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Subject:U.S. vs Global Punctuation From:Doug Parr <dougparr -at- INTEGRITYONLINE9 -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 10 Sep 1998 19:40:10 -0600
Greetings, fellow technical writers!
Today, a prospective client talked to me about my resume. It was, she said,
"Excellent, but." She asked me, "Why did you use U.S. punctuation and not
global punctuation?"
My resume doesn't have a period or comma inside a quotation mark (U.S.
punctuation) instead of outside (British punctuation), so I asked "What do
you mean by U.S. punctuation and global punctuation?"
"Why did you use U.S. punctuation and not global punctuation?" she asked
again.
So I answered, "I was born in the U.S. I'm a U.S. citizen. I wrote my resume
in the U.S. to be read by people in the U.S. to get a job in the U.S. Under
those circumstances, U.S. punctuation is not only warranted, it is
mandated."
She scheduled an interview with me.
I've only been in the writing business for 18 years, so I have much to
learn. Can someone please tell me what is U.S. punctuation and what is
global punctuation? And can someone else please tell me what was the correct
answer to her question?
