Complicated punctuation

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davkett

#107660 Sat, 11 Jun 05 02:14 PM

What would be the appropriate punctuation for:

What can be learned from this answer to the question, “Can you tell me why you changed my grade from a score of 16 to 15?” “Well,…16 just didn’t feel right to me.”

davkett

Joined on Tue, Jun 7 2005

Pennsylvania, USA

Senior Member (2,788)

"The rose stays fresh in its name..." -Bernard of Morlay

Punctuation

Mister Micawber

#107670 Sat, 11 Jun 05 03:12 PM

Awk! No matter how you punctuate, it's going to take a slide rule to figure it out; I'd reorganize it, Dave--

"Can you tell me why you changed my grade from a score of 16 to 15?"
"Well…16 just didn’t feel right to me."

What can be learned from the answer to this question?

ANS: The instructor is into numerology?

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,347)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

davkett

#107678 Sat, 11 Jun 05 03:33 PM

Your advice on reorganizing occurred to me. Except, in its context, the statement is third in a sequence of statements that start with the phrase, "What can be learned from..."

When you have nothing better to do, or if you can find your slide rule, would you want to take another crack at it, without reorganizing it?

Of course, the question in the original statement is rhetorical. But I laugh heartily at your answer. Good for a New Yorker cartoon.

davkett

Mister Micawber

#107685 Sat, 11 Jun 05 03:41 PM

I don't really want to try this, but how about:

"What can be learned from...

'Well…16 just didn’t feel right to me' (the answer to the question, 'Can you tell me why you changed my grade from a score of 16 to 15?')?"

-- or do I have to keep it in the same word order you had it?

Mister Micawber

Word order

davkett

#107703 Sat, 11 Jun 05 04:05 PM

Valiant effort. Didn't want to force you into it.

Your ?')?" at the end is just the kind of thing that blows me out of the water.

Did you, however, further complicate the punctuation by quoting my sentence, because your solution looks as complicated as the answer to punctuating the original sentence without changing its word order.

davkett

Word order, Punctuation

temico

#107768 Sat, 11 Jun 05 11:36 PM

Re: What can be learned from this answer to the question, “Can you tell me why you changed my grade from a score of 16 to 15?” “Well,…16 just didn’t feel right to me.”

What can be learned from the answer(to the question “Can you tell me why you changed my grade from a score of 16 to 15?” ), “Well,…16 just didn’t feel right to me.” ?

temico

Joined on Thu, Apr 21 2005

Full Member (274)

Mister Micawber

#107876 Sun, 12 Jun 05 11:27 AM

Oops! Yes I did, Dave. Website habit, I guess. Please remove it at your leisure. And say-- you never showed us how you would do it!

Mister Micawber

davkett

#107991 Sun, 12 Jun 05 04:03 PM

How about:

What can be learned from hearing the question, “Can you tell me why you changed my grade from a score of 16 to 15?” answered with: “Well,…16 just didn’t feel right to me.”?

(Admittedly, though the change in word order creates a slightly different kind of emphasis, the change does not harm my intent. I just don't see now how my original wording can make its way into print without visually confusing punctuation--even if there were an applicable rule.)

davkett

Word order, Punctuation

Mister Micawber

#108205 Mon, 13 Jun 05 06:24 AM

Yes, I think your approach is much clearer, Dave. How about grammatically compacting a bit more, then?--

What can be learned from the question, "Can you tell me why you changed my grade from a score of 16 to 15?", and (or 'together with') its response, "Well…16 just didn’t feel right to me."?

(I don't think that midfield colon works. Nor the comma/ellipsis combo.)

Mister Micawber

Colons, Commas

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