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 the spiral
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 Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for the whole family! 
#13507770 - 11/19/10 06:05 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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I'm curious what some of you guys were taught in school and whether it was the same as what they taught me or not. For the moment, let's pretend this isn't an online forum and that proper punctuation and grammar are actually important.
I was told that, if I was finishing a sentence with a quotation, to put the punctuation mark inside the quotes. For example: My friend told me she was "going to the pond with some friends." This usually seems to work okay, but when the punctuation of your sentence differs from the tone of the quotation (like if you are posing a question, but the quotation is supposed to have an exclamation point) it can get a little tricky.
Also, parenthesis. I was taught basically the same thing (put your punctuation mark inside the parenthesis if they come at the end of your sentence.) I am a a lot more certain of this "rule's" universality.
Aren't there also some other weird rules about quotation marks? I'm well past the point of having to consciously think about these things when I'm writing; I type and the punctuation has a way of just showing up where it is supposed to be almost all on its own. As a lover of language and a proud nerd, I am interested in whether what I was taught in grade school was the same stuff everyone is taught or whether it's taught differently in some locales.
I think that you'll reach your annual nerd-quota for the entire year just by posting once in a thread about ... roflmao ... punctuation - so come join the party (you know, the one where not a single female shows up despite inviting a dozen and where everyone gets plastered and falls asleep to dream about they day they will finally get a first opportunity to touch a girl's ... YUCK, dude, I think Billy over here shat his pants in his sleep!)
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"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism." - Carl Sagan
Edited by the spiral (11/19/10 06:42 AM)
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the spiral
Neuroscientist
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: the spiral]
#13507799 - 11/19/10 06:22 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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I suppose it would be amusing for me to mention that this "party" I describe actually happened a while back with a number of people I knew relatively well (in other words, I didn't make it up.) IME real life is usually funnier than any story I'd ever spontaneously come up with.
I didn't go, but heard about it. I tend to vet (that's the right word I think) a party pretty well before I commit to attend it ... come to think of it, maybe that's why so many people are always asking ME which party I will be going to (on Halloween and other holidays when everyone and his brother AND his parents are throwing parties.) I haven't ended up at a "bad" one since.... gosh, I probably was 16 or 17 when I started getting multiple invitations to multiple house parties/renting out the club for birthdays/whatever every weekend and especially on holidays. It was out of simple necessity that I had to figure out ways to choose between invitations. I fit in with a number of very different "crowds" - from my nerd amigos (who will go on for hours about bus speed if you let them) to my body-builder friends (I really need to take a page - just one page, though - from their book) to my spiritually/intellectually stimulating friends (who also tend to be my friends who enjoy turning their minds inside-out with psychedelics every now and then.)
Anyway, I didn't really know the guy, but I do know that he still catches hell to this day for having shit his pants while passed out drunk on another friend's couch. Needless to say, that fact speaks volumes about that particular social circle! Moral: Don't get drunk to the point of passing out when you're around a bunch of drunk dudes. You'll be extremely lucky to wake up without discovering obscene writing all over your face in Sharpie ink, or worse even, you might wake up to find images of various people's balls laying on your serene face appearing on the web (another true story!) hah. For these and other reasons I never let myself reach that point, and if I'm going to be sleeping in a room with a bunch of other guys I definitely don't ever let myself be the first to pass out =)
Edit: LOL I think I just thoroughly derailed my ownthread not ten minutes after posting it. oops. A thread on punctuation is virtually begging to be derailed, though; who would ever want to actually talk about that on their own time (myself excluded?)
... that was meant to be a rhetorical question, but I suppose it also is rather literal as well. Hmm... oh well, I'd reword it to make it a more accurate representation of what I'm attempting to communicate, but that would mean I'd have to think about grammar so screw it =)
Edited by the spiral (11/19/10 06:40 AM)
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Mjau
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: the spiral]
#13507962 - 11/19/10 07:44 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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I get sad when I see someone use "then" instead of "than".
Today I saw someone use "than" instead of "then".
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Edited by Mjau (11/19/10 07:45 AM)
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the spiral
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: Mjau]
#13507988 - 11/19/10 07:52 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Mjau said:
I get sad when I see someone use "then" istead of "than".
Today I saw someone use "than" instead of "then".
Was it me? 
I couldn't help but notice that you put the periods at the ends of your sentences outside of the quotation marks. It was beaten into my head to always put the punctuation on the inside of the quotation marks in those situations; even online, it's a "rule" I simply don't ever break. They really made sure that rule took root in my brain; I wish they'd have picked some other, more profound and interesting things to imprint on my brain with a hot brand. Maxwell's equations or Newtons 3 laws verbatim, for example. Even the declaration of independence or - god forbid - the constitution. I remember memorizing Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven" as a kid just for the heck of it ... I've forgotten most of it now, of course. They did have us memorize portions of the Declaration, but they certainly didn't hammer any of that into my skull in a manner that at all resembles how these stupid punctuation rules got in there. Ah, well.
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Mjau
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: the spiral]
#13508003 - 11/19/10 07:57 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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Inside the quotation marks? Intuitively that doesn't make sense to me, but if you say so.
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 Doc_T
Random Dude
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: Mjau]
#13508009 - 11/19/10 07:59 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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Punctuation inside quotes and parentheses is "standard", but I believe it's going away.
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You make it all possible. Doesn't it feel good?
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scienceguy
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: Doc_T]
#13508035 - 11/19/10 08:08 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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Punctuation inside quotations is appropriate ONLY when the entirety of the sentence is contained in parentheses. Parenthetical additions at the end of a sentence are punctuated in the other manner (like so). The explanation.
Using punctuation with quotations is another tricky one, and has a few differences. Here's a good link that explains their usage.
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"Freedom starts between the ears."
Edward Abbey
Edited by scienceguy (11/19/10 08:11 AM)
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the spiral
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: Doc_T]
#13508040 - 11/19/10 08:09 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Mjau said:
Inside the quotation marks? Intuitively that doesn't make sense to me, but if you say so.
I seem to remember that it didn't make much sense to me either when they were teaching it to me. I'm surprised by the amount of effort they must have put into that to have me cringe whenever I spot a place in a book where a mistake like that is made. I've become really deconditioned when it comes to all of that stuff on the internet - I don't think it's possible to avoid becoming versed in typo-speak and a plethora of abbreviations that didn't exist twenty years ago if you use the 'net much at all.
Quote:
Doc_T said:
Punctuation inside quotes and parentheses is "standard", but I believe it's going away.
Ah, so someone else was taught the same thing. Would you surmise (as I tend to) that if these rules are indeed relaxing, it's largely (or even entirely) due to the internet?
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Mjau
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: the spiral]
#13508065 - 11/19/10 08:17 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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http://www.ehow.com/how_2057192_use-parentheses-correctly.html
Quote:
Strictly speaking, a parenthetical phrase should never be a complete sentence, so end punctuation (periods, question marks and exclamation points) within parentheses should not be used in formal writing.
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Doc_T
Random Dude
Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 42,395
Loc: Colorado
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: the spiral]
#13508067 - 11/19/10 08:17 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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Completely due to the internet, it's the biggest thing since the printing press.
@Mjau: Good job! I love it when people from other countries know our language better than we do. 
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You make it all possible. Doesn't it feel good?
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Mjau
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: Doc_T]
#13508115 - 11/19/10 08:37 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Doc_T said:
@Mjau: Good job! I love it when people from other countries know our language better than we do.
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scienceguy
Instrument
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: Mjau]
#13508146 - 11/19/10 08:46 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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Teh intarwebs make erverybody all like "ways the bug deal wiff punctu4ti0n0rz!!!!!11
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"Freedom starts between the ears."
Edward Abbey
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nicechrisman
Interdimensional space wizard
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: Mjau]
#13508151 - 11/19/10 08:50 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
scienceguy said:
Punctuation inside quotations is appropriate ONLY when the entirety of the sentence is contained in parentheses. Parenthetical additions at the end of a sentence are punctuated in the other manner (like so). The explanation.
Using punctuation with quotations is another tricky one, and has a few differences. Here's a good link that explains their usage.
Quote:
Mjau said:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2057192_use-parentheses-correctly.html
Quote:
Strictly speaking, a parenthetical phrase should never be a complete sentence, so end punctuation (periods, question marks and exclamation points) within parentheses should not be used in formal writing.
These are how I was taught. Lets all join forces and enforce proper grammar on the interwebs. We can be the shroomery grammer police!
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"Cosmic Love is absolutelely ruthless and highly indifferent:
it teaches its lessons whether you like/dislike them or not."
John C. Lily
  
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scienceguy
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: nicechrisman]
#13508163 - 11/19/10 08:54 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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I'm down. Todcasil has his cult of whosiwhatsit, and I guess they do something, and that's cool, but this represents an opportunity. This is a higher calling for those of us who think that spelling and grammar are a bug deal. I'm down.
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"Freedom starts between the ears."
Edward Abbey
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Prisoner#1
Even Dumber ThanAdvertized!
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: scienceguy]
#13508178 - 11/19/10 08:58 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
grammarguy said:
Punctuation inside quotations is appropriate ONLY when the entirety of the sentence is contained in parentheses. Parenthetical additions at the end of a sentence are punctuated in the other manner (like so). The explanation.
Using punctuation with quotations is another tricky one, and has a few differences. Here's a good link that explains their usage.
I'm putting in for your name change
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scienceguy
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: Prisoner#1]
#13508198 - 11/19/10 09:05 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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"Freedom starts between the ears."
Edward Abbey
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Mjau
Registered: 10/02/10
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: scienceguy]
#13508210 - 11/19/10 09:09 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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From now on forth, we shall be known as the...
(I made it)
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nicechrisman
Interdimensional space wizard
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: Mjau]
#13508217 - 11/19/10 09:10 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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How shall we "jump in" our members?
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"Cosmic Love is absolutelely ruthless and highly indifferent:
it teaches its lessons whether you like/dislike them or not."
John C. Lily
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Tetriana
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: scienceguy]
#13508230 - 11/19/10 09:14 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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I try to use proper punctuation as much as possible, but these things tend to slip away from you the longer you've been out of school. I use a lot of periods when I'm typing because I tend to just type as I'm thinking...
I tend to use punctuation marks inside of quotation marks. Is that not correct? For instance.. Tetriana said,"I'm very hungry."
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scienceguy
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Re: Boring Punctuation/Grammar thread! FUN for everyone! [Re: Mjau]
#13508238 - 11/19/10 09:15 AM (13 years, 4 months ago) |
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I love it. Spelling Squad, assemble!
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"Freedom starts between the ears."
Edward Abbey
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