[stylist] Philosophy discussion and question about September monthly telephone gathering

[loristay]

For the most part, punctuation goes inside the end quote.  I've seen exceptions with question marks which are part of the greater sentence.  For example, if the question is totally included in the quotes, the question mark goes inside the quote.  If the quotes are around one or two words or a phrase that is not asking a question, the question mark goes outside the quotes.  In England they don't always agree with us, though.

A good reference book is Eats, Shoots & Leaves, by Lynne Trusse if it is available in accessible format.  otherwise, get hold of the Elements of Style by Strunk and White.  I know that one is.

Lori

On Aug 13, 2010, at 3:25:31 PM, "Jacobson, Shawn D" <Shawn.D.Jacobson at hud.gov> wrote:

A couple of things I would like to learn about from the writing instructor.

First--punctuation around quotation marks. I do a lot of technical writing for work, so grammar is not that much of a problem. It's just that you don't use quote marks much in technical writing; so I never got the hang of the grammar.

Research--tips on doing research for stories would be helpful.

Shawn