On 10/05/2011 02:15 PM, Fred Cisin wrote:
There are, however SOME language rules that I
CHOOSE to flagrantly break.
Those include comma before "and" in a list, "LOGICAL" placement of
What's the rule there? Comma or no comma? Is it "this, that, and
the other thing" or "this, that and the other thing"?
I belive the stnadrd is 'this, that and the other'. I prefer 'this, that,
and the other' particularly when the 'that' may include 'and'.
The text 'I used 3 devices at my HPCC demonstration this year. They were
an HP9866 printer, an HP71 and an HP82165 GPIO unit and an home-made
interface' makes little sense. But adding the extra comma 'I used 3
devices at my HPCC demonstration this year. They were an HP9866 printer,
an HP71 and an HP82165 GPIO unit, and an home-made interface' implies
that the first deivce was the printer, the second device was the HP71
together with the 82165 interface and the third device was the home-made
interface.
I beleive doing this is called a 'Oxford comma'.
Also, howabout a period ending a sentence of which the last component
is quoted text? Period inside or outside the double quotes?
If there;s a period as part of the quoted text, then I put one inside the
quores. If it ends a sentexce, then there's a period outside the quotes
(it may not loo k as nice, but it's more logical, the period is not
something I was quoting). And yes, if both, then 2 periods.
For example : My last sentence was "And yes, if both then 2 periods.".
-tony