You can make toast with an iron, but you can't iron with a toaster.

Do you see a link to someones page here?

No, you do not.

Do I mention a persons user name?

No, I do not.

I'm asking you, Ms. New Shoes, to kindly remove your links to me as it is a common courtesy to ask a person before linking them.

 

If I say:

Copy and paste the following URL into your browser window "mttp://mindsay.comedy"

is it not understood that you would not include the quotation marks?

 

Or, if I say:

Copy and paste the following code into the body of your html document:

"<input class="noPrint" type="button" value="Print This Page" onclick="window.print()">"

once again, is it not understood that you will not include the quotation marks?

 

I have never, ever run into an instance where the quotation marks are meant to be included, at least not until yesterday. Today I am informed, in a rather pedantic fashion, that it is common knowledge that you include the quotion marks. Can this be? Have the rules for this suddenly been changed along with every other rule of spelling, grammar, syntax and punctuation of the English language laid to waste by the world of e-mails and IM's?

Say it isn't so!

I refuse to feel like a puritan or a nerd because I choose to write using complete words and sentences. And I stand firmly in upholding what I know to be correct. Please understand that when Dan Rather or some other reporter says, "The President said quote I will not run unquote", they are breaking a rule of journalism and proper speaking. It is a pretentious practice and perhaps because it is so common now that a generation raised on TV believes it is the rule. It is not.