TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
In many technical documents, the text between the parenthesis
represents text to be displayed or interpreted by software.
Since the software may require arbitrary (and often
non-grammatical) punctuation, there is a common standard
that puts punctuation of the quoted text inside the marks, and
punctuation of the sentence outside.
In this standard, the sentence
First select "Edit", and then select "Cut".
is correct, and
First select "Edit," and then select "Cut."
is incorrect, unless the software literally shows
Edit,
and
Cut.
In this example, it doesn't make much sense. But consider:
Type "12-AZ,*," and then press the enter key.
Should the operator include that final comma, or not?
It's a bit ugly, but it's not a matter of sloppiness, and often not
a writer's choice.
----------
From: Dot James[SMTP:dot -at- HPOEMB05 -dot- SJ -dot- HP -dot- COM]
Sent: Monday, January 08, 1996 11:08 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list TEC
Subject: Re: Comma splQuote Marks (Was: )
> The sentence
> First select "Edit", and then select "Cut".
>is perfectly okay. I believe that likewise,
As a former English teacher, I do NOT find the above sentence "okay." As
person now forced to dabble in tech editing (as a part of my contract
job of
production word processor), I have run across this use of comma/period
with
quotation marks. Is this, indeed, characteristic of technical writing?
Or do
the period and comma belong within the quote marks, per formal writing?
(I
hope
for the latter; I hate to think that tech writing is also sloppy
writing.)
--
Dot James in San Jose, CA "The secret of happiness is not doing
dot -at- hpoemb05 -dot- sj -dot- hp -dot- com what one likes to do, but in liking
dotjames -at- paladin-usa -dot- com what one has to do." -- Sir James
Barrie