Quick links: NewsBiscuit Home • Chat Room • Writers' Room • Top Ten
rickwestwell
offlineMember
‘We’re dealing here with a woman who, even if she told you herself that she only had the one leg, you’d still do a quick count to be on the safe side.
It's a great joke, and Ross did it very well ages ago. :-(
I'm sure the Darkbills didn't know, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Mind you, while I'm being annoying, sort out your apostrophes...
rickwestwell
offlineMember
Apostrophes much better now, ta.
And it crossed my mind that darkbill might actually be Jonathan Ross, in which case don't bother about my other point, either.
rickwestwell
offlineMember
But you didn't see the apostrophes before, Rikkor - definitely reminiscent of the worst excesses of the French Revolution...
rikkor
offlineMember
In the US now, "educated" people are aware that apostrophes are necessary at times. So, they've just taken to sprinkling them here and there among the words. Much easier than learning the rules.
The rule I can never get right is where to put a period (your full stop) when a sentence ends in a quoted bit or parentetical bit. Inside or out?
When I was a lad (think velvet beauty marks and lace jabots), a sentence would end in two periods if the last word was the abbreviation etc.. I don't think anyone does that now.
The All New Jeni B
offlineMember
I was taught to do that too Rikkor.
And also taught that if you were writing a sentence such as, "The school bag contained books, pens and pencils." that there should be a comma after 'pens'.
I was surprised to find that children are told this is unnecessary now.
rickwestwell
offlineMember
Rikkor - definitely inside. Jeni - isn't that called the "Oxford comma"? I think you have to use them sometimes. If only we had a WOM who went to both Oxford and Cambridge, they'd sort us out!
waylandsmithy
offlineMember
Yeah, punctuation around quotation marks is tricky, I'm not used to it yet. Are they the same rules as for parentheses? "A complete sentence being quoted has the punctuation within the quote." But if the quote is part of a sentence, "the punctuation falls outside the quotation marks".
Is that right?
rickwestwell
offlineMember
Perfect, wayland. I bet you went to Oxford and Cambridge.
The All New Jeni B
offlineMember
I will sleep well tonight, knowing that there is a proper name for my use of commas.
If a WoM who went to Oxford and Cambridge wins WoM 5 times, does the site become theirs to keep, like Brazil and the World Cup?
waylandsmithy
offlineMember
I've been to Basildon and Wigan, too.
The All New Jeni B
offlineMember
...but I've never been to me...
brownpaperreporter
offlineMember
My English teacher told me that the Oxford comma was acceptable before an "and" so ",and" was OK
1. Never knew it wasnt
2. Having been brought up in Oxford the only Oxford comma I had ever known was a small minibus a "Commer". My Uncle Malc had one, it was great, bench seats and no seat belts, ideal for throwing kids around and to be told "wouldnt happen if you were sat down, like I told you"
waylandsmithy
offlineMember
I like it when you get into rows about formal and informal English. And I'm happy to start a sentence with a conjunctive, and use commas before them to create a pause in speech.
The All New Jeni B
offlineMember
See, you just can't teach kids that kind of life lesson these days bpr.
Bloody Nanny state.
brownpaperreporter
offlineMember
Abso-bloody-lutely. In our day we had lessons to teach us how to address an envelope
And if you used the abbreviation for Road as Rd (which was acceptable) it had to be Rd. and a letter address had to end with a ,- so Rd.,
The flap was always on the right.. left... right. Shit cant remember
Have I ever used any of this? Have I chuff .. but I remember being taught but Nanny State pupils just seem to remember to forget ...
I struggle with punctuation. Sometimes I'll write a really long sentence and just write it as it comes to me but then read it back and think it seems a bit long to not have any commas in it and should probably have some to break it up a bit and then I panic and just, throw random; punctuation in hoping that it makes it all: better.
Des Custard
offlineMember
I believe that the correct UK treatment is to close a quote before the full stop but the correct U.S. treatment is to include the period in the quote. And there appears to be a greater tendency to use periods for abbreviations in the USA than in the UK, although not for 'USA' itself.
charlies_hat
offlineMember
Is anyone else having terrible trouble with their colon?
writinginbsl
offlineMember
Apostrophes (both omissive and posessive) are completely pointless.
I have argued this for many years and nearly convinced my mother once.
I have managed to discuss this with many of my students over the years, as well as the value of the abolition of capital letters. We speak with 'One Voice'.
Oxbridge
offlineMember
Having a comma after the last but one on a list is an Americanism, though like a lot of Americanisms it is becoming commoner in Britain. It's still wrong and the end of civilisation as we know it, mind.
Full stops in quotes depends on context. If the whole sentence is in quotes, full stop should be inside it, if not, not. e.g. He said he was "going out and would be back later".
50 guineas, please.
The Paper Ostrich
offlineMember
"The people who have been most influential in my life are my parents, Mary Evans and the Pope."
On the Oxford comma, I am in the "Not always, but sometimes" camp. (No sniggering.) In such a language as ours there's no reason to be unclear.
You must log in to post.
