Talk:Samuel Johnson

Is there a Wikipedia convention about traditional punctuation conventions such as "Dr. Johnson", versus 20th-century punctuation innovations such as "Dr Johnson" (which is not standard -- indeed, not known -- among most English-speaking people, but has become standard in England in recent decades)? -- Mike Hardy

It's covered somewhat in the style manual. I've generally been trying (and sometimes failing) to treat it in a similar manner to British/American differences in spelling (that is to say, trying to keep things consistent within an article, regardless of which is used). Hephaestos

We've dropped the period (we call it a full stop) in Wales and Scotland too! Deb

Please can we drop the full stop on "Dr". He was British. It's the British convention. And it looks weird :-( -- Tarquin 22:27 Jan 2, 2003 (UTC)

It was not a British convention that Dr. Johnson was aware of, nor his biographer Boswell. Boswell wrote "Dr. Johnson", "Mr. Garrick", etc. -- Mike Hardy

We accept both US and British English spelling, but there's an unofficial tendency to use British for acticles about British things and US for US... BTW, Mike, I've been seeing your name on talk pages for months... you planning on getting a user ID? -- Tarquin 22:43 Jan 2, 2003 (UTC)

Putting a period (or "full stop") after "Dr" in "Dr. Johnson" is not more American than British, even though not putting it there is certainly more British than American. Some people who went to school in England before the convention of dropping the "full stop" became customary are still less than 65 years old.

Getting a user ID would entail admitting that I spend time on this stuff, but maybe I'll do it eventually. -- Mike Hardy