punctuation questions – By Word of Beth

A Word with Beth about Quotation Mark Quandaries

7 Comments / A Word With Beth, Ad-Lib Mondays, Grammar Q&A / By Beth

It’s the third Monday of the month, and that means it’s time to look at a grammatical question sent in by one of my readers. Today’s question has us looking at quotation marks. My thanks to the reader who sent this in. Here’s the question: I know when there’s a quotation, the end punctuation goes inside the quotation marks. Like this: “Where are you going, Mommy?” But what about when there’s a word or phrase in quotes at the end of a sentence? Is it: Bobby called it his “magic string.” Or is it: Bobby called it his “magic string”. Good question! Click to read the answer:

A Word with Beth about Puzzling Punctuation

16 Comments / A Word With Beth, Grammar Q&A / By Beth

Welcome to the first post of my new monthly Question and Answer series on grammar and word usage, “A Word With Beth.” In this series, I will do my best to answer questions sent to me by you, my readers, on the grammar and word use questions that have been perplexing you. To send a question, just email me at mail (at) flubs2fixes (dot) com and I’ll get back to you with the date you can expect to see your question featured. The series will run on the 3rd Monday of every month. The questioner will remain anonymous. I received a great question for this inaugural post, and it has taken some thought to come up with an answer. Here’s the question: Let’s say the character is reading an ad from a newspaper. In the text, the ad would be presented like it would appear in the newspaper, one line at a time. I included an example without punctuation. So, what is the correct punctuation, including quotation marks? Since it is being spoken by the character, thus treated as dialog, would you use a period at the end of each line along with quotation marks? I know in picture books that incomplete sentences are fairly common. Needed-One Blue Ox See Tall Paul #4 Pine Top Circle