From The Personal Style Sheet

of

William de Kypia
__________________

Punctuation is often optional. You have choices. If you think
a certain mark disrupts the flow of a sentence don't use it.

For example, I do not use commas to separate quotations
from the main discourse, i.e., in speech (dialogue) tags.

"You should use commas with speech tags," they told him.
"I don't like them, never have, never will" Will replied.
~
I do employ the serial (Oxford or St. Irenaeus) comma:

Will's favorite breakfast is coy —
coffee, oatmeal, and yogurt.
~
And I place commas and periods outside
quotation marks unless the punctuation
is part of the quote (British style):

The sign said_“No Parking On The Green-Coloured Grass”.

versus

Then the guy said_“Don't ever come back here again.”
~
But I prefer the American style of double quotes
for the main quote and single quotes for
the secondary (or nested) quote:

My mother screamed.“Not in this house!”

and

He said_“Then my mother screamed.‘Not in this house!’ ”
~
You have choices about formatting too. I think that
It's lots of fun to use .lots of different .fonts.
~
These are my rules. I reserve the right to violate any
or all of them at any time for any reason or none.
__________________

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