More evidence of weak security at GA airports

In article k%A9f.2176$HQ5.1045@trndny06, George Patterson
wrote:

beavis wrote:

If you're going to correct his grammar, you might want to check your
punctuation first.

Insert as desired .,"';:?

The period goes inside the quotation marks. That was my point.

Correcting another poster's spelling and grammar is a slippery slope.
Yours better be perfect. :-)

The period goes inside the quotation marks. That was my point.

That's stylistic more than grammatic. It is in fact logically incorrect
in this instance, where the quoted part is not itself a sentence; the
period is put (by some publishers) inside for looks primarily.

Jose
--
Money: what you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

In article , Jose
wrote:

The period goes inside the quotation marks. That was my point.

That's stylistic more than grammatic. It is in fact logically incorrect
in this instance, where the quoted part is not itself a sentence; the
period is put (by some publishers) inside for looks primarily.

If you're discussing American English, you're incorrect. In England,
you're correct. But since the original poster and I are both posting
from the United States, that's the frame of reference I'm using. And
in the U.S., that's how it's done -- it isn't simply "for looks," as
you suggest.

Here's one of many references that concur:
http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/quotes.asp


Feel free to point me at any that disagree. :-)

"beavis" wrote in message
...
In article , Jose
wrote:

The period goes inside the quotation marks. That was my point.

That's stylistic more than grammatic. It is in fact logically incorrect
in this instance, where the quoted part is not itself a sentence; the
period is put (by some publishers) inside for looks primarily.

If you're discussing American English, you're incorrect. In England,
you're correct.

The Chicago Manual of Style, widely regarded as the definitive reference for
standard written American English, refers to a "traditional style" which is
as you describe, and an "alternative system" in which (more logically) the
period goes outside the closing quote. Although the CMS mentions that the
alternative system "is sometimes called the British style", it makes no
assertion that the alternative system is incorrect for American English.

--Gary

"Jose" wrote in message news:xvB9f.4312

The period goes inside the quotation marks. That was my point.

That's stylistic more than grammatic. It is in fact logically incorrect
in this instance, where the quoted part is not itself a sentence; the
period is put (by some publishers) inside for looks primarily.

Trivia: The period is put inside the quotation marks because in the old
mechanical printing presses, the metal type piece for a period was almost
half as thin (but still as tall) as the double-quote ["]. At the end of
paragraphs, the [.] would generally be the last type piece, but it was very
fragile. If there was any slop in the machine, the type piece could wiggle
or lean out of alignment and break off. For that reason, typesetters
preferred to tuck he period inside the thicker doublequote metal type piece,
and that practice filtered up to publishers and editors until it became
standard convention.

So it goes. Editors still generally tuck he period inside the doublequote
because it has become familiar to the eye.

-Chris
PP/ASEL/IA

"gatt" wrote in message
...
Trivia: The period is put inside the quotation marks because in the old
mechanical printing presses, the metal type piece for a period was almost
half as thin (but still as tall) as the double-quote ["]. At the end of
paragraphs, the [.] would generally be the last type piece, but it was
very fragile. If there was any slop in the machine, the type piece could
wiggle or lean out of alignment and break off. For that reason,
typesetters preferred to tuck he period inside the thicker doublequote
metal type piece, and that practice filtered up to publishers and editors
until it became standard convention.

Hm, that story sounds suspiciously apocryphal. Do you have a source for it?

The vast majority of paragraphs end with a period and no quote, so the trick
you describe would seldom be available. Moreover, if the slimness of the
period type piece were really a problem at the end of a paragraph, the
obvious solution would just be to use a wider piece there that includes a
space after the period, or to place a separate space piece after the period
piece.

--Gary

("Gary Drescher" wrote)
The vast majority of paragraphs end with a period and no quote, so the
trick you describe would seldom be available. Moreover, if the slimness of
the period type piece were really a problem at the end of a paragraph, the
obvious solution would just be to use a wider piece there that includes a
space after the period, or to place a separate space piece after the
period piece.


7th grade Shop class in 1972 - Typesetting. One of my favorite shop
projects.


kcalbtnoM

beavis wrote:
In article k%A9f.2176$HQ5.1045@trndny06, George Patterson
wrote:

Insert as desired .,"';:?

The period goes inside the quotation marks. That was my point.

I'm aware of that. I was quoting Mark Twain, who issued that reply to a
publisher who complained about his punctuation.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

In article byB9f.10458$bD.5276@trndny01, George Patterson
wrote:

I'm aware of that. I was quoting Mark Twain, who issued that reply to a
publisher who complained about his punctuation.

Touché. :-)