I am assuming that a journal standard would take precedence in such a situation, but what about when it's not explicitly stated? Also, would the omission of full stops for 'eg' in British English apply to 'i.e.' as well? So that it would be 'ie' and not 'i.e.'?
I do know that journal standards should take precedence, but I was also wondering about punctuation when one has the abbreviation 'etc' at the end of a parenthetical phrase and sentence (assuming one would normally punctuate 'etc')?
Please refer to the following example.
I have a lot of research to complete before my thesis is finished (experimental setup, computer modelling, writing, etc.).
Many thanks for any answers or comments.
Cheers, Jack P.
Hi Jack! Thanks for caring. To my eye ".)." looks so wrong and too ugly. :-)
When you use an abbreviation as the last word in your sentence, you only use one period (full-stop) at the end of the sentence.
British practice of course is to have the fullstop (or comma, question or exclamation mark) after say, a closing bracket or quotation marks. See for example:
http://grammartips.homestead.com/inside.html and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_British_English#Punctuation .
Because you are tending to British practice,
you cannot share a single full-stop to signify the end of the sentence AND the abbreviation. If you do follow a strict US practice, then there is no problem, because there the period always comes before the closing bracket.
The first is a site that explains well the dilemma of teaching
punctuation, or in our case, of writing internationally for the
UK and the US reader. As a referee or examiner, I would allow
US or UK conventions (including spelling) but not both.
This is because there are bigger issues at stake, like "Is the writing
clear?" However, there are problems in preparing for target
journals that are on both sides of "The Big Pond".
So, I think the answer might be for us to use "..." in place of "etc."
Another work-around is for us to start the sentence with "For example,",
allowing us to leave out the etcetera entirely.
Yes, @Ian, this is what I'd prefer - 'start the sentence with "For example,", allowing us to leave out the etcetera entirely.' (Hoping to have got the quotations right). One might even be tempted to say "and so on" at the end of the itemization, if it'd not sound so unacademic.
@Michael: Because the full-stop was mine, not yours, you managed to get the quotes right for both US and UK markets.
Etc. should never be used. If you can't think of another word that is relevant, your reader won't either. I'd avoid it entirely. Regarding "e.g."--it is a Latin abbreviation, used instead of "for example." Unless "for example" comes at the end of a sentence, it is followed by a comma. It always has a period after each letter, unlike "et al." for which the et part is a complete word meaning "and." Abbreviations are generally used in notes, not in the main text. Hope that's helpful.
@Jack: Might you pause after saying "For example"? If so, use a comma after e.g.
You would pause after e.g., but that applies to reading it. You would not be using it in speaking.
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