On Wed, 1 Oct 1997, Pat McMahon wrote: > > Johanna Rubba wrote: > > > ----------------------As to 'ain't', it was certainly ...... > > Please comment on putting the comma outside of the quotation mark. I > thought I was taught that commas and periods always go inside quotation > marks. Only question marks and exclamation points varied depending on > whether the quoted material was asking the question or showing the > emotion. > > A Harbrace College Handbook shows the title of an article at the end of > an introductory phrase and places the comma inside the quotation mark. > Comments would be appreciated. > I'm familiar with the usual prescription, but it doesn't make sense to me. I follow the usage of linguistics journals, which prescribe putting punctuation inside of a quotation mark only when the punctuation is part of the quotation. That seems more logical to me, so I do it that way in my own writing whenever I am not following someone's style manual. Note that both are prescriptions; one seems to make more sense to me, so I follow it. Also, I can get away with it for the journals I am usually targeting for publication of my work. If I were to send an article to a journal that required the Harbrace rules to be followed, I would follow them. I accept both usages in student papers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Johanna Rubba Assistant Professor, Linguistics ~ English Department, California Polytechnic State University ~ San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 ~ Tel. (805)-756-2184 E-mail: [log in to unmask] ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~