Re: punctuating quotations combined with references

Subject: Re: punctuating quotations combined with references
From: wswallow -at- nycap -dot- rr -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 13:11:41 -0400


There are several web references for English grammar that cover this oddity.

>From http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000104.htm :

If a question or exclamation is quoted directly, the quotation contains the question mark or exclamation point.
If the question or exclamation is at the end of the quotation, the question mark or exclamation point comes before the closing quotation mark.
A question mark can be found outside the quotation mark if the sentence is asking about a quotation, but the quotation itself is not a question.
In the rare case where the question is about a quotation ending in a question, the sentence ends with a single question mark before the quotation mark.

See also:
http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/exclamation.htm
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/research/puncquotes.html#Exclamation
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/grammar/quotes/basic.htm
http://www.txstate.edu/slac/writing/Quotmark.htm
http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/inside.html

...and a ton of others... Google found several pages of grammar reference search results alone.


----- Original Message -----
> That looks right to me, to have the reference and then the punctuation
> that ends the sentence. But if the quote itself had had an
> exclamation
> point in it, it looks weird to me, as though it's my son's punctuation
> and not Sinclair's. For example,
>
> Sinclair himself recognized the irony in his success, stating:
> "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the
> stomach" (Bloodworth 58)!
>
> Can anyone confirm or deny that this is the accepted practice, or
> better yet, provide a pointer to a reference document covering this
> issue?


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