SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab

 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: Jacques Chitte who wrote (2377)4/28/1999 7:49:00 PM
From: The Philosopher  Read Replies (1) of 4711
 
May be intuitive, but is not standard.

Standard is that a period or comma falls within the quotation marks whether or not it is part of the quotation. Some grammarians (punctuationists?) argue that semi-colons and colons are treated the same, but others allow them outside the quotation marks if they are not part of the quotation.

I had a very competent grammar teacher in 7th grade and I argued this one quite strenuously (that you shouldn't put the comma inside the quotation marks if it wasn't in the quotation originally) and I lost. He proved it to me and made me accept defeat, which was as difficult a feat then as it is now. <g> (However, I got the same teacher on a math issue, made him admit he was wrong, so in my mind we were equals.)

BTW: am very impressed with the SI spell checker; didn't blink on punctuationists.

Edit after first posting: looked it up in Random House College Dictionary, which I use at work (all my good reference books are at home) and it says quite clearly "Final quotation marks follow other punctuation marks, except for semicolons and colons." Their example: Ed began reading Williams's "The Glass Menagerie"; then he turned to "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext