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MacronNotes (Captain)
2020-01-29 14:35:39

There's no specific rule but I think it's handled the same way we do American/English spellings in that either is fine and changing things is unnecessary at best

Edited by MacronNotes Macron's notes
Jhimmibhob Since: Dec, 2010
2020-01-29 14:36:38

I'm not aware of a wiki-wide rule, but I see no reason not to observed "first come, first served," just as with spelling.

Unsung Since: Jun, 2016
2020-01-29 16:43:33

The British style would still be

Alice said, "Hello, world."
if you're quoting a whole sentence. The confusing part comes about in things where you're quoting only a fragment of the quote at the end of a sentence, things like
The white rabbit said to Alice, among other things, "Hello" and "Goodbye".
The white rabbit said to Alice, among other things, "Hello," and "Goodbye."
The white rabbit said to Alice, among other things, "hello" and "goodbye".
I believe those could all be taken as technically correct, though the punctuation does change the meaning slightly. You might see one variation more in one place or another, but I don't think any of them is specific or universal to the UK or US. English is weird. So yeah, I think first-come, first-served is the best way.

Edited by Unsung
8BrickMario Since: May, 2013
2020-01-29 18:30:47

As an American, I've always understood to put the period/full stop inside the quotation if the quote contained the end of a full sentence, but if the quote is a fragment of what was said, the punctuation goes outside.

That is,

"Alice said, 'Bob went out.'" would be used if that was the sentence she said. But

"Alice said Bob 'went out'."

is a different matter. I'd leave the punctuation out of the quote because it's not a complete statement quoted in this case.

I don't consider myself qualified to write a style guide and for an issue like this, there probably doesn't need to be a rule.

DarkHunter Since: Jan, 2001
2020-01-29 19:03:01

It's one of those obscure bits of English grammar that there is no "official" word on, so neither is "more correct" than the other.

Personally, I tend to put the punctuation outside the quotes because that makes more sense to me, but as far as the wiki's concerned, I think first-come-first-served applies here.

RallyBot2 (Elder Troper)
2020-01-30 00:03:02

Correct. First-come-first-served where punctuation is concerned. (This goes for quotation marks, Oxford comma, etc.)

The only exception is when directly quoting from a work, in which case you can obviously change it to what the work uses.

RoundRobin Since: Jun, 2018
2020-01-30 04:39:18

Alright, that clears things up.

Just one more question: if it's first come first served, does that mean that people going on "correction" sprees are wrong?

- Fly, robin, fly! - ...I'm trying!
DarkHunter Since: Jan, 2001
2020-01-30 06:23:25

It does. Tropers doing such a thing should be told to stop, and if they refuse, brought to the attention of the moderators.

FranksGirl Since: Feb, 2014
2020-01-30 12:51:49

I was taught in school (US, 1980s) that the closing punctuation goes inside the quotes, no matter what. However, English classes & grammar Nazis often fail to realize that a living language *changes* over time, due to how people actually use it (though I admit that I will fight the your/you're confusers to the bitter end).

The current way I'm seeing quote marks used seems to depend on what the punctuation belongs to and makes more sense. If it belong to the actual quoted words, it goes inside the quotes. If it belongs to the overall sentence, outside the quotes. Example:

Alice yelled, "I hate you!" (punctuation is part of the quoted words, as dialogue).

What did Alice yell, "I hate you" or "I ate you"? (punctuation belongs to the overall question/sentence, not to the actual quotes)

Edited by FranksGirl
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