Friday, November 26, 2004

Proofreading, Typesetting, &c

Does it bother anyone but me that people seem to have utterly forgotten the art of proofreading and -- the subject of today's post -- typesetting?

Ever see a sentence like this:

"You're crazy as hell", she said.

Everyone knows -- or at least, The M thinks everyone ought to know -- that the comma after the quotation marks should actually be inside the quote, like this:

"I am not," he replied, more calmly that she had any right to expect.

The comma outside the quotes looks as though it's about to kill itself because it's so freakin' lonely.

I know, I know. Dude, get a life. Don't you have better things to worry about?

Yes, I do.

But none of those things seem so pressing at the moment as the problem of the improperly placed comma in a quotation. Especially since that flaw appears everywhere in the otherwise brilliant novel I'm still reading.

What happened to standards?

I mean, of course, pre-Clinton standards. After that guy, there's really no point in having a discussion about standards.

5 comments:

Am said...

The comma outside the quotes looks as thought it's about to kill itself because it's so freakin' lonely.looks as thought? I know it's obnoxious to point out this case of proofreading pot-kettleism but sorry, I can't help myself.

mp said...
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mp said...
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mp said...

Everybody needs a good proofreader.

I've corrected the mistake you pointed out above.

Thanks.

mp said...

I recently read somewhere that it's British custom for punctuation to fall outside quotation marks. Oh well, win some, lose some. British author, you know.