*sighs*

[conuly]

So, apparently my English professor doesn't like the concept of logical punctuation. And she stared at me as she said it, too, so I must've messed up in the essay.

Honestly, it's LOGICAl punctuation. I don't *care* if it's not the standard, the standard won't change until we make it change. Just sitting around saying "gee, I wish there were a better way" isn't going to get us anywhere. Siblings! Rise up! Throw off the shackles of stupid convention, and fight the oppression of illogical punctuation! We will punctuate in the classrooms, we will punctuate in the chatrooms, and in our own private journals. We will punctuate at all costs, and we will never surrender! Today - punctuation! Tomorrow - spelling!

Comments

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

I, too, wish professors would accept logical punctuation; unfortunately, most of mine don't get it either, and I end up having to do a search and replace to put the punctuation inside the quotation marks.

Really, why stick to an old rule that allegedly came about because of technical issues from the era of movable type?

[conuly]

Well, I pointed out that it's standard or nearly in Britian, which got the predictable (if silly) reply that this is the US. Bet she wouldn't correct "honour", though.

Hm...

I wonder. If I started using all British spellings and expressions in my papers, would I get away with this?

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

Hm, that is a good question...

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

On the subject of punctuation, is it okay, or correct to have only one space between a period and the beginning of the next sentence? I got an essay back from my english teacher with a note telling me to double space. I hate double spacing, it makes the text look odd.

[conuly]

The old rule was two spaces. Most people now only want one, in fact that's what's in almost all the style guides, but people who were taught in the older system still tend to stick with two. Both are correct.

[conuly]

But it's ALWAYS a double space after a colon.

[staircase-wit.livejournal.com]

With HTML-based writings, (e.g., LiveJournal), the technology is such that the only way to put two spaces after anything is to use the <pre&;gt tag, or to use &nbsp for one of the spaces. Either way, a bad solution.

I perfer hitting the spacebar twice after a period. It's instinctive to me.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

According to the Chicago Manual of Style (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/cmosfaq/about.html) it is one space after a colon. Here is the reference:

One Space Or Two? (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/cmosfaq/cmosfaq.OneSpaceorTwo.html)

[eofs.livejournal.com]

*Grins* I cannot type without a double space after a full stop, exclamation mark, question mark or any of that. But a colon I would only use a single space *grins*

[conuly]

Yeah, I just checked with my mom, and that's what she said. But she followed up with "it doesn't matter that much, so long as you're consistent". That is, dont' double space once, and single space the next time.

[push-the-limits.livejournal.com]

Semagic has an option to automatically insert  . So all I have to do is hit the spacebar twice. :)

[push-the-limits.livejournal.com]

Gah. nbsp

[push-the-limits.livejournal.com]

I double space after all of it, even if it may not show as 2 spaces, like in these comments. I still hit the space bar twice. Period, exclamation point, question mark, everything. It's how I was taught many, many years ago, and I'm as much a nazi about that as I am spelling and grammar. I admit my spelling is only right about 98% of the time, and my grammar about 90% of the time, but at least I try. :p

Oh, and I always put the punctuation INSIDE the quotations. I've always been under the impression that that was the correct way, but I could be wrong.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

Logical? as in, putting the punctuation where it feels best?

Heck, I do that all the time. The only bad thing that it does for me is that there's sometimes too many commas. I think it's becausre I was taught to put commas wherever one would take a breath during a speech. So, I'll put commas where, if read, the sentance would be fine, but when written, is wrong. Like that sentance right before this one. oops.

hey! leave spelling alone! It's the only way I know what a word means sometimes! :P You can havepunctuation, though. I don't like all of it's "always, BUT" rules.

[yuki-onna.livejournal.com]

Doesn't work. I used to get "You are not British" in big red pen across the top of my papers.

[conuly]

1. It's generally accepted that you're not supposed to double space after periods anymore because type is proportional - each letter takes up a different amount of space, so a double space looks REALLY HUGE instead of just delineating that there's a new sentence.

2. Punctuation inside quotes is currently American standard. I don't like it. It's illogical. Punctuation should go where it makes the most grammatical sense. So I push for logical punctuation. I won't "correct" you if you do otherwise (so long as you're consistent, that's the important thing), but as far as my own writing goes, I want to punctuate the logical way - if a period belongs inside a quote or parens, it goes there. If it doesn't belong there, logically, it doesn't go there.

[conuly]

Logical punctuation means, specifically, putting punctuation outside the quotes (at least where that makes sense).

Let me show some examples.

Standard:

I said "Hi John!"
Are you still feeling "on top of the world?"

Logical:

I said "Hi John!"
Are you still feeling "on top of the world"?

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

huh. Well, that just makes sense.

..why did we do the traditional punctuation in the first place?

[conuly]

I've heard it had something to do with the way things were typeset originally.

[push-the-limits.livejournal.com]

You can correct me if you want, but I won't change it, I'm too damned stubborn. :p
I am pretty consistent, though.

[toastedtuna.livejournal.com]

Ewww. Logical punctuation makes me cringe. LOL! *whips out red pen* That be nastay, and funkay, and ain't no way I could accept a paper like that & not mark the hell out of it.

[tungol.livejournal.com]

Hi, I don't know you, I just came across your journal through the Linguaphiles community.

Yay for logical punctuation! I didn't know that was a term for it, or that there ws any sort of movement for it, but for quite some time I've been punctuating that way when I think I can get away with it. It just doesn't seem right to quote punctuation that isn't really part of the quote.

[celticess.livejournal.com]

Yes I want logical spelling... I say do away with the 3 versions of the same bloody spoken word! It would simply our language and help alot of people with language issues or wanting to learn our language.

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

I got that for a while, but then they gave up. :D

I still obstinately spell color "colour" and honor "honour" and things like that. It drives my family nuts when the read my letters, but hey! It's understandible isn't it?!

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

Amen. Where's my pen?

Not to mention that it should be:

I said, "Hi, John! Are you still feeling 'on top of the world?'"

Commas are your friends. :)