At 01:22 PM 11/19/2003 -0600, Gary Kleppe wrote:

Quoting Mark Shurtleff <gaijin@sfcmd.com>:

"Smiled" as a speech tag is Incorrect (formal grammar) but Right (common

usage grammar). Once the discussion had reached this point of
contention,
the proper method of resolving the conflict is to invoke the unwritten
rule
of writing: the author is correct.

There's a difference between intentionally loose grammar for the sake of 
style,
and just plain sloppy usage. If I see "smiled" punctuated as a speech tag, 
I'll
be willing to bet a substantial sum of money that the author meant it to be a
separate action and either (1) doesn't understand the differences in 
punctuation
between the two, or (2) made a typo.

-Gary

Depends entirely on the author, Gary. You make that bet with me and you'd 
lose. :)

Relatively Absent, chapter 5: "You have quite a bit of 'other family', 
Ranma-kun," Aiko smiled. "I'm sorry circumstances have prevented you from 
knowing anything of your Mother's family up until now, but I hope to 
rectify that as soon as possible."

Done quite deliberately, since I got tired of using the "[character name] 
said with a smile" format as was done in previous chapters.


============================================================
Mark Shurtleff
email: gaijin@sfcmd.com
irc alias: Gaijin -or- togashi_gaijin
fanfiction homepage: http://www.sfcmd.com/fanfic
============================================================


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