[stylist] question about parentheses

[Applebutter Hill]

Vejas,
In the US, we put the period outside of the sentence. The parenthetical
phrase is part of the whole sentence, and the whole sentence needs a period
after it. Not sure how the Brits handle this one, but I'd bet they agree
with us on this.

At the risk of saying too much, I want to point out one of the differences
between British and American punctuation norms. It's just that I find it
fascinating. When a sentence ends with a quotation, we put the period or
other ending punctuation inside the quotes. But, the Brits look at the
sentence to see  what makes the most sense. If the sentence and the quote
are both the same, say a statement, then the period applies to both and
follows the close quotes.

We can get ourselves into some trouble because we don't get the option in
America. I keep waiting for this to change. For instance, look at the
sentence:
Did you actually say, "You're a moron ....

This is a question with a quote inside. American English puts the question
mark inside the quote, because you never put anything after the closing
quotation. However, this makes it look like the quotation itself is a
question, which it clearly isn't.

So, American version:
Did you actually say, "You're a moron?" -- question mark, close quotes

The rest of the English-speaking world:
Did you actually say, "You're a moron"? -- Close quotes, question mark

I had a recent discussion about this with the editor of the Daisy Planet,
the publication of the international DAISY Consortium. The editor is
Canadian and changed the end of one of my sentences to put the period
outside the quotes. I mentioned that I should have double-checked the
publication to see if they were using British or American  conventions, and
that when I did, it was clear they were using the British norms. She changed
it back, saying that it was my story and since I was an American, it should
be the way I had it. I disagreed, because I thought the publication should
probably stick to one or the other, and from what I read, it was done the
British way.
Donna
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Vejas
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2014 7:54 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] question about parentheses

Hi all,
I have a question about the use of parentheses.  If the last word in a
sentence is also the last word in a set of parentheses, should you write the
end parenthesis or the period first?
Thanks,
Vejas

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