What’s the us(ag)e?
4. The deceptive period.
I don’t get it. Period.
But you do get it if you are referring to how to use the period. Periods are easy. A period ends a complete sentence. Even a non-sentence, a fragment, like this one. So where is the deception? A period has about it the ring of finality. Something has ended, and that is that. A sentence has been stated. It’s almost like being sentenced to jail, but not quite. But there are occasions when the period just doesn’t seem right. One of those occasions is the indirect question.
When we ask a direct question, we use a question mark. Right? But what about indirect questions? What is an indirect question? I am asking if you know how to punctuate indirect questions. That’s an indirect question. A question is implied but not directly asked.
That sentence above is an indirect question, and it has a period at the end of it.
If I re-state the sentence, I can make it a direct question. Here it is: I am asking, “Do you know how to punctuate indirect questions?” Interesting, perhaps. But still, where is the deception? There isn’t any. The use of the period instead of the question mark is just sometimes confusing.
The deceptive period enters into our writing in the midst of other complications, specifically, the use of quotation marks. And, interestingly enough, this deception is a hundred percent American made. Buy American. Get deceived (at least about periods).
In American English we put the period inside the quote even if it doesn’t make sense to do so. Here is an example.
John loves Mary.
There is no problem here. Well, there is no problem with using the period, no deception (though it is well known that John is cheating on Mary).
John said to Mary, “I love you.”
Here is a problem, an American problem.
The period is supposed to go at the end of the sentence, but in American English (but not in English English or Canadian English or Indian English or …), the period goes after “you” not after the quotation marks. Is doing so a big deal? Not really, but it is confusing, and it is not accurate. John didn’t say that he loved her, period. I’m not sure he should say that or what it would mean if he did.
Here is another example.
I just used the word “example”
Where do you put the period?
In all other English-speaking countries, the period would go at the end, after the quotation mark. But in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave (period), the period goes after the word not after the quotation marks, like this: “example.” Is this accurate? No. Because my sentence was: I just used the word “example”; I didn’t say that I just used the word “example” with a period. And notice the inconsistency of usage. Above I separated the two sentences with a semi-colon. It went outside the quotation marks not inside. But periods and commas go inside, as in this example:
I told the students that the following words are not correct to use in formal writing: “gonna,” “ain’t,” and “alright.”
It would be clearer and more consistent to write this sentence the way they do in Britain or Canada:
I told the students that the following words are not correct to use in formal writing: “gonna”, “ain’t”, and “alright”.
So why doesn’t America conform to the rest of the world? Is it because we are Americans and don’t like to conform? I doubt it. Although we are the lone holdout on using the metric system, the reason has little to do with conformity or obstinacy. I read somewhere that it was in colonial times that American printers pushed the period inside the quotes to save space, making the line of type tighter. Perhaps making this change was an act of independence from Britain. Perhaps it has no significance. Whatever the reason, teachers have wasted a lot of time and have frustrated many students by insisting on this silly rule. Academic journals will accept either usage of the period. This is but one of many cases where we should follow the rest of the world. Period.
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