Grammar and Punctuation Civil Disobedience 2

[KornGeek]

(Forgive my rambling. It's getting late, but I thought this might be fun.)

Are there any grammar or punctuation (or even spelling) rules that you know, but choose not to follow?

For me, a big one is the rule regarding punctuation and quotation marks at the end of a sentence. The rule states that the punctuation should go inside the quotation marks, but I usually put it outside.

The way I decide where the punctuation goes has to do with whether it was part of what I was quoting or not. For instance I will punctuate as follows:

She told me to "Use punctuation the right way."
and
She told me to use punctuation "the right way".

In the first instance, I'm quoting a sentence, so I include the punctuation. In the second instance, I'm quoting a fragment, so I put the punctuation outside the quotes.

Even though I've always been taught that the punctuation should go inside the quotes, I feel that it makes your intentions more clear doing it my way.

What rules do you deliberately disobey?

 

[Dagon]

It would depend on how much each "key" is duplicated. If there are 29000 of one particular record, then clearly it's not very unique. But if there are only two of out 1.3 million, then it could probably be called "nearly unique". Sadly, databases are a bit pedantic about this sort of thing and don't accept "nearly unique".

Going back to the double negatives, I thought this was only really a sin when it was used incorrectly, as in "I ain't got no book". I've long been hoping this will one day form the basis of a court case:

Defendant: I didn't have no gun.

Prosecution: So you are admitting to this court that you were carrying at least one gun.

Defendant: What ?

Judge: Take him down.

Sadly, it'll probably never happen, but I can dream.

 

[MeGustaXL]

He He I'm with Dagon on this:

Defendant: I never killed nobody!

Prosecution: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, the Defendant has admitted killing at least one person, therefore the Prosecution rests.

Defendent: Whaaa..?

Jury Foreman: ....Guilty Your Honour.

 

[Lunatic]

One of my favorite TV Sitcom lines of all time (from the John Laraquette Show) is along these lines:

"I always knew nobody was better than, but I never thought he'd steal my girl!"

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[SilentAiche]

[blue] "I never kilt nobody. I just skirted the issue!" [/blue]

TiM

[purple]__________________________________
[small] "Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance." - Plato

"Plato was a bore." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal." -Leo Tolstoy [/small][/Purple]