Re: Re[2]: Two spaces after a full stop -Reply

[David Hailey <FAHAILEY -at- WPO -dot- HASS -dot- USU -dot- EDU>]

Snip--
f the clause within brackets is a complete sentence, it
should have its
own full stop within the brackets.  If the bracketed clause
also happens to be the last part of the whole sentence, then
there should also be a full
stop outside the brackets.


reply--
We may be running into a language difference here (that
isn't what Chicago or MLA style manuals say).  When I read
that clauses within parens within sentences contain no
periods, I didn't believe it.  I have been putting periods
within parens for something like 30 years.

BUT, when I ran to my Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed.), I
found that I was wrong???

Section 5.14 states, "When parentheses or brackets are used
to enclose an independent sentence, the period belongs
inside. [but] When the enclosed matter comes at the end of
an including sentence, the period should be placed outside
of the parentheses."

 "  .).  "  appears not to be an option as concerns
independent clauses but is an option as concerns
abbreviations.

It goes on to say, "If the enclosed matter is itself a
grammatically complete sentence, its own terminal period is
omitted."

Their example: "Poncifall (by this time Erika had left the
room) looked dejectedly at the ring she had dropped into his
hand."

(Note here that the sentence within parens is not
capitalized--we often forget that caps are also
punctuation.)

Modern Language Style Manual agrees with Chicago except that
it is silent as concerns  punctuation of sentences within
parens within sentences.

See? Even an apparently silly thread can teach an old-timer
a thing or two.

Dave Hailey
(Pretend there is important stuff here.)

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