Comments on: Punctuation: Pet Peeves

By: Connie Hale

Connie Hale — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:11:47 +0000

Excellent point, J. When the *entire sentence* is a query, the question mark must go outside the quotation marks, as in your examples.

But if f a statement ends in a quoted question, let the question mark inside the quotation marks be the terminal punctuation:

I was still eating my potatoes when he asked, “Wanna dance?”

By: J

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:39:01 +0000

One of my punctuation peeves is when people put the question mark inside the quote marks when they should be on the outside. For instance:

-Don’t you ever get sick of the song “California Gurls?”

-What do you mean by “the statistics were counted twice?”

-Can I be the first to say “You hyprocrite?”

I’m amazed that there are people out there that think this is correct. Sometimes I wish I would go through the screen and give them a big clue-by-four across the noggin.

By: Pregnant pauses and not-quite-full stops | Sin and Syntax

Pregnant pauses and not-quite-full stops | Sin and Syntax — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:24:07 +0000

[...] See For Writers and Teachers for a sampling of the kind of work we did in the class. If semi-colons still have you stumped, see A Punctuation Primer and Punctuation: Pet Peeves. [...]

By: Constance Hale

Constance Hale — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:32:45 +0000

Basically, Elise, you will never be wrong if you insist on a comma as well as a conjunction between two independent clauses. Sometimes, especially when the clauses are both short and parallel, writers and editors allow the comma to be dropped, as in “Lucy went to a party and I went to study hall.”

By: Elise Hahl

Elise Hahl — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:38:47 +0000

I have a question about pet peeve number 6. How can you tell whether you need a comma between two clauses joined by a coordinate conjunction? Do you have to decided based on the length of the clauses?

By: Constance Hale

Constance Hale — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:36:34 +0000

That’s a sharp eye, Sarah.

The way I read the appositive phrase (nice grammar, BTW!) $3 million a week is 5 percent of Target’s income. In other words, the appositive refers to the noun (5 percent) rather than to the prepositional phrase (of its income) modifying the noun.

That seemed like an not credible amount, but I just did some checking, and that does indeed seem to be the amount of Target’s current annual philanthropy.

Kudos to the NYT copy editors, and to Sarah for noticing such fine points.

By: Sarah Baker

Sarah Baker — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:23:42 +0000

I read in the NYT this morning, “…[Target] has maintained its philanthropy–giving 5 percent of its income, or $3 million a week, to causes in the arts, education, social services and volunteerism. I’m curious about the appositive phrase, (or $3 million a week, is it modifying income or 5% of income. Is Target giving away $3,000,000/ week or $156,000,000 a year? Or, is it 5% of 3,000,000 a week so $150,000/week and $7,800,000/year. Either way is generous!!

Thanks for the clarification.