Los comentarios y correcciones que comparto con ustedes a
continuación me llegaron a través de otra lista de correos,
gentileza del Sr. W. Kelly.

Sus observaciones me parecieron excelentes y extremadamente
útiles.

> First, let's discuss punctuation.
>
> In English -- at least in American English -- the comma [,] and
> the period [.] typically are place before the closing quotation
> mark, regardless of the meaning of the words. In contrast, the
> semicolon [;] is placed after the closing quotation mark, and
> the question mark [?] and exclamation point [!] are placed
> sometimes before, sometimes after the closing quotation mark,
> depending on the meaning of the words.
>
> The use of more than one terminal mark (such as ? plus ,) at
> the end of a phrase is now obsolete.
>
> It is not incorrect to introduce a quotation with a colon [:].
> However, that is a rather formal style more appropriate for an
> academic paper than for a joke. In fact, using a colon at all,
> even independent of a quotation, is a bit formal.
>
> With the above in mind, I would repunctuate your story as
> follows:
>
> --- start ---
>
> Two mice are sitting in their hole, watching the cat outside.
>
> Then one says to the other, "I know how to make the cat go
> away."
>
> "How?" the second mouse asks in surprise.
>
> "Watch. 'Bow-wow, bow-wow!'" barks the first mouse.
>
> Peering through the hole in the wall, they see the cat running
> away in fear of its life.
>
> "Ah, see the benefit of knowing a foreign language?"
>
> --- end ---
>
> Now let me suggest two further refinements.
>
> You begin your second sentence with "then." That is not quite
> right to my ear. The use of "then" suggests that something
> additional is about to be described after describing some early
> vigorous action.
>
> But in fact there has been no vigorous earlier action; the mice
> are just sitting passively in their hole watching. So I would
> delete the "then" and begin the second sentence:
>
> "One says to the other ..."
>
> You begin your last sentence with "Ah ... . " But the use of
> "ah" implies that the speaker is mildly surprised. However, it
> cannot be that the first mouse is surprised; he knew all along
> that knowing a foreign language is useful.
>
> So I would change the last sentence to:
>
> "You see the benefit of knowing a foreign language?"


Ignacio