More Punctuation with Quotation Marks
March 31, 2005
A visitor to the Writing Guide asked about the proper punctuation of quotations in a couple examples where it looks as if doubling up the punctuation marks would be in order:
What is the proper placement of punctuation and quotes in the following two sentences?
- "Why is it increasing?", "Do you think it will continue to increase?", and "What is the smallest value?" are some questions a math teacher might ask their students.
- Unfortunately, this student's usual reaction is to make some rude remark, yell "I don't understand!", or not attempt the assignment at all.
Actually, I don't know of any instance in which using double punctuation would be acceptable, except in informal writing when showing exclamation and surprise ("?!?"). However, I must say that I was stumped, especially with the first example.
I turned to someone who is much smarter and more knowledgeable than I am—a former colleague of mine in the Calvin College English Department, who suggested recasting the first sentence and simply removing the comma in the second. Here is what the two sentences would look like with proper punctuation:
- Here are some questions a math teacher might ask students: "What is the smallest value?" "Why is it increasing?" "Do you think it will continue to increase?"
- Unfortunately, this student's usual reaction is to make some rude remark, yell "I don't understand!" or not attempt the assignment at all.
You'll notice that in the first sentence we put a complete statement first and followed it with a colon. We then listed each question in a more logical sequence, wrapping each one in quotation marks. Finally, we removed "their" to avoid the pronoun-antecedent disagreement (a math teacher/their).
For basic guidelines on using punctuation with quotation marks, see my previous entry: Quotation Marks. Please note, though, that the rules are different for Canadian/British English.
Comments (6)
I woulld like to know in english grammer, why do we say go shopping and go running, go out but why cant we say go studying? Is there any particular grammer rule? If so what is it?
May 7, 2005 ; 8:50 AM
when distinguishing an object such as "replacement windows" and then follow it with a comma in order to complete the sentence, should the comma go outside of the quotation marks or inside the quotation marks?
......"replacement windows",......or......"replacement windows,"......?
Jan 17, 2007 ; 2:26 PM
Hi Deborah,
In American English the comma should go inside the quotation marks. See my other entry on punctuation with quotation marks for more information.
Jan 18, 2007 ; 10:06 PM
how do you use quotation marks within parentheses?
ex: Every time I fell down, I had to pick my 150- pound bike, and restart it. ( The riding rule is, "If you fall, you need to pick up your own bike up, and start it yourself; the only help given is advice." )
is this correct, or, would I just put the quote with the sentence? With or without the parentheses
Mar 18, 2007 ; 3:59 PM
When listing several specific items in a sentence, does the comma come after the quotation mark? Emample: THE "BIRD", "BIRD (AND DESIGN)", AND "BIRD (STYLIZED)" HAVE BEEN FILED IN THE U.S.
Is it correct for the comma to follow the quotation when separating specific items within a sentence?
Sep 6, 2008 ; 12:16 AM
I disagree with your first answer. It is correct that you should recast the sentence, but then there is no need for the extra sets of quotation marks. It should be:
Here are some questions a math teacher might ask students: "What is the smallest value? Why is it increasing? Do you think it will continue to increase?"
The questions are separated by the question mark and the quotation marks aren't needed. A slightly more radical interpretation would remove even the remaining two quotation marks.
Apr 22, 2005 ; 1:55 PM