The Rise of "Logical Punctuation"

The Rise of "Logical Punctuation"

By Michael Wolraich on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 10:26am |

For at least two centuries, it has been standard practice in the United States to place commas and periods inside of quotation marks. This rule still holds for professionally edited prose: what you'll find in Slate, the New York Times, the Washington Post—almost any place adhering to Modern Language Association (MLA) or AP guidelines. But in copy-editor-free zones—the Web and emails, student papers, business memos—with increasing frequency, commas and periods find themselves on the outside of quotation marks, looking in. A punctuation paradigm is shifting.

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http://www.slate.com/id/2293056/

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Woohoo, another punctuation post! You're a mensch, Genghis.

I hadn't picked up on this supposed trend toward logical punctuation on the web, mostly because the web is all over the map in terms of spelling, punctuation and grammar. Hard to find any rules or consistency at all.

Most Canadian publications endorse neo-British spelling (colour and centre, not color and center -- but tire, not tyre). There's some debate over manoeuvre, as opposed to maneuver. And there are French words that have infiltrated Quebec English -- we say and write confessional schools, not denominational ones. But standard punctuation follows American rules: everything inside the quotes. At dagblog, I've tried to go with the crowd.

Good to know there's a "movement" toward logical punctuation, though. I just may experiment a little.

by acanuck on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 3:40pm

It's funny. After I started coding, I switched to "logical" punctuation in my prose for exactly the reason explained in the discussion of computer programming. Then, sometime after I started blogging, I switched back in order to be more "correct." (Note the period placement.)

I can't really afford to go back to logical now because of the book and CNN stuff, but I'll be glad it if becomes standard in the U.S.

by Michael Wolraich on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 4:23pm

With periods and commas, it's mostly a visual thing. The big problem arises when punctuation that can change meaning -- like ? or ! -- goes on the wrong side of the quote marks.

by acanuck on Sun, 05/15/2011 - 12:05am

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