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From: alexander koryagin <koryagin@erec.ru>

Hi, Ardith Hinton!
I read your message from 18.10.2013 22:32

  ak>>> So if we use a double q.  mark ["] we should use  US  punctuation
  ak>>> rules,  but if we use a single q.  mark ['] we should use British
  ak>>> punctuation.

  AH> I like the consistency there,  at first glance...  but some  of  us
  AH> from the ex-colonies don't relate to "shoulds" very well.

  AH> Is this your opinion,  or some distinguished grammarian's  opinion,
  AH> or  both??   Canadians  are  at  liberty  to  adopt  US  and/or  UK
  AH> conventions as they  see  fit.  I  prefer  double  quotation  marks
  AH> because it is highly unlikely they'll be confused with apostrophes.
  AH> OTOH the idea that full  stops  (e.g.)  *must*  appear  inside  any
  AH> quotation marks, regardless of context, seems illogical to me. :-)

    Well, AFAIR, you also have a very serious edition  of  Webster's  New
World guide "Punctuation. Simplified and Applied" by Geraldine Woods.  I
could not find it at free access in the Internet (it is a pity that good
textbooks hardly can be found freely by people), that's why I was forced
to find some similar sources. But this is an excerpt from Woods:

-----Beginning of the citation-----
    page 67: Whenever someone's exact words are reproduced, the words are
enclosed in quotation marks.  In standard American usage commas  at  the
end of a quotation are always placed inside the closing quotation  mark.
In Britain,  where quotation marks are called  "inverted  commas,"  this
custom is reversed. The comma is placed outside the quotation marks.  If
the sentence includes a quotation inside another  quotation,  the  comma
goes inside both sets of quotation marks (in America) and  outside  both
(in Britain).

    A comma at the end of a quoted statement takes the place of a  period
when the sentence continues on.  The comma is a convenient way  to  show
that the quotation is complete, but the sentence is not. (A period never
appears withing a sentence unless it signals an  abbreviation.)  If  the
quoted words would normally end with a period,  the period appears  only
if the quotation ends the sentence. Examples:

    "Helen boils those vegetables far too long." (A period ends both  the
sentence and the quotation.)

    "Helen boils those vegetables far too  long,"  commented  the  chief.
(Because the sentence continues, the period is replaced by a comma)

    Quoted questions or exclamation follow different rules.
-----The end of the citation-----

<skipped>
  AH> makes sense to them to write in homogenized  English  so  they  can
  AH> broaden their audience appeal and  maximize  clarity,  not  because
  AH> they feel US English is invariably  "better".  You'll  see,  in  my
  AH> preceding sentence,  an example of how I would apply  the  rule  of
  AH> common sense if I am citing a single  word  without  attribution...
  AH> [chuckle].

    I am not against logic.  More of that --  in Russia we put commas and
other punctuation marks outside quotation marks.  But if I take  a  book
printed in the US I always see commas insides quotation marks.  I  found
it inconvenient, but I do the same. ;=)

BTW, where are commas in the books printed in Canada?

Bye, Ardith!
Alexander Koryagin
fido7.english-tutor 2013
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