Okay Grammar Whores

[geminigirl]

When ending a sentence with a link to another website, is the punctuation at the end of the sentence included in the link or not?

(I realize that there's no consistency to how I do it, and I became curious about it.)

Comments

[sivart.livejournal.com]

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What I mean, is NO!

[geminigirl]

*cry* You yelled at me.

(But it's okay cause you answered my question.)

It's just aesthetically more pleasing when the punctuation is included in the link, but I figured there probably was a gramatically correct way to do it.

[sivart.livejournal.com]

I don't know that the MLA style guide covers such things. I actually find it more aesthetically pleasing with the punctuation outside the link.

This is a sentence with a link at the end.

vs.

This is a sentence with a link at the end.


The reason I say so, is because usually the link is a reference of some sort. The punctuation is not typically included in references.

[lovingboth]

Ditto.

[lovingboth]

Ditto.

[aynjel.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much in agreement with this. I don't know that there's something that covers it, but I find it more correct to remove the punctuation from the link because it is not part of the link.

[melebeth]

I visually prefer it as link. when I have to end a sentence with a proposition, but I don't actually type it that way because many programs then end up mucking up the link. And some people are two stupid to figure out what's wrong and fix it so then they whine at you for hours.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

do you mean a text link, or a spelled-out URL?

a text link, and the punctuation should be outside the link.

a URL, and i twitch like mad - i feel uncomfortable leaving punctuation off, but i feel even worse putting a period at the end of a URL. on the web itself, it's not a big deal. in a cover letter? dear lord, it gave me a headache for years.

[geminigirl]

I mean a text link. A spelled out URL, as much as I hate it, I generally leave unpunctuated because so many people whine that it doesn't work, or they can't figure out why.

[nexxcat.livejournal.com]

When I have a sentence ending in a spelled-out URL, my compromise usually takes form of putting a space after the URL to put the punctuation. I still twitch but it's the best compromise I can find, because I find a sentence like:

I have a webpage at http://www.domain.org/foo/bar .

aesthetically more pleasing than:

I have a webpage at http://www.domain.org/foo/bar

YMMV, of course (and yes, I'm twitching for leaving out the period).

Getting all pretentious

[tactisle.livejournal.com]

You could extrapolate from the rules for underlining; I don't know what the Chicago Manual of Style or its cronies has to say about underlining the period when e.g. a book title appears at the end of a sentence, but I'd follow that for hyperlinks.

Except, of course, that I wouldn't. My aesthetics dictate that I include periods in my links only when the period is actually part of the intended link text.

So if the link takes up a whole sentence, I will include the period. If my link is part of a quote which includes a period, I'll include it. Otherwise, I consider the punctuation part of the sentence - not the link - and treat it accordingly.

Re: Getting all pretentious

[lcohen]

CMoS doesn't say as best i can discern (i have a brand new copy of the 15th edition sitting on my desk), but i wouldn't underline the period and i wouldn't include the period as part of the link.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

I'd put punctuation outside the link text. Punctuating the link always looks wrong to me.