he said "I think you're an idiot?"
>
> On 7/13/07, Sue Heim <sue -dot- heim -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> > Actually, that's not that bad. Seriously. The sign was made with EN
> > spelling, even though the name of the shuttle honors the UK. Heck, I
> > misspell EN and UK stuff all the time (I dunno, but I always spell
> behavior
> > with a "u" as in "behaviour").
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