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From: alexander koryagin <koryagin@newmail.ru>

Hi, Ardith Hinton!
I read your message from  31.07.2014 22:26
about Singing and punctuation marks.

  ak>> I was told by one guy that the words of the song should be taken
  ak>> in quotation marks. Like this:

  ak>> Maxim started, and probably, he was not very good:

  ak>>         "Bonfire is barely glowing
  ak>>         And darkness has covered the camp."


  ak>> Should I do it or the indentation of the song's words is enough?

  AH> Seems to me we're dealing with a matter of style here. If this guy
  AH> is (e.g.) a university instructor who's marking your work or an
  AH> editor assigned by a publishing house with its own ideas, I'd
  AH> suggest you do as he says for the time being regardless of whether
  AH> you and/or anyone else in E_T agrees with him.

No, he is a usual person, although he worked in Russia as a tutor of 
English. So, I asked it here just for interest, to ping the area and 
awoke its inhabitants. ;-) I also believe that it is really a matter of 
style. Besides, if it were the biggest problem of my text I would be 
happy. ;-)

  AH> AFAIC the indentation of the song's words is enough. You have seen
  AH> me do exactly as you did when I cite two lines or more from a song
  AH> or a poem... or an astute observation by a well-known & highly
  AH> respected author such as Mark Twain or Sir Winston Churchill. Anne
  AH> Stilman (USA) agrees that that's how such things are generally
  AH> handled in formal English. You may see some exceptions in newspaper
  AH> & magazine articles, where the column width is limited, or in
  AH> Fidonet where we are writing informal "letters" to other club
  AH> members. You'll also see them in novels where a fictitious dialogue
  AH> goes on at length. If I didn't look further into the issue that's
  AH> because my own understanding has never evoked any negative remark
  AH> even during the time I spent as an English major at university. I
  AH> could check out what the Brits have to say on the subject. But so
  AH> could you, and evidently you prefer USAian English for reasons I
  AH> well understand.... :-))

I prefer USAian English, but that guy is from Scotland. So, we try to 
make the text readable across the world.

Bye, Ardith!
Alexander Koryagin
fido7.english-tutor 2014
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