Proofreading question

[Chelle in MO]

I tried this on the Gen Ed board, but didn't get any bites. Can any of you help?

 

Here's the sentence, correctly written according to the TM:

 

The word iodine comes from a Greek word that means "violet."

 

Here's my question:

 

Why is the word violet in parentheses, instead of being underlined? I know that iodine is underlined (or in italics) because it is a word that is the subject of discussion.

 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

[Melinda in VT]

Because?

 

I know that's not a very satisfying answer, but I think it is sometimes the honest one.

 

According to the 14th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, section 6.67, "In linguistic and phonetic studies a word under discussion is often set in italics . . . and the definition enclosed in single quotation marks."

 

It doesn't give a reason why though. And your example has double quotation marks instead of single, so it doesn't follow Chicago exactly.

[Chelle in MO]

That's just not fair, Melinda! ;) But I'll take it! Thanks for replying.

[goldberry]

This may be a dumb question, but why is the period inside the quotation marks?

 

I would write...

She said, "The flower was a lovely shade of violet."

 

but

 

The word iodine comes from a Greek word that means "violet".

 

Apparently that's wrong?

[Chelle in MO]

Colorado, periods and commas are always supposed to be inside the quotation marks. The only exception is when a reference follows a quotation from a written source, like this:

 

"The tongue no man can tame" (James 3:8), so we must ask God to tame it for us.

 

It bugs me, but it's correct!

[Melissa in Australia]

Colorado, periods and commas are always supposed to be inside the quotation marks. The only exception is when a reference follows a quotation from a written source, like this:

 

"The tongue no man can tame" (James 3:8), so we must ask God to tame it for us.

 

It bugs me, but it's correct!

:iagree:

[goldberry]

Colorado, periods and commas are always supposed to be inside the quotation marks. The only exception is when a reference follows a quotation from a written source, like this:

 

"The tongue no man can tame" (James 3:8), so we must ask God to tame it for us.

 

It bugs me, but it's correct!

 

Thank you....that IS indeed rather annoying. It's non-intuitive...