# Spelling \*\*nitpick\*\* **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 17, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510 "2006-12-17T16:13:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/1 "2006-12-17T16:13:16Z")
Re the “gopher wood” article: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mgopherwood.htm](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mgopherwood.htm) I’m sure you are aware that “Cyprus” is a country, and the name of the tree is “cypress”. Sorry, but misspellings are a bit of a sore spot with me. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/2 "2006-12-19T18:11:22Z")
\*\*Spelling **nitpick** \*\* That’s the way I’ve always spelled “nitpick.” I have heard of people spelling nitpick as “picnic,” but I’ve never seen it in print. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/3 "2006-12-19T21:13:17Z")
I prefer to couch it in terms of larval louse extraction. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/4 "2006-12-20T19:03:59Z")
Then there’s “Knitpick” which is picking those little balls of gunk off a knitted sweater. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/5 "2006-12-21T23:43:36Z")
[QUOTE=want2know] Re the “gopher wood” article: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mgopherwood.htm](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mgopherwood.htm) I’m sure you are aware that “Cyprus” is a country, and the name of the tree is “cypress”. Sorry, but misspellings are a bit of a sore spot with me. Carry on. [/QUOTE] Your “spot” can’t be very sore, WANT **2** KNOW ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/6 "2006-12-22T00:52:58Z")
Having once been a high school English teacher, I can sort of relate to that “sore spot”, but nowadays it’s a low priority with me unless my boss asks me to proof-read something she has written. (Is that word hyphenated, by the way? 🙂 ) Mostly it just makes me smile, and recently it made me _laugh_ when I, in a post, misspelled the word _booger_ as _bugger_, and didn’t get the good-natured jabs which resulted until the very last, when the penny finally dropped. :smack: If I were responding to the post, I might insert the word in question spelled correctly as a subtle hint, but I wouldn’t start a whole thread over it. **My** problem is commas. I wanna insert those suckers _everywhere_! As a former English teacher, you’d think I’d know better, huh? Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/7 "2006-12-22T00:57:24Z")
[QUOTE=Ignatz] Your “spot” can’t be very sore, WANT **2** KNOW [/QUOTE] _cough cough_ BURN! ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/8 "2006-12-22T01:04:29Z")
:o My bad. I mis-read that your post was about an _article_ and not a thread. Apologies if I offended, but what I wrote I will let stand, under _those_ circumstances, as I am sure you would, **want2know**. Guess that’s why I’m no longer teaching! Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/9 "2006-12-22T01:47:00Z")
> [@](#): > > **want2know** : I’m sure you are aware that “Cyprus” is a country, and the name of the tree is “cypress”. > > Sorry, but misspellings are a bit of a sore spot with me. I’m terrible at spelling, but I shudder when a red-blooded American puts a period outside quotation marks as in your first sentence. The Brits can get away with it and maybe the Aussies, but don’t commit that crime in the States! ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/10 "2006-12-22T03:10:56Z")
I do that, too, **Zoe**. I thought the period only went inside the quotes if the quote was a free-standing word or sentence. Can you…ahem… elucidate? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/11 "2006-12-22T05:05:20Z")
Hi, darlin’ Starvin’! Merry Christmas! It is commonly accepted practice in the United States that periods and commas will always\* go within the quotation marks. Question marks and exclamation marks depend on how they are used: June asked quietly, “Will you meet me at the cafe?” Have you seen the film “The Best Years of Our Lives”? This naval officer in training from Tennessee described her ta-tas as being “bodacious!” I get so tired of your quoting that line from “An Officer and a Gentleman”! * * * \*There are one or two very bizarre exceptions, but nothing used in common, everyday writing. I don’t even remember the exception(s) anymore. I was told that the comma and period rule came from a typesetters custom that helped to keep the commas and periods from getting lost. In England they don’t care whether they have periods or not. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/12 "2006-12-22T05:30:34Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] Hi, darlin’ Starvin’! Merry Christmas! It is commonly accepted practice in the United States that periods and commas will always\* go within the quotation marks. Question marks and exclamation marks depend on how they are used: June asked quietly, “Will you meet me at the cafe?” Have you seen the film “The Best Years of Our Lives”? This naval officer in training from Tennessee described her ta-tas as being “bodacious!” I get so tired of your quoting that line from “An Officer and a Gentleman”! * * * \*There are one or two very bizarre exceptions, but nothing used in common, everyday writing. I don’t even remember the exception(s) anymore. I was told that the comma and period rule came from a typesetters custom that helped to keep the commas and periods from getting lost. [/quote] Hello, yourself, darling one (smooch!)…and a very Merry Christmas to you, too! 🙂 Actually, at one time I placed commas and periods within quotes but changed my ways based upon something I read around here somewhere (the Dope, that is, not this forum). Thanks for clearing that up. Now I can go back to the original method, which I feel more comfortable with anyway. [QUOTE=Zoe] In England they don’t care whether they have periods or not. [/QUOTE] So I guess menopause is no big deal, then. 😉 Ow!..ouch!..stop, that hurts…hey, I thought you were a pacifist…ow! ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/13 "2006-12-23T11:50:27Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] I’m terrible at spelling, but I shudder when a red-blooded American puts a period outside quotation marks as in your first sentence. The Brits can get away with it and maybe the Aussies, but don’t commit that crime in the States! [/QUOTE] Actually, that is a style issue that is slowly changing in the States, too. Now, what I’d like to know is why everyone is offering this poster grief for the simple fact that he/she posted a perfectly fine statement about a typographical error in an article found on the main site. I’d think he/she should have received a thank-you from the author and the error would have been corrected. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/14 "2006-12-23T16:33:26Z")
My apologies for the delay. I needed to recheck my sources to be sure that they were, indeed, talking about cypress wood rather than wood from Cyprus, so there’s been a little delay while I went back to the sources. In any case, it should be corrected shortly, and thanks to **want to know** for catching it. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/15 "2006-12-23T17:02:52Z")
[QUOTE=Quasimodem] … **My** problem is commas. I wanna insert those suckers _everywhere_! As a former English teacher, you’d think I’d know better, huh? Quasi [/QUOTE] I had an English teacher named Harry McGoon\*, who groaned at comma over-use. He told us to imagine having to pay a quarter for every comma we used. “If the sentence won’t collapse without that comma, take it out.” He was also peeved by the word “very.” He’d knock a point off your score for each “very.” > [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Now, what I’d like to know is why everyone is offering this poster grief for the simple fact that he/she posted a perfectly fine statement about a typographical error in an article found on the main site. I’d think he/she should have received a thank-you from the author and the error would have been corrected. Most of these posters are not boxing **Want2Know** ’s ears. We’re just in a festive mood, and we’re juggling and kidding around. **Ignatz** may have thrown a brick, 😉 I couldn’t tell. \*Yes, that’s his real name. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-nitpick/384510/16 "2006-12-31T19:13:53Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] “If the sentence won’t collapse without that comma, take it out.” [/QUOTE] Would he have taken out _that_ comma?