User talk:Samuelsaltman

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 * — M o e   ε  04:12, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Grammar
Hi Sam, welcome to Wikipedia! I saw your note on WP:NUL and just wanted to have a word with you about use of English here on WP. WP is written in both American English and British English. Neither is correct over the other and neither should be changed to match the other. This goes for both spelling and grammar. The general rule of thumb is that topics that are inherently "American" or "British" (or "Australian", which is almost identical to British, in the written form at least) should follow the conventions of their variety of English. So when writing about George W Bush, of course I would write following AmE conventions, even though I myself speak Australian English. Likewise you would be expected to follow BrE conventions when writing about Queen Elizabeth II, even though you're American.

Of course, lots of topics are not so cut and dried, for example ordinary household things like tables. In this case, the rule of thumb is to follow the variety used by the original contributor. And likewise, if you start a new article that is not inherently British/Commonwealth or American, then you are free to write in whatever variety you like. If spelling in the title is an issue, redirects can always be created (List of colours redirects to List of colors).

Anyway, you might think this is all rather irrelevant, but the period-inside-the-quotes thing you mentioned actually is a part of AmE or BrE.

From WP:MOS (MOS stands for "manual of style"):


 * 1) Arthur said the situation was "deplorable". (The full stop (period) is not part of the quotation.)
 * 2) Arthur said, "The situation is deplorable." (The full sentence is quoted; the period is part of the quotation.)
 * 3) Arthur said that the situation "was the most deplorable he had seen in years." (Although the full sentence is not quoted, the sense of finality conveyed by the period is part of the quotation.)

This is for BrE. So the first sentence, which is correct in BrE, would be incorrect in AmE, if I follow your train of thought...

ANYAWY, this is all just to say make sure you don't jump the gun, and I hope you have a great wiki-editing career :). Another relevant part of the MOS is here: WP:MOS. cheers! pfctdayelise 04:00, 21 January 2006 (UTC)