Quotation Marks: Where Do the Commas and Periods Go--and Why?

I found this quite entertaining  :-)
byTina Blue
March 17, 2002

    Whenever we have to use a question mark or an exclamation point with a sentence that ends in a quotation, we follow the dictates of logic in determining where the question mark or exclamation point goes.  If it is part of the quotation itself, we put it inside the quotation marks, and if it governs the sentence as a whole but not the material being quoted, we put it outside the quotation marks.

    ~Have you read the assigned short story, "Flowering Judas"?

    ~No, but I did finally get around to reading last week's assignment,  "Where Are They Now?"

    When it comes to commas and periods, though, logic doesn't enter into the equation, at least not in the United States.  Universal American usage places commas and periods inside the quotation marks, regardless of logic.

~"Diane," she said, "put the book down and go outside for a little while."

~"I will in a minute," she replied, "as soon as I finish this chapter."

    This rule applies even when the unit enclosed at the end of the sentence is just a single word rather than an actual quotation:

~To get to the next page, just press the little button marked "Enter."

    The only exception is when that last little item enclosed in quotation marks is just a letter or a number, in which case the period or comma will go outside the closing quotation marks:

~The buried treasure was marked on the map with a large "X".

~The only grade that will satisfy her is an "A".

~On this scale, the highest ranking is a "1", not a "10".

    Of course, if another set of words or a parenthetical citation gets between the quoted material and the end of a sentence, then the comma or period will follow the intervening elements:

    ~"Diane, put the book down and go outside" was what her mother said, but what Diane heard was "Blahblahblahblah" or something even less meaningful.

    ~The question is whether the persona is expressing a death wish in those identical final lines, "And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep" (15-16).

    Now, keep in mind that this comma and period inside the quotation marks business is strictly American usage.  The British don't do it that way.  They are inclined to place commas and periods logically rather than conventionally, depending on whether the punctuation belongs to the quotation or to the sentence that contains the quotation, just as we do with question marks and exclamation points.

Since most of my international students were taught in schools that followed the British system, I tell them to continue placing their commas and periods as they were taught.  In the first place, most of them will soon return to their home countries, so it would be silly to force them to switch to our style for the few years that they are here.

    But even more important is the matter of consistency.  If we try to force international students to adopt the American style, they will end up mixing the two styles, sometimes placing commas and periods inside, sometimes outside quotation marks.  It is far better for them to continue using the British style than to incongruously blend the two.

    My American students, though, don't get to choose.  They have to do it the American way, just as they have to drive on the right side of the street, even though the British drive on the left side. (Of course, the British also drive on the right side when they are in this country, so maybe that's not such a good comparison.)

    Anyway, the point is that if you are an American, you need to keep your commas and periods inside your closing quotation marks, where they belong.*

________________________

* And just why, you may ask, do they belong there?  Well, it seems to be the result of historical accident.   When type was handset, a period or comma outside of quotation marks at the end of a sentence tended to get knocked out of position, so the printers tucked the little devils inside the quotation marks to keep them safe and out of trouble.  But apparently only American printers were more attached to convenience than logic, since British printers continued to risk the misalignment of their periods and commas.

Memories!!

Loved turning the crank on the ditto machine and the mimeograph machine!!
Loved the purple mimeograph's too!!

Someone else blogged about their memory too   :-)
http://verbmall.blogspot.com/2009/12/copycat.html

All about brackets

• ( ) — round brackets, open brackets, soft brackets, close brackets (UK), or parentheses
• [ ] — square brackets, closed brackets, hard brackets, or brackets (US)
• { } — French brackets, curly brackets, definite brackets, swirly brackets, curly braces, birdie brackets, Scottish brackets, squirrelly brackets, braces, gullwings, seagull, or fancy brackets
• ⟨ ⟩ — pointy brackets, angle brackets, triangular brackets, diamond brackets, tuples, or chevrons
• < > — inequality signs, pointy brackets, or brackets. Sometimes referred to as angle brackets, in such cases as HTML markup. Occasionally known as broken brackets or brokets.
• ‹ ›; « » — angular quote brackets, or guillemets
• ⸤ ⸥; ｢ ｣ — corner brackets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket

Dyes

This is so random, but I couldn't help sharing the information!  High-end Curaçaos, like Grand Marnier, are based on cognac (or other aged spirits), gives Curaçao a natural rust-orange color.  However the blue color of Blue Curaçao's is achieved by adding of food colorant, most often E133 Brilliant Blue.  This is not to be confused with Brilliant Blue G.  Like the average person would do this!!

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

By:  English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,   
And sorry I could not travel both   
And be one traveler, long I stood   
And looked down one as far as I could   
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,   
And having perhaps the better claim,   
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;   
Though as for that the passing there   
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay   
In leaves no step had trodden black.   
Oh, I kept the first for another day!   
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,   
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh   
Somewhere ages and ages hence:   
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—   
I took the one less traveled by,   
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost (1874–1963). 
Mountain Interval.  1920.

My Raven Wordle

Libr 285 Social Research Methods

Wonderful articles -- great subjects!!

Carmichael, James. "`They Sure Got to Prove It on Me': Millennial Thoughts on Gay Archives, Gay Biography, and Gay..." Libraries & Culture, 35.1 (2000): 88-102.


The American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Task Force (GLBTRT)* justly takes pride of place as the first professional gay organization in the world.1 While the ALA itself ended discrimination based on sexual orientation in 1974, antipathy to gay issues within the profession is by no means dormant. At the same time, the growth in gay archives and gay studies in the past twenty-five years has been phenomenal. Gay librarians and archivists can continue to play an increasingly important role in promoting these collections and their use, but only if they understand the full range of historical problems that gay history and biography present. Where appropriate, library historians should also chronicle the achievements of gay library worthies.

Dochterman, M. A., & Stamp, G. H. (2010). Part 1: The determination of web credibility: A thematic analysis of web user's [sic] judgments. Qualitative Research Reports In Communication, 11(1), 37-43. doi:10.1080/17459430903514791

Saad, M., & Zainab, A. N. (2009). An investigation of information seeking behavior of Computer Science and Information Technology undergraduates: a qualitative approach. Malaysian Journal Of Library & Information Science, 14(3), 15-34.

Mehra, B., Black, K., Singh, V., & Nolt, J. (2011). What is the Value of LIS Education? A Qualitative Study of the Perspectives of Tennessee's Rural Librarians. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 52(4), 265-278.

Mosaic

"We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic.
Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams."
---Jimmy Carter, 39th US President (1977-81).
Nobel Prize for Peace, 2002.





http://www.unr.edu/stsv/cscd/contact/

http://www.unr.edu/stsv/cscd/mosaic/

Learning Commons LIBR 250

Tonight is the first night of a long 16 weeks in the deep end of the pool  :-)
https://sites.google.com/site/schoollearningcommons/
I believe I have to create a reading plan and later a personal learning page.  Dr. Loertscher said we need to document everything we do.  This is after all my journal of my library journey.