Re: Editor Please....

[Sarah Stegall <stegall -at- TERAYON -dot- COM>]

"Miller, Lisa" wrote:

> I have often seen periods used outside of quotation marks as in the following
> example:
>
> The girl said "Arrrgh".

Which is *exactly* where it should go, because IT'S AT THE END OF THE
SENTENCE. My only exception would be if

The girl said, "Argh!!!"

In which case the exclamation point has already ended the sentence, so a
period would be redundant.

This question drives me nuts, as well.  I have gone round and round with
editors over the period-at-the-end-of-quotation-marks question forever,
and I'm still stubbornly of the opinion that the period is more
important than the quotation mark, and what is happening in Lisa's
sentence is that "the girl is saying something".  It just so happens
that the sentence *includes* a quotation, but that does not mean that
the rules for quotation (quotation marks enclose the entire quote)
suddenly dominate the rules for a standard sentence.  That's letting the
tail wag the dog.

Frankly, I don't care what Strunk and White, Chicago Manual of Style, or
Microshaft say on this point. I don't even care what my mamma the
English teacher says. In *my* shop and in *my* manuals, the @#$%^&
period goes OUTSIDE the quotation marks, and I'll arm wrestle anybody
says different.

Sarah
girl saying, "Arggh!"

-----------------------------------------------------------
Sarah Stegall                       Senior Technical Writer
stegall -at- terayon -dot- com           Terayon Communication Systems

"I love being a writer, what I can't stand is the paperwork."
   -- Peter DeVries

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