Author Topic: Grammar websites?  (Read 2458 times)

pachnik

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Grammar websites?
« on: January 04, 2016, 07:06:35 PM »
I am looking for some Mustachian wisdom please. 

Can anybody recommend a good grammar/punctuation website? I work in a law firm as an assistant and I would like a good on-line resource for quick questions.  For example, the other day at work I needed to know how to properly format a block quotation.   I wasn't sure if I needed to use quotation marks around a block quote or not.

Thanks. 

Lski'stash

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Re: Grammar websites?
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2016, 07:12:44 PM »
Grammerly.com for most grammar related items.

Pursues research website for any research writing
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/

Grammar girl for anything else.
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl

Cathy

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Re: Grammar websites?
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2016, 07:15:51 PM »
The choice of how to format a block quote has nothing to do with grammar. That is more in the domain of typographical conventions. In general, with stylistic matters, there is no single right answer because there are many different ways to format text.

It wouldn't exactly be "wrong" to place quotation marks around a block quote; it would just be highly unusual and it would stand out to most readers. That is bad because you would generally want the readers to be focused on the content, not on the formatting. Hence, the appropriate style should be chosen based on the audience.

If the document is a court filing, the court's rules may specify a particular style to be followed. For example, the BC Court of Appeal has published a practice direction which specifies that papers submitted to the court are to comply with a particular named style guide, with certain modifications as described in the practice direction. If submitting a paper to the BC Court of Appeal, you would want to comply with those instructions, regardless of whether you like them and regardless of whether they are consistent with what you find on a given "grammar website".

If in doubt, you may want to ask your firm what style guide they adhere to for the particular kind of communication in question. If there is no specified guide, then you would look at what is common in other communications of that type. For example, if you are writing a letter to a client, you may want to look at what kind of formatting your firm has used in letters to clients in the past. If there is no guide to be followed, the overriding principle is just to avoid doing anything that the reader will consider to be wrong or unusual, because if the reader finds the formatting jarring, that will detract from the content.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2016, 08:00:17 PM by Cathy »

JLR

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Re: Grammar websites?
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2016, 07:24:26 PM »
My husband loves Grammar Girl.

deborah

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Re: Grammar websites?
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2016, 02:50:47 AM »
I agree with Cathy. Many work environments have their own style manuals to make documents look consistent. Find out what style manual your workplace uses, and go from there. Most of these style manuals are readily available on the workplace internet, once you know they exist, and where exactly the manual is.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Grammar websites?
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2016, 06:44:32 AM »
Cathy has it - different disciplines have different styles.

pachnik

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Re: Grammar websites?
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2016, 06:51:18 AM »
Thanks folks.  This is very helpful.

 

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