Some More on Quotations

I found a couple of pages that I wanted to share that have quotation usage summed up in one quick webpage.

Purdue OWL Page

University of Northern Carolina at Chapel Hill Page

Chapter 8- Quotations

I decided to revisit this post because I knew that I could look at the use of quotation marks within quotations. After reviewing the paragraph, I now believe that there is an error here- more about that in a minute. On page 196 of the text, the extract indicates that copyeditors are expected peruse the document to ensure that quotation marks are properly paired. (Now back to my original point.) At the very end of the paragraph there are two sets of quotation marks, however, one is without a mate.

Am I right about this? When paragraphs are littered with punctuation things can get confusing.

"“My list of pet language peeves,” she once told The Key Reporter, the Phi Beta Kappa newsletter, “would certainly include writers’ use of indirection (i.e., slipping new information into a narrative as if the reader already knew it); confusion between restrictive and non-restrictive phrases and clauses (‘that’ goes with restrictive clauses, and, ordinarily, ‘which’ with nonrestrictive); careless repetition; and singular subjects with plural verbs and vice versa.” She was a fiend for problems of sequence and logic. In her presence, modifiers dared not dangle. She could find a solecism in a Stop sign.""

Reporting on Movies

At my internship this week I did interviews with some really incredible film makers and producers. When I was writing about the films I realized I did not know how what to do with the title of their movies. With essays you always put the title in quotation, Toni Morrison addresses the black woman's view on women's lib in her essay, "What the Black Woman thinks about Women's Lib." The title of a book is in italics. I am reading Toni Morrison's book, Tar Baby. But what do you do when you are referencing a movie or a documentary?

I will get back with you when I find out, or you can let me know if you find out first. In all the reviews, some capitalized the entire title, some italicised and some put the title in quotations. I am not sure what to do or who to follow?

Style and "Truth" in Autobiography

I was reading today from Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson's Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives and came across two things that were relevant to topics we have covered in class.

The first is an excerpt from Gertrude Stein's Everybody's Autobiography that has a vastly different style from anything we have seen in class and would certainly be fun to edit (if it needed it).

It is funny this knowing being a genius, everything is funny. And

identity is funny being yourself is funny as you are never yourself

to yourself except as you remember yourself and then of course

you do not believe yourself. That is really the trouble with an

autobiography you do not of course you do not really believe

yourself why should you, you know so well so very well that it is not

yourself, it could not be yourself because you cannot remember

right and if you do remember right it does not sound right and of

course it does not sound right because it is not right. You are of

course never yourself.

This passage, besides being hilarious, really made me think how challenging it would be to analyze and maintain the style while editing.

The second thing that I came across was the idea of Autobiographical Truth, which relates back to our discussion that we had on James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. This isn't really related to editing at all, but I found it enlightening and wanted to share. Smith and Watson refer to autobiography as "an intersubjective truth" that requires the reader to bend their version of truth while reading. Although I don't think they would necessarily agree that purposely altering truth for the purpose of selling more novels is an ethical decision, they do state that, "any utterance in an autobiographical text, even if inaccurate or distorted, characterizes its writer." Food for thought.

Come on, Comma!

I am working on a critical essay where I quote from outside sources. I have taken to using the serial comma in my writing, but some passages I am quoting from did not use the serial comma. Should I leave the punctuation as it is since I am quoting it, or should I change it so that it is consistent with the rest of my essay?