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Subject:Re: Punctuation problem From:Fred M Jacobson <fred -at- BOOLE -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 7 May 1993 15:25:45 PDT
This period inside or outside of the quotes is another no-win situation.
"Logical" people will always disagree with "traditional" people. The
handbook I use states: "Commas and periods always go inside closing
quotation marks," and "Semicolons and colons always go outside closing
quotation marks." The result is that quotation marks do _not_ always
enclose exactly what is quoted. (For example, the first sentence I quoted
above actually ends with a period; it get changed to a comma by convention.)
Readers understand this and expect it. When we (as technical writers) use
quotation marks to set off, for example, user input, we are changing the
rule. Now we _must_ enclose _exactly_ what we want the user to enter in
quotes. From this shift of meaning, there can arise confusion. This is
especially true if you mix the uses of quotes! For example: I asked Sharon
and she said, "The command is 'quit'." The best solution, IMHO, is to use
quotes in the traditional way and use something else (I like monospace font)
for literal use input. (Of course, that's hard to do in an email message
with only one font.)
