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Subject:Re: quotation marks and end punctuation From:"Kelly K. Hoffman" <zeke -dot- dnet!hoffman -at- LOGICRAFT -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 10 May 1993 11:15:46 -0400
Michele [berkesm -at- a1 -dot- osti -dot- gov] writes:
> I offer this from the _The ACS Style Guide_, pp. 18-19
> (ACS=American Chemical Society).
> [...] if the punctuation is not part
> of the quotation, the writer should not mislead the reader by inferring that
> it is.
Perhaps I'm getting crotchety in my old age, but I'm reluctant to
take the advice of an organization that doesn't know the difference
between "imply" and "infer." :-)
Ok, ok, so I follow the rule that the periods and commas always go inside
the quotation marks. Why? Because, quite frankly, it looks better.
Perhaps it doesn't matter if you use those ugly typewriter-style
quotes, but with true (curly) quotes, the period or comma outside looks
awful.
When necessary, I rephrase to avoid ambiguity. (It usually has the
added bonus of tightening the prose. :-)
For those of you who follow the "logical" rule, do you use curly
quotes? Do you kern the punctuation?
______________________________________________________________________
Kelly K. Hoffman Logicraft, Inc. hoffman -at- logicraft -dot- com
Technical Writer Nashua, NH
