Quoted commands, was Punctuation Revisionism

Subject: Quoted commands, was Punctuation Revisionism
From: Danny Wood <dwood -at- SSI -dot- NAVTECH -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 07:28:11 -0500

On Jul 2, 2:11pm, Tamminga, Ernie wrote:
<SNIP>
> But extremely often in tech-writing, a phrase we're placing within
> quotes is some kind of computer command. Usually the comma is NOT a part
> of the command itself, and can easily cause confusion if it's included
> within the quotes. So I always put the trailing comma outside the
> quotation marks. For example:
>
> If you enter the command "GO TO TOP", the program will set your
> monitor on fire.
>
>-- End of excerpt from Tamminga, Ernie

I've been struggling with how to set commands off from body text for years
now. I'm just curious about why you would use quotation marks in the above
example; doesn't the use of full caps set off the command well enough? If you
avoided using quotation marks for commands, you wouldn't have the comma
problem.

--
Danny Wood
dwood -at- ssi -dot- navtech -dot- com

Technical Writer
Navigation Technologies
847.699.5951

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