Grammar

[Jeff Schering]

On 3/7/06, Rocco Stanzione <grasshopper at linuxkungfu.org> wrote:

>
> Next question: "Avoid using the apostrophe to indicate possession".  Why?  My
> best guess is that it's easier than using the apostrophe correctly to
> indicate possession, but building sentences that way can get cumbersome.

It's mostly for translation. The GNOME style guide claims that
translators sometimes have trouble with apostrophe s when used for
possession.

>I'd
> be happy to contribute a complete set of rules for how and when apostrophes
> are used to indicate possession, including all the exceptions and
> meta-exceptions for when the possessor's name ends in an S.

You can do that if you want, but I would be reluctant to repeat info
that can be found elsewhere unless we find it to be a problem in
existing documentation. That is, if docteam writers are consistently
misusing the apostrophe s (when it comes to expressing possession),
then we can justify going to the trouble of adding it to the style
guide. But in the end, if we are avoiding the apostrophe s (for i18n),
then there's no real reason for including extensive apostrophe s rules
in the guide.

>
> One more question: As in the above paragraph, should we put the period inside
> or outside the quotation marks?  In the US we mostly say inside, and in the
> UK they seem to have a whole other set of rules for that.  I personally
> prefer the British system because, using the above example, since the
> referenced material doesn't include a period at the end of the quote, I don't
> think the period belongs there.  Same question goes for parentheses.

I used to like the period outside the quotes, but now I'm a fan of the
inside the quote punctuation. The reason is that it just looks better
on the page. In any case, quotes are not common in our docs, so I have
not addressed the issue in the style guide; no need to specify a
solution to a problem that does not exist, especially when that
solution is debatable.

(As for parentheses, I like putting the period inside the parentheses
when they enclose a complete sentence.)  But again, it's not an issue
that has arisen in our docs..

Cheers,
Jeff


--
Jeff Schering
GPG: F23C67E8