English question

[Productivity]

Where do smilies fit into a sentence.

A. That was a joke .

B. That was a joke.

C. That was a joke

[Big_John]

i voted for b, but any of them are fine by me. depends on the context of the prose too.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

C

The period after the smiley looks stupid, and the smilie is part of the sentance so it shouldn't come after the period.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I agree with Sasaki, the smiley is part of the sentence and having a period after is sorta dumb, usually I use them to end a sentence so they act as an expression and a period.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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B. Smilies are graphical elements, not punctuation or a regular part of the sentence.
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[Beirut]

The smiley is not part of the sentence, but an affectation.

It comes after the period.

You don't show an emotion that states your frame of mind until you know what the story is. And the emotion you show is in relation to the entire context, it is not part of the context. The smiley is a suggestion, an adjective, showing both the writers intent and the reader's assumed perception of what the writer has written. This cannot come until the entire statement governing the smiley has been expressed.

It comes after the period. Unless it it incorporated so as to be a irreplaceable part of the context/phrase itself.

Such as; 'I like " or "I do not want to for what I did."

But in "That was a joke. " the smiley is obviously a condiment to the main course of the phrase. Not part of it.

It comes after the period.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I would personally write out hang and smooch or whatever. It depends on the person and until they are a valid piece of an english paper people can do it however they want, I will keep using them as an emotion and period though...

[Beirut]

I understand your point, but web writing is a world unto itself.

I have two sisters with Masters degrees and a brother two years into his PhD. They all write like ten year olds in their emails. Drives me up the wall.