I hate this grammatical rule

[JoeH]

[quote jimbrady]Am I the only one who considers this a matter of punctuation, rather than grammar?
Punctuation is a subset of grammar.

[jimbrady]

[quote JoeH][quote jimbrady]Am I the only one who considers this a matter of punctuation, rather than grammar?
Punctuation is a subset of grammar.
Nope, I don't think so. Got any authoritative sources on that? You will find much academic writing about "Grammar and Punctuation," suggesting they are two complementary (but distinct) subjects.

I guess I wouldn't expect much passion for specificity from a group that thinks the www vernacular of the last decade or so ought to replace the rules of writing that have evolved over centuries.

[StarGlazer]

I've spent more than three decades purposely breaking that punctuation rule in hope of changing the world by example. Hasn't worked yet ...

[tuqqer]

[quote Greg the dogsitter]The filename contains either "apple" or "banana."

The above is correct, but awful. The following is easier to understand, but incorrect.

The filename contains either "apple" or "banana".

Stupid grammar...even more stupid with computer filenames.
I agree. This one drives me crazy, as well.

[tenders]

Robert M:
> before asking me where the ditto I planned to hand out for homework was at.

Are we going to have to start another don't-end-a-sentence-with-a-preposition thread?

Because violating that rule is a transgression up with which I will not put.

(A Churchillism...or not? You decide:
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/churchill.html
)

[Black Landlord]

I'm in.

[quote tenders]Robert M:
> before asking me where the ditto I planned to hand out for homework was at.

Are we going to have to start another don't-end-a-sentence-with-a-preposition thread?

Because violating that rule is a transgression up with which I will not put.

(A Churchillism...or not? You decide:
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/churchill.html
)

[DaviDC.]

I'm all for following the rules of grammar because civilization as we know would break down if we didn't. I'm fortunate that this one of the subjects I 'got' & never had to struggle with, but I think this clearly falls under the category of splitting hairs.

[jimbrady]

I'll play the prude here again: anyone who insists on correctness in following punctuation conventions can be accused of "splitting hairs." Why do we capitalize the first word of a sentence? We just had a period or a question mark, so who wouldn't already know that a new sentence had started? We just do it because that's how it's supposed to be.

Written language is an abstraction, making the rules that shape it seem arbitrary. This is especially true of punctuation which, unlike grammar, is made entirely of symbols that do not appear in the spoken word.

If you know the rules, would it kill you to just follow them?

[mikebw]

I enjoy putting any punctuation that was not actually part of the quote outside of the last quotation mark. I have been taught that whatever is inside the quotation needs to be exactly the same as the source, so if the source said "this is a quote from a book" with no period at the end it would be wrong to put a period inside the quote, because it was not actually there. That would be fabrication, which when dealing with citing sources is very wrong indeed.

[Greg the dogsitter]

[quote jimbrady]If you know the rules, would it kill you to just follow them?
When the rules make the sentence more difficult to understand, then my inner rebel tends to emerge.