716.0_3dafa5a1@fidonet.org>   
   From: alexander koryagin    
      
   Hi, Ardith Hinton!   
   I read your message from  31.07.2014 22:26   
   about Singing and punctuation marks.   
      
     ak>> I was told by one guy that the words of the song should be taken   
     ak>> in quotation marks. Like this:   
      
     ak>> Maxim started, and probably, he was not very good:   
      
     ak>>         "Bonfire is barely glowing   
     ak>>         And darkness has covered the camp."   
      
      
     ak>> Should I do it or the indentation of the song's words is enough?   
      
     AH> Seems to me we're dealing with a matter of style here. If this guy   
     AH> is (e.g.) a university instructor who's marking your work or an   
     AH> editor assigned by a publishing house with its own ideas, I'd   
     AH> suggest you do as he says for the time being regardless of whether   
     AH> you and/or anyone else in E_T agrees with him.   
      
   No, he is a usual person, although he worked in Russia as a tutor of    
   English. So, I asked it here just for interest, to ping the area and    
   awoke its inhabitants. ;-) I also believe that it is really a matter of    
   style. Besides, if it were the biggest problem of my text I would be    
   happy. ;-)   
      
     AH> AFAIC the indentation of the song's words is enough. You have seen   
     AH> me do exactly as you did when I cite two lines or more from a song   
     AH> or a poem... or an astute observation by a well-known & highly   
     AH> respected author such as Mark Twain or Sir Winston Churchill. Anne   
     AH> Stilman (USA) agrees that that's how such things are generally   
     AH> handled in formal English. You may see some exceptions in newspaper   
     AH> & magazine articles, where the column width is limited, or in   
     AH> Fidonet where we are writing informal "letters" to other club   
     AH> members. You'll also see them in novels where a fictitious dialogue   
     AH> goes on at length. If I didn't look further into the issue that's   
     AH> because my own understanding has never evoked any negative remark   
     AH> even during the time I spent as an English major at university. I   
     AH> could check out what the Brits have to say on the subject. But so   
     AH> could you, and evidently you prefer USAian English for reasons I   
     AH> well understand.... :-))   
      
   I prefer USAian English, but that guy is from Scotland. So, we try to    
   make the text readable across the world.   
      
   Bye, Ardith!   
   Alexander Koryagin   
   fido7.english-tutor 2014   
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