Guest Post: Jennifer Romig on Logical Punctuation

TILS is very excited to offer this guest post from Professor Jennifer Romig, a.k.a., Listen Like a Lawyer. Professor Romig teaches legal research and writing at Emory Law. She also teaches an advanced course in blogging and social media for law students and lawyers. Professor Romig can be followed on Twitter at @JenniferMRomig and @ListenLikeaLwyr.

Thank you, Professor Romig, for this insight on logical punctuation! 

Logical punctuation?

U.S. English has a peculiar style with its quotation mechanics. When you are quoting a passage of text and when that text ends with a period or comma, the period or comma should be placed inside the quotation mark.

               U.S. English style prefers this:

The key reason the court adopted the objective rather than subjective test was “administrative necessity.”

               Not this:

The key reason the court adopted the objective rather than subjective test was “administrative necessity”.

Professor Nadia Nedzel’s book Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International GraduateStudents sums up the U.S. style:

In American usage, the ending quotation marks come after (not before) commas and periods: The court held that “[i]n an action for negligence, the plaintiff must prove duty, breach, causation, and damages.”

U.S. law students often struggle to adopt this style, perhaps because it does not seem logical to them. After all in the example above, the period is not actually part of the quote. Thus it does not seem particularly logical, which is why placing the period outside the quotation is described as “logical punctuation.” If the period outside the quote is logical punctuation, then the prevalent style for quotations in U.S. English is, well, illogical.

Adapting this style can be even more challenging for students with educational backgrounds outside the U.S. because the U.S. style is out of step with quotation practices in other countries. A helpful article on this issue is Ben Yagoda’s The Rise of Logical Punctuation. In the article, he distinguishes “American style” from “British style.” He points out that British style is more aptly described as “logical punctuation” in part because it is more consistent with the logic of computer coding. 

But stylistic practices are not always logical; they are cultural and often the product of longstanding historical uses. Thus, to reiterate U.S. style, the following examples are viewed as correct in a U.S. legal document:

As defined by the Fifth Circuit’s opinion, “The principal issue on appeal [was] whether the taxpayer [was] entitled to deduct as an ordinary and necessary business expense the cost of purchasing and maintaining the Yves St. Laurent clothes and accessories worn by the taxpayer in her employment as the manager of the boutique.”

Because subjectively determining whether certain clothing is appropriate to an individual taxpayer’s lifestyle is “virtually impossible,” the Fifth Circuit instead applied an objective test.

For many U.S. readers who may not have critically examined their own stylistic preferences, periods and commas inside the quotations just look right. Even though tens of millions of English speakers place the periods and commas outside the quotation marks, doing so may look wrong to a U.S. reader.

There are a few more specific points to note here. First, this rule does not apply to question marks and semicolons. Semicolons and question marks should be inside a quotation mark if they are part of the quote. Semicolons and question marks should be outside the quotation mark if the question mark is part of the larger sentence that includes the quote. Here are several correct examples:

Does this objective test truly provide a “practical administrative approach”?

The court asked, “Would a reasonable taxpayer wear these clothes for personal wear when not performing work-related duties?”

The objective test is a “practical administrative approach”; it has the benefit of avoiding subjective decisions about taxpayers’ lifestyle and clothing.

British style on quotations differs a little bit or a lot, depending on what source you consult.

The University of Oxford Style Guide recommends very different quotation practices. It would differ on two of the examples above, when the quote is a fragment of text within the broader sentence:

The key reason the court adopted an objective rather than subjective test was “administrative necessity”.

Because subjectively determining whether certain clothing is appropriate to an individual taxpayer’s lifestyle is “virtually impossible”, the Fifth Circuit instead applied an objective test.

The Oxford Style Guide points to stylistic differences that are actually even more pronounced. British style’s use of single and double quotation marks is exactly the opposite from U.S. style: “Use single quotation marks for direct speech or a quote, and double quotation marks for direct speech or a quote within [a quote].” (This is from page 16.)

Thus, the following example shows British and U.S. styles for embedded quotations in which one source quotes another:

               British style:

‘An objective test is not only reasonable but “the only administratively necessary alternative”.’

               U.S. style:

“An objective test is not only reasonable but ‘the only administratively necessary alternative.’”

Note the multiple differences here: U.S. style uses double quotations for the main quotation and single quotations for the quote within the quote. U.S. style places the period inside both sets of quotation marks at the end of the sentence.

Happily, when a quotation is a full sentence and is formally introduced, U.S. and British styles treat it essentially the same:

As defined by the Fifth Circuit’s opinion, “The principal issue on appeal [was] whether the taxpayer [was] entitled to deduct as an ordinary and necessary business expense the cost of purchasing and maintaining the Yves St. Laurent clothes and accessories worn by the taxpayer in her employment as the manager of the boutique.”

In both styles, the period goes inside the quotation marks, whether single or double, with U.S. style using double quotation marks shown above.

There is one evolving exception in U.S. style. That exception is for transactional drafting. When defining a term in a contract, the logical or British style is often preferred:

Employees shall wear “Official Acme Clothing”, defined as the following: a polo-style shirt bearing the Acme logo on the right front and no other markings, khaki slacks with a belt, and brown or black dress loafers with a heel lower than 0.5 inch. The key reason the court adopted an objective rather than subjective test was "administrative necessity".

Recently U.S. corporation Adobe Systems published its internal Legal Department Style Guide (downloadable here) The Adobe Legal Department Style Guide focuses largely—but not exclusively—on drafting licensing agreements. The flowchart titled “Organize Yourself Before You Begin Writing” would benefit any legal writer creating any type of document. The Adobe Legal Department Style Guide uses logical punctuation—in other words, British style—throughout. Legal writing author and speaker Ross Guberman has also noted that U.S. patent prosecutors often use the British style.

The difference in these two styles can create a decision for law students seeking employment. To seek employment in the United States, a student is well advised to format application materials using U.S. style. To seek employment in other countries where law is practiced in English, the British style may be more commonplace. Overall, the most important thing is to recognize the difference between these two styles and to select the best approach for the situation, then implement it as consistently as possible throughout each document.

You can read more about the differences in David Marsh, ‘The British Style’? ‘The American Way?’ They Are Not So Different, The Guardian (May 19, 2011)

Also please know that your word processor may be able to notify you when quotations are using (or not using) a particular setting. On Microsoft Word for Mac 2011, for example, it is possible to check whether punctuation required with quotations is “inside” or “outside.” To do so, use the “Tools” menu to check spelling and grammar, and then click on “options” and further on “settings” to select your preference. [Screen shots can be found below.] The U.S. preference would be to place the punctuation inside. Microsoft Word will indicate possible errors with a green wavy line under the problematic text:

However, Microsoft Word will not be able to differentiate complex situations such as a quoted question in contrast to a question that contains a quote at the end.