Talk:Jim Duffy

Periods at the end of items
Jtdirl has added periods to the end of the disambiguation entries. When I reverted that change, he or she re-reverted me with the rather cryptic comment:


 * rv not at the end of bullet points. But yes where a bullet point is followed be a sentence, which is the case here.

According to Manual of Style (disambiguation pages):


 * Entries should nearly always be sentence fragments. When the entry forms a complete sentence, do not include commas or periods at the end of the line.

Either the entry is a sentence fragment, in which case it should not end with a period, or it isn't a sentence fragment, in which case the Manual of Style explicitly tells us not to end it with a period.

I am removing the periods from the items. I ask Jtdirl to try to explain why he or she believes that a period should end a entry.

— DLJessup (talk) 12:14, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

It is called English. Where a bullet point consists of a small number of words, usually five or less, then it is treated under bullet point rules. Where it goes beyond that it is not a sentence fragment but a sentence without a verb. As such it is treated as a sentence for the purposes of capitalisation, grammar, commas, and periods. FearÉIREANN \(caint) 12:17, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

FearÉIREANN:

First of all, a minor point. According to http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sentence:


 * sen·tence (sĕntəns) n.
 * A grammatical unit that is syntactically independent and has a subject that is expressed or, as in imperative sentences, understood and a predicate that contains at least one finite verb.

To the best of my knowledge, every English grammarian defines a sentence as having a subject and a predicate, and the predicate must include a verb. The subject may be implicit, but the predicate must be explicit. Thus, a “sentence without a verb” is an oxymoron.

Moving on to the substance of your comment, you pull some rules out of thin air, offering no citation, simply claiming that, “It is called English.” I think I'll stick with a Manual of Style that both of us can read and that, if you think is wrong in some way, you can try to change.

— DLJessup (talk) 11:51, 27 April 2006 (UTC)