As a copyeditor....

Periods & commas always go inside the quotation marks (both single and
double)

!, ? and other marks may go outside the quotation marks depending on the
usage...and of course, I suppose all of this depends on what style
manual you're using (Chicago, APA -- for education -- etc.)

Also, no more double-spaces between sentences - that's an old typewriter
thing. With the use of computers, single-spaces are now preferred. As
someone mentioned, old habits die hard!

Mev


-----Original Message-----
From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:workplace-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of sandy lynch
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 3:34 PM
To: The Workplace Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [Workplace 486] Re: USA, U.S. or US?


I think the answer to your first question is "Yes." All three
abbreviations for the United States are in rampant use. I believe
grammarians would say U.S. or U.S.A. is technically correct. But with
computer-speak, all bets are off.

As to quotation marks used with other punctuation, this seems to mystify
many. I always hark back to "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk
Jr. and E.B. White. On quotations, Mr. Strunk says, "Typographical usage
dictates that the comma be inside the marks, though logically it often
seems not to belong there." 

I'm not a spacing expert, but I'd say authors who still use double
spaces at the end of sentences, etc. were taught to so  years ago in
typing class, and old habits die hard. I only double space when it looks
like I need to. 

Hope this helps. 

P.S. The chapter by E.B. White in "Elements of Style" is one of the best
guides to clear writing ever. 


Sandy Lynch

Executive Director

SOAR! Adult Literacy Program

slynch06 at hotmail.com<mailto:slynch06 at hotmail.com>

Office Phone 812 275-8000

Cell: 812 320-7634

Fax 812 275-8001


________________________________

> Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2006 10:16:28 -0700

> From: tknilsso at gmail.com

> To: workplace at nifl.gov

> Subject: [Workplace 485] USA, U.S. or US?

> 

> Dear workplace readers,

> Greetings from Edmonton Canada (-17C and 35 centimeters of snow).

> I have three questions for y'all (related to spelling & formatting):

> First, what is the "appropriate acronym" for the United States of

America - USA, U.S. or US? The latter reads like "us" (the objective
form of we) and not like "United States", thus it confuses me. My
students keep writing US instead of - what I learned - U.S. Advice?
Recommendations? References that discuss this issue? Unless my eyes
betray me, I haven't found any guidance in my dictionaries or
styleguides.

> Second, what are the guidelines for using quotation marks, i.e. " and

'. I know that for a quotation-within-quotation, we should use the
single quotation mark, i.e. ' - should the quotation mark preceed
commas, semi-colon, quotation marks, end points (dots) etc.?

> Third, why do some authors <still> use double-spaces (i.e. touch the

spacebar on the keyboard twice before starting a new sentence). I
understand that the double-spacing rule originated from the day(s) of
ordinary typewriters, but I have noted on several occasions that double
spacing is continued to be used. Are there any hard-and-fast-rules for
when to switch between single spacing and double spacing?

> Thanks in advance!

> Tomas Nilsson


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