Re: ,"  vs. ',
 
(Since not only do the Brits put commas and periods outside quotation
marks inside of inside, but they use the single mark where we use the
double, and vice-versa [or in Brit-spell, vise-versa???])
 
Acutally, British practice on this matter seems seems no more--pehaps
little more--"natural" than American practice, at least if we take
"natural" as roughly synonymous with "logical." For they ALWAYS (I
think) put periods and commas outside of quote marks, even when the
comma or period is properly part of the quoted material--what's "natural
about that?
 
The beauty of both systems is that it's one aspect of preparing a
manuscript that you don't have to THINK about.
 
Norm Carlson
Western Michigan University
 
PS If at the beggining of the Fall 1997 semester I told my students that
beginning immediately they should follow the British practice of always
putting quotation marks inside periods and commas, I feel confident that
for about 50% of them the American procedure would suddenly become the
most "natural" thing in the world!