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Lose, not Loose

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Originally posted by royalchicken
My rule is internally consistent, unlike Fowler's or that of whatever rubbish pedant wrote the style manual from which you draw your tiresome material.
You would say: ''My favourite word is 'aardvark'."

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Originally posted by Bowmann
Chicken.
Well go on then. It's your turn to name a major publishing house/organisation that uses your style for UK texts.

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Originally posted by dottewell
Well go on then. It's your turn to name a major publishing house/organisation that uses your style for UK texts.
Is it? And what would that prove?

Remember, literature and formal writing are often worlds apart.

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Originally posted by Bowmann
You would say: ''My favourite word is 'aardvark'."
You missed off a full stop, because there is a sentence, "My favourite word is 'aardvark'", being referenced within another sentence, which you have left unpunctuated.

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Originally posted by royalchicken
You missed off a full stop, because there is a sentence, "My favourite word is 'aardvark'", being referenced within another sentence, which you have left unpunctuated.
There's no need for an additional full stop. The one which terminates the spoken sentence is sufficient.

One wouldn't write:

He screamed out "Help me!".

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Originally posted by Bowmann
Is it? And what would that prove?
You do remember what we were arguing about, don't you?

I said 99.9pc of publishers would consider your method wrong.

You said, "Not any longer."

I just want to know one (preferably reputable) publisher who shares your view. Then I will provide a list of 999 who don't, and we'll call it even.

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Originally posted by dottewell
You do remember what we were arguing about, don't you?

I said 99.9pc of publishers would consider your method wrong.

You said, "Not any longer."
And how could they disagree?


Strictly speaking, the only punctuation marks that should go inside the quotation marks are those that are part of the quotation itself.

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Originally posted by Bowmann
"Look, there's plenty for both of us", she said.

British style now prefers to punctuate according to the sense, and the second example would be correct.

I was right all along 😏[/b]
They would disagree with that.

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Originally posted by dottewell
They would disagree with that.
I doubt it. But they may choose to "break the rule".

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Originally posted by Bowmann
I doubt it. But they may choose to "break the rule".
...and sack any copy editor who didn't,

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Bowmann is using German punctuation. 😉

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Originally posted by dottewell
...and sack any copy editor who didn't,
Possibly. But that would be publishers of fiction and the press* for you.


*Or are they the same thing? 😵

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Originally posted by welsharnie
(That's another i've seen around a bit.)
No you haven't.

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Originally posted by Bowmann
There's no need for an additional full stop. The one which terminates the spoken sentence is sufficient.

One wouldn't write:

He screamed out "Help me!".
I would; it makes more sense. You sentence is of the form:

He screamed out A.

In that sentence, A stands for a sentence being referred to as a single object. Sentences contain punctuation, thus, as you have it, A must contain its punctuator, the exclamation mark. However, you would not write:

He screamed out A

because it is not a sentence, as it lacks any punctuation. The exclamation mark, within the brackets, operates on A, not the sentence which refers to A, so the latter sentence must have its own punctuation.

Note that I should have written, for example, "He screamed out A.", but left the quotation marks off to avoid using that which we are discussing in a fashion which would leave me open to further nitpicking.

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Originally posted by royalchicken
I would; it makes more sense. You sentence is of the form:

He screamed out A.

In that sentence, A stands for a sentence being referred to as a single object. Sentences contain punctuation, thus, as you have it, A must contain its punctuator, the exclamation mark. However, you would not write:

He screamed out A

because it is not a ...[text shortened]... ing that which we are discussing in a fashion which would leave me open to further nitpicking.
You do need help.

Preferably psychiatric 😵