By that I mean

[Stacy Tegner]

How do you punctuate it?
i.e. "Who were they? And by that I mean, what were their positions?"

Comma, no comma? I've always done it as in my example, but I was just told by someone that they comma around "I mean" ~ arghh, seems minor, but I have an attorney who always says it, and I want to make sure I haven't been doing it wrong all these years!!

[Brenda Rogers]

I do it your way. "And by that I mean" is the clause leading into the next one. I see no reason to break that up.

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

[[ Who were they? And by that I mean what were their positions? ]]

I see no reason for a comma before or after I mean. It's choppy with commas and there's never even a pause when spoken.

[Jeannie Wright]

Stacy, I do it your way. I also have an attorney that uses that phrase a lot (I do electronic monitoring right now). If you set "I mean" off with commas, it changes the sentence and makes it cumbersome and perplexing (and I know there's not an English rule for "cumbersome and perplexing" but its still true. Ha!).

[Stacy Tegner]

Thanks all! Yeah, I had never seen the commas around "I mean" and thought it very strange. I would never do it that way (really jarring to the eyes and hard to read), but I wanted to hear what others do.

Here's another one I had today. Interpreter depo and the atty would ask his question; it would be interpreted; usually a pretty good pause while waiting for the wit. to answer; then atty would say "approximately" ~ almost like a new sentence.
How would you put it i.e. ~ When did you get hired [pause] approximately?
I'm probably overthinking this one, but the wit. was very slow and after the first question was interpreted, it was almost like a new statement AND he did it constantly!
thanks!

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

no comma. Anyone reading the transcript will have no idea that there was that pause and the CR will look dumb with all those commas.

When did you get hired approximately? LOOKS GOOD TO ME!

[Stacy Tegner]

Thanks, Marge. I needed a clear-headed answer. I've been reading "approximately" way too much and it started looking weird ~ could be b/c half the time b/c of the pause, I have it as an answer and then the real answer after that =)

[Brenda Rogers]

When there's enough of a pause, to where it's almost a prompting, I do
"When did you get hired? Approximately?"

I think it gives a better flavor of what happened.

[Stacy Tegner]

hmm, that makes sense too, Brenda. The atty also said "or not" tons of times just like he did w/ the approximately ~ i think i need a break from this tript. But maybe I do need to do: Blah, blah ...? Or not? and blah ...? Approximately?

[Jane McGill]

I agree with Brenda and put it as a separate sentence if there is a long enough pause in it (mainly because I've already stroked the question mark).

[Judy]

I've learned to always agree with whatever Brenda says. She's the boss.

Hey, Vernonica, are you the same Veronica that used to work at M&M in the early '80s making the manual corrections in the reporters' transcripts?

[Brenda Rogers]

LOL Judy. When you're not agreeing with me, I'm busy agreeing with you (see my latest Depoman post).

[YVONNE FENNELLY]

Sorry, but I think they are wrong. I only put commas around "I mean" when they say it almost like dashes. You know what I mean??

y.