Comments on: Hugs, Twisty: Blamer lodges complaint

By: Sophie

Sophie — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:40:17 +0000

The punctuation goes inside the quotation marks if the quote is a full sentence (e.g. Robin said: “It is silly.”) or if the quote is broken up and therefore commas are used to delineate clauses (e.g. “It is,” Robin said, “silly.”). The punctuation goes outside the quotation marks if the quote is not a full sentence (e.g. Robin said it was “silly”.). I hope it seems less silly now.

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:42:54 +0000

Queenie, I should be loath to admit how much I loathe the usage of “loathe” in place of “loath”, since it’s more than a little snarky and exaggerated. But nothing loth, I am doing so anyway.

On the other hand, the insistence that punctuation must go inside adjacent quotation marks, even when that punctuation is not part of the quoted material, is just silly. (Trying to break myself of the starting a sentence with “I” habit here.)

By: The Menstruator

The Menstruator — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:17:27 +0000

I’d take the brain. Eat some of it raw and some cooked, poached in vegetable and sea salt stock w/ shallots and herbs. I’d think during digestion. I’d wait for the moment. I’d put the shite all over the wall and frame it titled: “Her brain.”

By: Jill

Jill — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:19:08 +0000

“If you are terminating a quoted sentence prior to the end of that sentence, doesn’t a period inside square brackets serve exactly the same purpose as an ellipsis followed by a period, yet be more typographically pleasing?”

No! You can’t do that, because the ellipsis signifies absolutely that there is missing text, whereas a period in brackets is conceptually nebulous, and, frankly, sounds a little lazy to me.

By: Spiders

Spiders — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:25:25 +0000

So emboobened, I’m down with that. Does that mean the surgical procedure would be refered to as embooberisation?

By: PhysioProf

PhysioProf — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:04:31 +0000

If you are terminating a quoted sentence prior to the end of that sentence, doesn’t a period inside square brackets serve exactly the same purpose as an ellipsis followed by a period, yet be more typographically pleasing? That’s what I always do.

By: Queenie

Queenie — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:57:10 +0000

Sophie, thank you so much for pointing out that the ellipses does not replace the period, and thus, should have a fourth dot when ending a sentence. I am loathe to admit how much it enrages me when professional writers leave out that poor, neglected fourth dot in publications.

By: speedbudget

speedbudget — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:55:11 +0000

I’m a court reporter, so I, too, am banned from elliptical writing. But I find it satisfying, when a lawyer is reading something into the record and obviously starts mid-sentence, to put the three dots in when editing. They magically move and fill up the space correctly and snugly.

I think I just fell even more in love with this blog. Radical feminism, Savage Death Island, funky shit, and now grammar.

*sob* I love you guys.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:05:09 +0000

This very morning I’ll be running a two-hour training course on punctuation (it’s part of my job) which includes a section on the ellipsis (only to be used to indicate words missing from quoted text – and of course, to have a fourth dot when used at the end of a sentence because it does not replace the full stop). Fight on, sisters. We can destroy the dotriarchy.

By: Dykonoclast

Dykonoclast — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:43:55 +0000

Wow, I’m famous! This might be the first time I’ve been acknowledged on the blog since the summer of 2005 when I made a splash with my ‘I would so make out with you’ comment!

Re: givesgoodemail, you got ‘entitify’ and ‘entheocraticization’ correct, but it should be ‘endongification.’ d is an alveolar phoneme and requires an alveolar affix. I’m not quite sure what you mean by ‘emhipal,’ but it’s probably not correct.

Aposiopesis might be my new favorite word.