It’s not that. It’s the fact that a guide is not a set of rules. That’s why a legal juristiction has one set of rules or laws, but we can have many opinions or guides. A style *guide *is only “rules” if your employer has made it so for you.
The French do have “rules”. Americans have “guides”.
What’ are’ you’ on’ about’ now’ you’ bleedin’ wanker’?
One was good, right? 
So what’s your point in all this? That there are no “rules” so anything goes? If not, how do you define the way people should write in order to be clear and easy to read and follow?
Not quite.
“Of course I would like some pie, thank,s’,”, said Sally. Crossing the room.
Periods and commas inside the quotation marks (for Americans), if you please. I’d also point that out to DrDeth if I thought it would do any good.
You know, you can find other hard words on that site:
Rule
1 a: a prescribed guide for conduct or action b: the laws or regulations prescribed by the founder of a religious order for observance by its members c: **an accepted procedure, custom, or habit **d (1): a usually written order or direction made by a court regulating court practice or the action of parties (2): a legal precept or doctrine e: a regulation or bylaw governing procedure or controlling conduct
2 a (1): a usually valid generalization (2): a generally prevailing quality, state, or mode <fair weather was the rule yesterday — New York Times> b: a standard of judgment : criterion c: a regulating principle d: a determinate method for performing a mathematical operation and obtaining a certain result
Grammar and punctuation have rules.
Yeah, that American convention of putting the period inside the quotation marks when logically it should clearly be outside drives me nuts too.
There are guides. You may pick one of several, or use any other *reasonable style that makes your writing easily understandable. Nothing wrong with picking one guide, or even bouncing back and forth between them. Maybe you like AP’s style on serial commas, and Chicago on something else. Unless your boss sez to stick with one, it’s OK to pick and choose, and even add a few oddities of your own. No one guide is the One True Right Way, despite that some here seem to think that if we don’t have a One True Right Way, communication will break down on the spot. Not to mention Armageddon.
*Which one could spell “Okay” or “Ok”. 
That sentence or whatever we can call that quote was completely grammatically fucked up.
This is one rule I’ll happily break, because more often than not it looks strange for single words and short phrases. Example: “I looked up the words ‘rule,’ ‘guide,’ and ‘pony.’” That just doesn’t work for me, as it implies the punctuation is part of the phrase. “I looked up the words ‘rule’, ‘guide’, and ‘pony’.” That seems much more sensible and easier to comprehend. On the flip side of the coin, inside the quotation marks for dialogue looks more natural.
“Who doesn’t like pie?” said Sally, room crossingly.
or
“Just give me the f*$#@in’ pie already” Sally said crossly.
Really?
Not a bad answer. Thanks.
DrDeth, get a load of the late David Foster Wallace’s Tense Present. He demolishes your laissez-faire descriptivist argument, slaps around stodgy prescriptivists, and then proceeds to review A Dictionary of American Usage. If you want to skip straight to the part where he beats up your argument, eats its lunch, and steals its girlfriend, skip down to the part where he begins discussing Philip Gove.
The entire essay is worth a read.
“That’s rather small for a pie,” Sally said tartly.
Feel free, but we’ll treat you as the pariah you so clearly are. 
I came in here expecting someone to link to angryflower, and was not disappointed, thanks. 
It’s too bad that cartoon doesn’t mention the it’s/its distinction, though.
Me too. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered a LOT of people who actually do know the difference between a comma and a period, but still don’t know how to apply them properly when narrating dialogue. I’ve complained about that before.
Actually, putting extra marks outside the quotes is “logical quoting”, I think it’s called, and it’s the standard in Commonwealth English, but its use is gaining traction in America too. I’ve come to prefer it. However, the standard of putting the comma to the left of the quotemark when narrating dialogue is the same on both sides of the Atlantic; see the previous link and the wikipedia entry. And if anyone changes that “both styles” bit without a cite again, I’ll revert it. :rolleyes:
*** Ponder
If it’s gaining traction in formal writing in the U.S., I haven’t noticed it. And this is one of my punctuation pet peeves–I always seem to notice it when it rears its ugly, rule-flouting head.
I guess I’ll disagree. Without an apostrophe, all of those look horrendous, especially the first example. “Three Ms”? Good God.
Disagree; I’m with Bosstone. They all look perfectly correct.