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As a freelance technical writer currently on assignment to write documentation
for a government agency, I can empathize. The GPO Style Manual, however, is
probably your best defense. It's rather vague regarding rules for numerals,
but section 8.130 supports placing punctuation within quotation marks, section
8.35 contains rules for commas, and sections 8.24 and 8.64 contain rules for
colons. What I'm trying to say is: Use their own style manual to support
the document and, chances are, you won't get much argument from them. Good
luck!
Lori Lathrop - Lathrop Media Services
currently on assignment at the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Lakewood, CO
INTERNET:lathropl -at- mail -dot- fws -dot- gov
-or- INTERNET:76620 -dot- 456 -at- compuserve -dot- com
