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Karen_skier2.0

AKA - RX2SKI
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I too disagree with that rule. If the punctuation mark is not part of the quote, it is illogical to place it inside of the quotation marks. Therefore, except when writing formally, I place the end punctuation mark after the end quotation mark.

This started in the day of the printing press--the period and comma are placed within the quotes since the letters were more fragile thus more likely to break.

Commas-save-lives.jpg
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
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This started in the day of the printing press--the period and comma are placed within the quotes since the letters were more fragile thus more likely to break.

That's a cool bit of info! Is it definitely true, not just one of those cool stories? For some reason, I wasn't quickly able to search up a Snopes article ...

13239465_1093889770670182_3327239815622410157_n.jpg
 

SBrown

So much better than a pro
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That's a cool bit of info! Is it definitely true, not just one of those cool stories? For some reason, I wasn't quickly able to search up a Snopes article ...

Snopes? just google "comma period inside quotation marks printing press." ( << now I am self-conscious about putting that period there)

And honestly, it doesn't really bother me, even if it's illogical. After all, this is English:

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through.
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
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Snopes? just google "comma period inside quotation marks printing press." ( << now I am self-conscious about putting that period there)

I just meant that Snopes is usually a reliable source of info. Whatever search term I used this morning wasn't working for me - just finding style guides.
 

Karen_skier2.0

AKA - RX2SKI
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That's a cool bit of info! Is it definitely true, not just one of those cool stories? For some reason, I wasn't quickly able to search up a Snopes article ...

It's one of those tidbits you learn when you get a M.S. in Scientific and Technical Communications. My major professor was older than dirt and loved adding those kind of tidbits--probably worked with a printing press. ;) There's a reason they are called typesetters' quotes--long before Snopes (or the internet) was common.
 
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TS
Blue Streak

Blue Streak

I like snow.
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Who cares about saving the transgender albino baby seals from global warming?
How about preserving the legacy of precise and sometimes artful communication by the written word?
Jus' sayin.
 

LiquidFeet

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As a teacher who has to grade written assignments, I find all these too (to, two) familiar.

Often my students get your and you're mixed up.
I get the impression that then and than are interchangeable in their minds.
Too many of them do not know what to do with an apostrophe.
More than half of these soon-to-be-college-graduates don't understand the difference between plural and possessive.
Quotations with punctuation marks are an opportunity for creative thinking.
Capital letters appear inside sentences in the strangest places.
Run-on sentences are epidemic, as are incomplete ones.
And then there's this strange thing called a paragraph, which seems unfamiliar to some.
Introductions and conclusions are way too complicated for them to think about.
I don't let my college students get away with these things even though I am not an English teacher, but clearly other faculty do.

When I was young I never thought I'd be the adult complaining about the kids, but here I am doing just that.
Maybe it's not worth the fight, and the grammar rules should change to match what the general public actually does.
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
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I recently saw "affect" when it should have been "effect" (verb form). That irked me.
 

Tricia

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I'm reading this story about a girl who died in a car accident immediately following her graduation.
I feel horrible for the situation but I also feel sad about this comment in the news media, an outlet who should have better editors -
Hopefully by the time I post here again, you will have seen the scene of the error.


Quote from the news.
“When I got to the seen, her face was disfigured from sliding down the roadway…her cap and gown was still in her car…it was just a really horrific scene. All because of a senseless text message…it’s just sad…”


I feel like a horrible person because this is a tragic accident and I am picking at the editing. :(
 

Don in Morrison

I Ski Better on Retro Day
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Nov 13, 2015
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Morrison, Colorado
As a teacher who has to grade written assignments, I find all these too (to, two) familiar.

Often my students get your and you're mixed up.
I get the impression that then and than are interchangeable in their minds.
Too many of them do not know what to do with an apostrophe.
More than half of these soon-to-be-college-graduates don't understand the difference between plural and possessive.
Quotations with punctuation marks are an opportunity for creative thinking.
Capital letters appear inside sentences in the strangest places.
Run-on sentences are epidemic, as are incomplete ones.
And then there's this strange thing called a paragraph, which seems unfamiliar to some.
Introductions and conclusions are way too complicated for them to think about.
I don't let my college students get away with these things even though I am not an English teacher, but clearly other faculty do.

When I was young I never thought I'd be the adult complaining about the kids, but here I am doing just that.
Maybe it's not worth the fight, and the grammar rules should change to match what the general public actually does.

I know of a genealogy workshop for teens that was cut short by the organizers because the students could not read the census records, which were written in cursive.
 

VickieH

Contrarian
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Denver area
I feel like a horrible person because this is a tragic accident and I am picking at the editing.

No, they should feel horrible for the mistake. Errors like that are magnified to the family.

When my mother passed away, the funeral home printed those memorial handouts they provide to guests at funerals. They asked us to proofread it. I did. Spelling and all was fine. Except ... the text wasn't centered on the page. It was off to one side by, like, 1/2". It's one of the last things done for, or said about, a person. You owe them and their family to do it right. Same applies to this accident victim.
 

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