and the sky is a hazy shade of winter

[theladyrose]

I hate to pull a Lynn Truss (think Eats, Shoots and Leaves) on everyone, but when will these freshmen learn that quotation marks go AFTER the comma?!

Spending excessive amounts of time, especially relatively late in the day, in a basement really puts a damper on one's mood. If I wasn't such a lousy gardener I'd stick a plant down here in the newspaper office, and fake houseplants are just depressing. Perhaps I should just get a cactus...

Comments

[dfordoom.livejournal.com]

but when will these freshmen learn that quotation marks go AFTER the comma?!

How are they on apostrophes? And do they know the difference between you're and your?

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

There's still some confusion with cases like "the children's" vs. "the childrens'" and "women's" vs. "womens'" but plural posessions are rather tricky. It's vs. its tends to be a bigger problem than you're and your, especially when typing. One of the most surprising issues is often the switching of genders within an article with he and she; I remember editing one story where the male subject switched genders three times!

[elfbystarlight.livejournal.com]

Passing by via friendsfriends but I had to chip in here - I think that depends on which format you're using. I'm a second-year English student who tends to use MHRA and it's pretty clear in that system that the comma goes *after* the quotation marks if it's added, and within only if it was in the original text. (8.3) I don't know MLA well enough to comment on that one (and my housemate has stolen my MLA guide).

It could also be a regional standard; I admit to knowing very little about US universities, though I was under the impression that MLA or MHRA were standard there.

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Hi there! For American newspapers at least I think it's standard AP guidelines to use quotation marks after commas and the like; I'm not so sure about academic writing, though. Thanks for giving me the incentive to dig up my MLA guide.