SR-71

RomeoMike wrote:



James Robinson wrote:
RomeoMike wrote:

Then you would know that periods always go inside quotation marks.
:-)


Not always. If the quote is a single letter or number at the end of
the sentence, then the period goes outside of the quotation marks, as
in:

Mark your choice in the box with an "X".
or,
Jessica is a "10".

While the general approach in the US is to put commas or periods
inside the quotation marks, the rest of the English speaking world
tends to use a more logical approach depending on context: If the
comma or period is part of the quotation, then the punctuation is
placed inside the quotation marks. If the comma or period is not
part of the quotation, then it is placed outside the quotation marks.

I am not an expert, but I offer:
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/...ar/qmarks.html

If you have a reference for your "X". example, I am interested just
for my own edification.

Canadians have somewhat of a schizothymic existence regarding language.
Being close to the US, many US spellings and pronunciations get picked up
from magazines and over-the-border television broadcasts. As an example,
one of their major newspapers, the Globe and Mail, at one time adopted a
style manual that dropped the "U" in words such as honour, neighbour, and
flavour. Their readers convinced them to return to the more traditional
spellings - at least more traditional for Canada.

Here is a link to a discussion about punctuation around single letters:

http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/inside.html

As with anything involving language, there are no absolutes. Language
evolves, and many things that your grade school teacher told you were
wrong are now accepted in normal writing. Anyone who speaks English as
good as I knows there are no hard rules regarding grammar.

(Yes, I know there are mistakes in that last sentence, before anyone
jumps on it. I was simply demonstrating that many won't see a problem
with it.)

James Robinson wrote:
RomeoMike wrote:


James Robinson wrote:
RomeoMike wrote:

Then you would know that periods always go inside quotation marks.
:-)

Not always. If the quote is a single letter or number at the end of
the sentence, then the period goes outside of the quotation marks, as
in:

Mark your choice in the box with an "X".
or,
Jessica is a "10".

While the general approach in the US is to put commas or periods
inside the quotation marks, the rest of the English speaking world
tends to use a more logical approach depending on context: If the
comma or period is part of the quotation, then the punctuation is
placed inside the quotation marks. If the comma or period is not
part of the quotation, then it is placed outside the quotation marks.

I am not an expert, but I offer:
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/...ar/qmarks.html

If you have a reference for your "X". example, I am interested just
for my own edification.

Canadians have somewhat of a schizothymic existence regarding language.
Being close to the US, many US spellings and pronunciations get picked up
from magazines and over-the-border television broadcasts. As an example,
one of their major newspapers, the Globe and Mail, at one time adopted a
style manual that dropped the "U" in words such as honour, neighbour, and
flavour. Their readers convinced them to return to the more traditional
spellings - at least more traditional for Canada.

Here is a link to a discussion about punctuation around single letters:

http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/inside.html

As with anything involving language, there are no absolutes. Language
evolves, and many things that your grade school teacher told you were
wrong are now accepted in normal writing. Anyone who speaks English as
good as I knows there are no hard rules regarding grammar.

(Yes, I know there are mistakes in that last sentence, before anyone
jumps on it. I was simply demonstrating that many won't see a problem
with it.)

Interesting. Here's an American reference that says to put all periods
within the quotation marks except for a parenthetical reference. It
doesn't mention the "X". example.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handou...r/g_quote.html

As you say, there are no absolutes, and exceptions can always be found.
Additionally, this is an international forum, and I have no idea what
the rules are in Great Britain or Australia, etc.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

gatt writes:

I've been pretty polite about taking your flying questions here at face
value, and have retreatedly tried to defend you from people here who
repeatedly attack you.

I've been pretty polite all my life, and I plan to stay that way.

Being polite and being an idiot are not mutually exclusive.

Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html
Quake "predictions": http://www.skywise711.com/quakes/EQDB/index.html
Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?

"Skywise" wrote in message
...
Mxsmanic wrote in
gatt writes:

I've been pretty polite about taking your flying questions here at face
value, and have retreatedly tried to defend you from people here who
repeatedly attack you.

I've been pretty polite all my life, and I plan to stay that way.

Being polite and being an idiot are not mutually exclusive.

Correct. A problem that people have with the internet/usenet is the belief
that there's a Wikipedia site for everything and that anybody who can't
prove something they say with a URL is either dishonest or clueless.

Just because I don't want to waste a few hours convincing some usenet
****-ant that something I said is true doesn't make it false. There are
many more interesting and useful people here to waste my time with. :

-c