Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Please, Please, Please

You know who you are...


How to use Quotation Marks " "

Note that commas and periods go inside the closing quotation mark in conventional American usage.

Example:

He asked, "Will you be there?" "Yes," I answered, "I'll look for you in the foyer."

Colons and semicolons go outside; and placement of question and exclamation marks depends on the situation.

Put a dash, question mark, or exclamation point within closing quotation marks when the punctuation applies to the quotation itself and outside when it applies to the whole sentence.

Example:

Philip asked, "Do you need this book?"

Does Dr. Lim always say to her students, "You must work harder"?

Sharon shouted enthusiastically, "We won! We won!"

I can't believe you actually like that song, "Tears"!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes Mrs. Clem :)

Melba said...

ummm, do we have a test on this next week?