There are some punctuation questions that I just can't find answers to. Here's the one I remember right now: DOES PUNCTUATION GO INSIDE OR OUTSIDE OF QUOTATION MARKS?
Sometimes it's easy, like when someone's talking. "I'm going to the store," she said. Comma definately inside the quotation mark.
But then there's other cases, such as when I put quotation marks around the word for some sort of emphasis or to mark it as some sort of jargon. He's with his "girlfriend". ?
What about when the quotation marks mark a title? Like, Have you read the poem "The Chimneysweep"? Surely not: Have you read the poem "The Chimneysweep?" No, actually, they both look dumb.
And the grammar books don't seem to address this matter! Whatever will I do? However will I know? Bah!
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Mara enlightened me. It turns out there's not really one rule for everything.
ReplyDelete- Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks.
- Question marks, exclamation marks, colons and semi colons go outside the quotation marks, unless they are a part of the quoted material. Did you hear me say, "I like ice cream"? Then I asked, "Do you like ice cream?"
Answers! Closure! Woo hoo!