Search results for 'tag:Question marks tag:Colons' matching tags 'Question marks' and 'Colons'

Re: Punctuation within quotes?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:06:53 GMT

These punctuation marks (the British call them inverted commas) come in two forms, double and single. The double quotation marks (opening â and closing â) are used to enclose the words of a direct quotation: She said, âIâll never see you again.â (They are never used in indirect quotation: She said sheâd never see him again.) They are also used to enclose words or phrases quoted from others or words that may be slang or that are in some other way being used peculiarly: The speaker tried to put a favorable âspinâ on his denial. The âpacification planâ was in fact simply a euphemism for a bloody conquest. But be sparing: most editors discourage the use of such quotation marks for effect rather than for a substantive reason, and overuse of these marks in any writing is affected.	1
Convention also calls for double quotation marks around the titles of short stories, short poems, short musical compositions, and the names of plays, chapters in books, and radio and television programs: Frostâs âThe Road Not Taken,â âEye Witness News.â (Titles of longer works usually require italics instead, and sometimes the decision is arbitrary or simply conventional: books of the Bible, for example, are almost always italicized rather than placed in quotation marks, and the same is true of the titles of Shakespeareâs plays.)	2
A key problem with quotation marks is which other marks of punctuation go inside the closing quotation mark(s) and which belong outside. In the United States, most stylebooks and most editors follow these rules: periods and commas belong inside, colons and semicolons outside. Other marksâquestion mark, dash, and exclamation point, for exampleâgo inside when they belong with the quoted material, outside when they belong to the main sentence. British editorial conventions differ.	3
When quoting a long passage of two or more paragraphs, the usual procedure in written American English is to use no quotation marks and instead to set off the entire passage of quoted matter by indenting it. If you decide to use quotation marks instead, however, the usual procedure is to begin each paragraph of the long quotation with quotation marks but to use a closing quotation mark only at the end of the final sentence in the quoted passage. In any event, use only one of these methods with any given quotation. See also POETRY.	4
British publishers frequently use single quotation marks (opening â and closing â) where Americans use double quotation marks. In American writing, however, single quotation marks are restricted mainly to enclosing a quotation within a quotation: The dealer said, âIâm sorry, I thought you said âI pass.ââ Note that a period goes inside both final quotation marks when the two quotations end together.

Re: question mark

Grammar Geek — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:50:33 GMT

Hi, stlouisfan, and welcome to the forums.

I think, if I were writing your sentence, I'd probably change the colon to a dash and use the question mark. But what I'd really do is put tthe question mark after the word "purpose" and then change the second part to "It's to prepare..."

Re: questions about possibility

Mr Wordy — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:51:33 GMT

Hi Tuongvan, you have continuing problems with spacing around punctuation.

You do not need spaces before question marks:

Who could have broken it ? -- incorrect (or non-standard)

Who could have broken it? -- correct

When you use a full stop, comma, colon or semicolon, put a single space after it, and no space before.

Situation1 :The window was broken yesterday .Now I ask Jim : -- incorrect

Situation 1: The window was broken yesterday. Now I ask Jim: -- correct

As far as your other questions are concerned, I've tried to describe my usage below, as best I can.

Who could/can have broken it? -- Both OK.
Who might have broken it? -- OK, but to me tends to suggest that there are a known group of suspects.
Who may have broken it? -- not natural to me.

Is Jack coming to Ann's birthday party? / Is Jack going to come to Ann's birthday party? -- These are the most common ways to ask.
Will Jack come to Ann's birthday party? -- OK.
Might Jack come to Ann's birthday party? -- Possible; more polite, and tends to imply greater doubt about whether he'll come.
May Jack come to Ann's birthday party? -- Could theoretically mean "does Jack have permission to come", but this use is somewhat old-fashioned, and the sentence is not very natural to me.
Can Jack come to Ann's birthday party? -- Fine. Asks if he is able to come (has permission/opportunity).
Could Jack come to Ann's birthday party? -- Same, but expresses greater doubt/politeness.

Could he have lost his way? -- Fine.
Can he have lost his way? -- OK, but less likely.
Might he have lost his way? -- OK; more formal.
May he have lost his way? -- Not natural to me.

Re: not much of an issue

Mr Wordy — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:11:32 GMT

1. "cease to be of an issue" is wrong. It should be "cease to be an issue". Presumably a typo.

2. I would only use "too much" directly with uncountable nouns ("too much cheese", "too much effort", etc.). "Burden" is, to me, always a countable noun, so "too much burden" is wrong; it should be "too much of a burden". Google search suggests that plenty of people don't agree with me though.

3. Either is fine, but it should be "a role in", not "a role on".

Your question is phrased OK, but (sorry, very picky) you have a spurious double space, you don't need a space before the question mark (in my opinion), and I would omit the colon.

Re: In-sentence lists of questions

Clive — Mon, 26 May 2008 03:39:49 GMT

Hi,

What is the best way to list complete questions in a sentence? Questions that should be read with the upward inflection?

For example:

The Document's inconsistent application and its selective inclusion of concerns raise troublesome questions: how might people determine which ideas should be rules, how should they ascertain which ideas have already become rules, how might authorities determine the content of binding ideas, what rights not mentioned in the Document should be protected, and which of these other rights should have equal footing with rights in the Document.

Is it best to use commas, semicolons, question marks?

I'd say the simplest way to do it is this.

The document's inconsistent application and its selective inclusion of concerns raise troublesome questions. How might people determine which ideas should be rules? How should they ascertain which ideas have already become rules? How might authorities determine the content of binding ideas? What rights not mentioned in the document should be protected? Which of these other rights should have equal footing with rights in the document?

Is there some reason that you need to capitalize 'Document'?

Best wishes, Clive

In-sentence lists of questions

Anonymous — Sun, 25 May 2008 15:46:09 GMT

What is the best way to list complete questions in a sentence? Questions that should be read with the upward inflection?

For example:

Is it best to use commas, semicolons, question marks?

Thanks, Jay

Re: Comma? Colon? Nothing?

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:55:39 GMT

Dont put the question mark after him, and dont put it after knight

Re: Comma? Colon? Nothing?

Yoong Liat — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:06:58 GMT

Futurehuman11 wrote:

In the sentence below, I'm not sure if I should use punctuation (e.g. a comma or colon) before the quote. Help!

Knight, who was on probation because of previous incidents, was fired in 2000, after 29 years at Indiana, for grabbing the arm of freshman Kent Harvey, who asked him (,?) "Hey, what's up, Knight?" on campus.

Comma is necessary after 'him'. Question mark is not required.

Re: The exclamation mark

Grammar Geek — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 21:45:48 GMT

A little, yes. Use a colon, perhaps, or even a question mark. Too many exclamation marks can look silly. (I use way too many in my e-mail to friends.)

Re: {[(1+2)3+4]5+6}7+8=505

Teo — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:33:42 GMT

http://evotalk.net/blog/?p=108

Symbol	Description
&	Ampersand (And)
*ã	Asterisk
@	At sign, at
\ã	Backslash
[ã	Open bracket
^	Caret
]	Close bracket
(	Open parenthesis
)ã	Close parenthesis
:	Colon
,	Comma
$	Dollar sign
â	Double dash
â¦	Ellipsis
â	Single quote
â	Quote
=	Equals
+	Plus, plus sign
!	Exclamation point
>	Greater than
<	Less than
#	Pound sign
?	Question mark
.	Period, dot
;	Semicolon
-	Hyphen
â	Dash
_	Underscore
	\| Vertical bar
{	Open brace
}	Close brace
%	Percent, percent sign
/	Slash
//	Double slash
~	Tilde