Grammar Question

S

sbryan

Well-known member
How do you end a sentence or introduce other punctuation to words/phrases set apart by quotations?

In "No Child Left Behind," children are indeed left behind.

Some call soda "pop."

I've always erred on the side of how actual quotes worked, which is what you see above, but a few professors have suggested it's the other way around (ex. Some call soda "pop".)

Is there a definitive answer for this?
 
Yes. Punctuation is a part of the sentence, so it comes after the quotation marks, not within them. Of course, something in quotes can also contain punctuation. But the last part of every sentence is a punctuation mark.
 
I've got a degree in English and that link that Larry listed is right on. Periods and commas always within the quotation marks. That's what I was taught.
 
I'm with Marlon and Hawk on this one. Periods, commas in. Question marks may be out depending on what part of the sentence the question is actually located in, as per Larry R's link.
 
I have another question.

Is it:

One adjustable and one fixed-height shelf...

or

One adjustable and one-fixed height shelves...

?

I want to err on the side of the latter phrase because of how it sounds when you attach a verb like "offer" to it.
 
That last one sounds screwy to me. My vote is for the first one. When I don't know, I change how I'd reply.

I would probably say, "We offer two shelves. One shelf is adjustable, and the other is a fixed height."
 
You put the hyphen in between the words of the adjective phrase. "Fixed-height" is correct. "One" is not an adjective in that sentence.

Now, the WestFest films may include one which has a one-eyed varmint, but in that sense, "one-eyed" is an adjective.
 
While we're on the subject of grammar, I'd like to bring up the fact that people are "who" and things are "that," even when their profession is used to refer to them. I should have included it in the grammar gripes thread a while back, but who wants to trudge through that thing again?

Examples:
Correct: Teachers who are on time will receive a red apple.
Incorrect: Astronauts that return to Earth are insane.

Like Marlon, I was also an English major; however, I don't know if the above is a rule or not. The degree merely enabled me to complete employment applications with far fewer errors than non-English majors.
 
american style

period - inside
comma - inside
colon - outside
semi-colon - outside
question mark - depends if it applies to the whole sentence or just the quoted portion
exclamation mark - depends if it applies to the whole sentence or just the quoted portion
 
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