Sorry, but I prefer less rules over more rules unless they provide some tangible benefit. This is just rules for the sake of rules.
Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American
231–240 of 393 posts
Re: Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American
#232This style of punctuation is "logical quotation", not necessarily British: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Logical_quotation_on...
This is true. You can find the 'American style' in the UK occasionally, especially in fiction – it's not exceptionally rare.
But regardless, the styles have come to be known as 'American' and 'British' because they generally are preferred in American and British English respectively, even if it's not absolute: Americans tend to be taught US style, and Brits tend to be taught British style.
Re: Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American
#233I think the example sentence contains the worst corner-case of such a system. In general, the . at the end of sentence is the least necessary punctuation mark, and quotations of neutral statements should just always omit it. For example, "this is how a neutral sentence should look like", I would say. I don't think "they saw a vase." looks good even in the middle of a sentence. However, "do I have a question?", or "I…
> For example, "I have said it all." could be used to emphasize the period itself - but in those cases, jarring punctuation like `.".` or `.",` would actually help to emphasize the importance of the period.
Even there, doing it like you did and putting the quoted sentence in the middle, not at the end, of the outer one looks about a gazillion times better
Re: Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American
#234I got in a heated debate about this with a technical writing instructor. Namely, I was ending a question with a quote along the lines of > Why did Jake believe the AI was “going to kill us all”? The instructor wanted me to put the question mark of the outer sentence within the quotation marks despite the quoted text not containing a question mark. > Why did Jake believe the AI was “going to kill us all?” I felt like…
I felt like doing so changed the meaning of the quote, and it felt like a misrepresentation... I ended up rewording the sentence so it wouldn’t end with the quotation, and have just actively avoided ending sentences in quotes ever since.
I appreciate the skill involved in avoiding ambiguity. The hard part is knowing the unknown unknowns, ya know? I read both sentences the same way and can't really fathom why someone else wouldn't! (Of course, I don't have the context of the original quote here, so maybe that comes into play... but I don't know, and probably shouldn't have to!)
Re: Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American
#235The American version is often a simplification of the British version. I also find the American version to be more readable. Simpler, easier to use syntax seems preferable to me over verbose style.
Re: Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American
#236This makes sense to me and looks good. Some other quote style ideas: - use double quotes when quoting something someone said or wrote; use single quotes when emphasizing a jargony word or words, or a short paraphrase (e.g. 'materialist philosophy'). - use double quotes for "scare quotes" because the doubling acts as emphasis markers and is pantomimable with two fingers (one-fingered air-quotes look ridiculous). - use…
These are not so much "ideas" as already-common practice, aren't they?
Re: Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American
#237I found this out years ago, and adopted the British style. It makes way more sense and reads better.
I'll also put in my two cents here about spaces after a period. I always use two spaces after a sentence and one after an abbreviation.
If you only ever use one, there is too much ambiguity around sentences that end with an abbreviation.
Re: Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American
#238> In the American style, you almost always put periods and commas inside the quotation marks American here. I never put periods in the quotes unless the text within the quotes is a full sentence. I also had no idea there was an American or British style regarding quotes.
American here. Placing punctuation in a quote ending a sentence is how English Composition was taught to me in grade school and in college. I took to Eng Comp early on and had at least one class in the subject from 9th grade in 1993 through my final year of college in 2003. IMHO this is right up there with tabs vs spaces. People are going to have very different takes on what looks aesthetically pleasing based on view…
FWIW, as another anecdatum from an American, I was always taught the "British style" was the correct way, and the "American style" was incorrect. They were never referred to as "British" or "American" though, just "correct" and "incorrect".
I prefer the "British" style, FWIW. Maybe it's just what I was taught, but I have encountered arguments for the other way periodically (causing me to have to check), and I always preferred the way I learned for the reasons in the article.
Re: Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American
#239Sorry, but I prefer less rules over more rules unless they provide some tangible benefit. This is just rules for the sake of rules.
> I prefer less rules over more rules
As you illustrate by saying "less rules" instead of "fewer rules." (I agree with you: For any language, the less that non-native speakers have to worry about tripping over some finicky rule, the better.)
Re: Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American
#240I think the argument for the American style is aesthetics. I don't like it, but I can understand that there are people who prefer what looks better. TFA did not address this at all, which is a pity.
> the argument for the American style is aesthetics Absorption of set theory should make one cringe at 'Abc def. Ghi jkl. Mnop "qrs." Tuv...'. The quotation marks are logically included in the section beginning with 'M', then visually escape it.
(Sorry I was rushing and could not ponder more to complete the above as desired)
...It is as if one wrote,
[Abc def] [Ghi jkl] [Mnop (qrs]) [Tuv...