You May Quote Me on That!

We all know that quotations are used primarily to set off a speaker's exact words. Of course, they also enclose titles of articles, songs, poems, and other smaller works. That sounds like a simple enough rule, right? Well, it is--in a way. The only tricky part about using a set of quotation marks is knowing where to place the ending punctuation. To make it even more irksome, our rules in the United States differ a bit from those in Great Britain, and because we see and read lots of material written by English authors, we get confused. However, back here in the good old U.S., we need to stick to our tried and true--red, white, and blue.

"Innies"

Periods and Commas: If you forget everything else, remember this one commandment: Periods and commas ALWAYS go INSIDE quotation marks. No fuss, no muss. I love absolutes (there are so few in grammar). Even a concrete rule such as this gets abused. I see that period stuck outside the quotation marks on the evening news, in the newspapers, even on Jeopardy! However, using it over and over again incorrectly never makes it right.

"Outies"

Semicolons and Colons: This rule is just as easy to remember and use: Semicolons and colons ALWAYS go OUTSIDE quotation marks. Again, no exceptions. I like it when I don't have to think!

"In-Betweenies"

Drat, now we have to think (but just a little).

Question Marks: If ONLY the quoted material is a question, then the question mark goes INSIDE the quotation marks. Take, for example, the sentence, I heard Beth ask him, "Do you want me to go?" The "I heard Beth ask him" part is obviously not a question. The question comes only from the quote; therefore, the question mark goes inside the quotes. On the other hand, look at this statement: Did you hear Beth say, "I want to go"? Here we have a different scenario. The quoted part is not a question, but the entire sentence is a question. Therefore, we place the question mark OUTSIDE the quotation marks.

Exclamation Points: This is the same principle as the question mark. Simply ask yourself whether the entire sentence is an exclamation or merely the quoted part, and then punctuate accordingly.

For more information and practice punctuating with quotation marks, visit the following sites:

Online Writing Lab
The Tongue Untied
Get it Write
Guide to Grammar and Writing