Kata Markon

[JFAlward AT aol.com]

In a message dated 10/17/02 2:57:56 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
skelley AT daemen.edu writes:

<< It might be worth remembering that Jeff wrote a conference paper--not a 
journal article.  He will read it aloud to an audience who will have no idea 
where the commas are placed.  Given that, isn't this discussion of proper 
punctuation a bit of overkill?
 

JOE ALWARD

I don't think it's overkill as it applies to Goodacre's published paper, but 
your point is well-taken--up to a point--about Jeffrey Gibson's conference 
paper. If Jeffrey only plans to read his paper, it will sound the same 
irrespective of where the commas and periods are.  Nevertheless, the 
placement of the commas and periods in future papers Gibson will write for 
publication in a journal certainly *will* matter, however, so I think it is a 
good idea to follow the proper convention.  

In believe the editors of American-published journals (such as the JBL ?) 
should be encouraged to enforce the American standard, which calls for 
periods and commas always to be placed before the closing quotation, whether 
the punctuation was part of the quoted material, or not.  I also am unclear 
at this point whether the currently-accepted style in the United Kingdom is 
the same as that advocated by Fowler in his 1908 book, _The King's English_.  
The editors of most of the British newspapers and magazines I surveyed online 
seemed to be as schizophrenic about the placement as was Goodacre in that 
paragraph I cited from his article.  It get the impression that the editors 
aren't sure what they should do, so they just don't think about it too much.  
I don't see that in the American newspapers and magazines, but maybe that's 
because I haven't tried too hard to find fault with them.  In any case, as 
I've said before, it makes sense to me for the British Bible researchers to 
follow the convention used in the King James Version of the Bible, and it 
certainly seems sensible also for researchers submitting their work to the 
JBL (which is believe is published in the United States) to put commas and 
periods before the closing quote.  And, finally, no matter WHAT rule one 
uses, one must use it consistently throughout one's paper, in my opinion, 
lest one give the readers the impression that one is indecisive.