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Subject:Re: Comma splQuote Marks (Was: ) From:Gregory Keith <GKeith -at- DELRINA -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 8 Jan 1996 14:53:00 PST
Dot James wrote that the use of quotation marks in the below sentence is not
correct.
First select "Edit", and then select "Cut".
Why not, Dot? You write that the "period and comma belong within the quote
marks, per formal writing." I am aware of the rule that says to follow
standard practice when using other marks of punctuation with quotation marks
and thus always place commas and periods that follow a quotation inside
quotation marks, but the above example sentence is not an example of a
quotation. Rather, it's an example of a sentence in which quotation marks
serve to enclose a word used in a special sense (here, command names that
refer to actions). In this case, punctuation marks are used outside the
quotation marks.
FYI, I'm borrowing my argument from Dornan & Dawe's "The Brief English
Handbook". My copy of Strunk and White seems to have very little to say
about quotation marks.
Greg
Gregory Keith
Technical Writer
The Delrina Group
Symantec Corporation
gkeith -at- delrina -dot- com
Seen on a VW Beetle's license plate in Silicon Valley: "FEATURE"
