Here's a story a workshop participant shared with me from his grandfather
about why American printers always put quotation marks OUTSIDE the period
and comma.  
 
Supposedly, this practice typesetters or linotype machines started this
practice at newspapers containing articles and features filled with quotes.
Since the typeset periods and commas are so small, the typesetters used the
weight of the end quotation marks to hold those light periods and commas in
place.  Otherwise, the periods and commas were so lightweight they would
fall off the end of the lines as the typesetter carried the lines of type to
the printing presses.  Even though type is rarely handset anymore, the
practice of placing quotation marks outside the periods and commas still
exists today.
 
Is this a true story?  I don't know although other participants have shared
similar stories from their ancestors.  Regardless, picturing those heavy
quotation marks holding those light periods and commas in place has helped
numerous participants remember these often-illogical rules.  
 
I hope this helps your students too!
 
Linda
 
Linda Comerford
317.786.6404
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www.comerfordconsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Edmond Wright
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 6:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Quotation confusion


Nice to know that for once the British are more logical (over the placing of
punctuation at the end of quotations)!

I have just been checking the copy-editing of a book to be published in the
US and have found the general use of double inverted commas for all
quotations a limitation.  In Britain we use both double and single:

SINGLE  for
(i) quotations inside text (i.e. not when arranged, as is usual for long
quotations, as separate indented paragraphs);
(ii) the titles of articles in bibliographies;
(iii) the titles of items inside books (e.g. poems, short stories -- italics
for titles of books, journals, newspapers);
(iv) technical terms introduced for the first time (e.g. The process is
known as 'cavitation');
(v) to suggest a doubt about the ascription (e.g. The 'dentist' behaved with
perfect confidence. -- where the person referred to is known not to be a
dentist but to be pretending to be one).  A negative point here -- I warn my
students off from putting them round figurative terms, pointing out that the
fun of an image comes with an element of surprise and it upsets the workings
of imagery if you wave a red flag as you use one. (e.g. *The clouds
'blanketed' the sky.)  Similarly, if they choose to use a slang expression
because it seems ideal for the context, there is no need to feel coy and
excuse it with single inverted commas;  however, if they are quoting
someone's else's slang or idiom, then it is a different matter (e.g. If you
go in his garden again, he says he'll 'stick you up a gum-tree'.)

DOUBLE for
(i) spoken dialogue;
(ii) for quotations inside quotations  (e.g.  'He said "hope" not "home".')
It is not uncommon now in works of fiction to use single for spoken dialogue
(sometimes none at all, which is confusing).

Edmond Wright


Dr. Edmond Wright
3 Boathouse Court
Trafalgar Road
Cambridge
CB4 1DU
England

Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~elw33 Phone [00 44] (0)1223 350256

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