O.T. - Writer's Block website:

There is a cool (Canadian) website that has a section devoted to writing tips for Punctuation, Word Usage, Writing Style, and more. Nothing heavy.

And one other thing. In the section, Placement of Punctuation and Quotation Marks, we read: (emp add)

In the American style, periods and commas are always placed inside the quotation marks, for typographical reasons. In the British style, periods and commas are placed inside the quotation marks only when they are part of the quoted material, which is the more logical placement.

The Canadian style for quotation marks usually follows the American style for appearance and placement of periods and commas. Some Canadian publishers, however, use the British style. Others employ a combination of the two styles.

In a literary work, we recommend the American style of always placing periods and commas inside the quotation marks. In a technical or legal work, where accuracy is essential, we recommend the British practice of placing periods and commas within quotation marks only when they are part of the quoted material.

We've always tended to use the British style in our thinking, but when it came to writing, weren't consistent - mostly because we were aware of the American style "rules". It always seemed strange to put a comma inside a quote. The quote was, to our mind, a single component, not to be tampered with. The webpage says that the American style was adopted for typographical reasons. What's are they talking about?

Anyhow, from now on, this weblog will adhere to the British usage of punctuation when using quotes. (But will use the American style double-quotes, even though single quotes look cleaner, and don't require using the SHIFT key.)


posted by Quiddity at 11/22/2005 07:27:00 PM