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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   2385 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 4, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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In the culture-war thread, @Gdanning says:

According to this, "Median household income in 2021 was $69,880[.]"

Note the placement of square brackets around the period that was inserted at the end of the quote. As a person who semi-regularly glances through court opinions during idle time at work, I feel like this practice was only recently adopted by jurists, as a replacement for the previous style (which misleadingly implies that the period is native to the quote):

According to this, "Median household income in 2021 was $69,880."

And I feel very annoyed that it was chosen by those jurists over the obvious alternative:

According to this, "Median household income in 2021 was $69,880".

Surely the most common alternative is:

According to this, "Median household income in 2021 was $69,880. . . ."

That is what Turabian recommends, anyhow.

I think it has been noted by others (programmers who are used to dealing with "string" variables) that inserting punctuation at the end of a quote is a needlessly confusing practice.

According to this, "Median household income in 2021 was $69,880…".

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