Wednesday, July 16, 2008

commas, etc. inside or outside quotation marks

Harbrace 16e(1) Place the comma within the quotation marks. Place the period within the quotation marks if the quotation ends the sentence.

16e(2) Place the semicolon and the colon outside the quotation marks.
She spoke of "the protagonists"; yet I remembered only one in "The Tell-Tale Heart": the mad murderer.

16e(3) Place the question mark, the exclamation point, and the dash within the quotation marks when they apply only to the quoted matter. Place them outside when they do not.

Pilate asked, "What is truth?"

What is the meaning of the term "half-truth"?

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