No, not a book from the old testament...I have a legitimate question for the grammarians in the audience. My Strunk & White is in a box somewhere, so I'll defer to more professional writers. When ending a sentence with a quotation, what is the proper use of a period or a question mark? Should it be inside the quotes or outside the quotes? Example:
Marie said, "Steve is a crack-dealin' no-good sonofabitch." or
Marie said, "Steve is a crack-dealin' no-good sonofabitch".
I've always operated with the former, but I've run into situations where it's not so clear. Is there a definitive answer?
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4 comments:
Always inside. Colons, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points all come after the closing quotation marks (except when question marks or exclamation points belong with the quoted matter).
--From the Chicago Manual of Style
What's the rule with parentheses?
The period goes inside the parentheses if it's an entire complete sentence.
If part of if words within the parentheses are included within another sentence, the period goes on the outside.
Here's the Manual of Style example:
"She was determined never to speak to him [her former employer]."
Dick is correct on both counts.
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