This is True

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  A "Letter"? From an "Editor"!

Do the ! and ? in the title above, in relation to the quotation marks, bother you? Vindicate you? Make you wonder? Maybe you'll enjoy this little debate, which opened in the 22 January 2006 issue.

Julia in Virginia wrote: "I'm a professional copyeditor. Commas always go inside quotation marks." (Apparently professional copyeditors like to be terse.) I responded with a link to the relevant portion of True's Frequently Asked Questions list, which I'll reproduce here so you don't have to go look:

Q: Why does True use non-standard punctuation marks around quotation marks?

A: "Standard" depends on your point of view. An average American would write

I like "This is True," which I get every week.

while a typical Brit would write

I like "This is True", which I get every week.

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