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  EDline Vol. 7, no. 53     (22 February 2002)

  Editorial mailing list (digest version)
  Published by the Electric Editors
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  Contents:

         Q & A
  [2sl]  Commas and quotes

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---[2]-- Q & A --------------------------------------------------


** [2sl] Commas and quotes

         Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002
         From: John Morris, johnjeff@meadowdance.org

We're working on an ESL piece for Spanish-language students
(South American, I think). We're not doing the editing, but I've
come across something that seems very foreign to me. The editors
changed a passage to say that, when writing dialog, the comma at
the end of a quoted phrase should be placed _after_ the final
quotation mark. 

I have generally followed the rule that periods and commas always
go inside the quote marks, so this is very strange. All the
references (primarily for American English) that I have consulted
agree with me. Can anyone tell me if this is different for other
versions of English or for other languages?


         ----------------------
         Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002
         From: David Ibbetson, isserlis@rogers.com

In British English a stop at the end of a quote at the end goes
outside the closing quote unless it (the stop) is part of the
Dialogue. US rules are different.

I gather that there is some doubt about question marks and
screamers (?!)


         ----------------------
         Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002
         From: Michael Lewis, mlewis@brandle.com.au

John Morris wrote:

> Can anyone tell me if this is different for other versions of
> English or for other languages?

It certainly is. British (and Australian, and I think Canadian)
practice is to punctuate "according to sense". See what I've just
done: the phrase inside the scare quotes, and the quote marks
themselves, are _part_ of the sentence, so the period goes after
the lot. But here comes another passage in quotes.

  "I want to go home."

Here, the quotation _includes_ the entire sentence -- the
sentence is part of the quotation, so the period goes inside the
quotes.

British practice follows the same principles with parentheses as
with quotes.


         ----------------------
         Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002
         From: Eddie Kent, edlineek@aol.com

Michael Lewis writes: 

> It certainly is. British (and Australian, and I think Canadian)
> practice is to punctuate "according to sense". 

This is good in theory, but in practice it often happens that the
punctuation goes inside the quotes. The reason given is that
otherwise there would be an obvious gap between letter and comma.
I have given up fighting on this one. 


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