From
The Personal Style Sheet
of
William de Kypia

Punctuation marks are optional, not obligatory.
We decide which we want to use and where.

I do not use commas to separate quotations from
the main discourse, i.e., in speech (or 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 use 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!’ ”
~
Some stylesheets require quotation marks at the
beginning of each paragraph in a speaker's remarks.

Mine does not.

Here is part of a poem about the night
a certain poet met one of the Muses:

“OK, you can throw in dessert though the
picture will not be of archival quality.

Chemical changes cause the colors
to shift and fade. The emulsion will
dry out, crack, and then flake off.

Soon little will remain from our
encounter except your puerile
and delusional fantasies.”
~
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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