The net's impact on the Queen's English

[rmarsden]

There's a post over at Everything2 which addresses the slow erosion of the proper order of fullstops, commas and quotation marks in online discussion. Apparently, keen to avoid mistakes being reproduced when placing code in quotation marks, geeks have taken to always putting fullstops and commas outside the quotation marks regardless of context.

Comments

[nalsa]

Quotation marks is one thing; correct use of punctuation in parentheses is another, which also falls foul of the geek language logistics trap. I'd hate to see the arguments over that.

[charleston]

I am cross about full stops and quotation marks, always have been. I know the correct way to do it, but sometimes that messes with my logic, as the second one seems to have strayed into the next sentence. Can somebody sort it out please.

[carsmilesteve]

Can somebody sort it out please?

fixed :)

[liadnan]

I don't think Lynne Truss would get that fussed since, as the next comment points out, the post on everything2 is wrong in terms of British usage.

[rmarsden]

It's always amusing to see people hastily rewriting comments on posts devoted to correct use of English ;)

[liadnan]

I thought about not bothering but decided it would be too embarrassing to leave it as gibberish.

[bopeepsheep]

Missing full stop deliberate? ;-)

[bopeepsheep]

... someone saying "from?" or "where?" (or, worse, "from" or "where".)

Hmmmm. That should say ... someone saying "from?" or "where?" (or, worse, "from" or "where"). Have you succumbed to an attack of Skitt's Law?

You're guilty too

[tominlondon]

"fullstop" is not a word.

Re: You're guilty too

[rmarsden]

Sentences also begin with capital letters, Tom.