Quotes and punctuation ? - Page 2 - Writers Forum

killned3 · 05-04-2007, 05:18 PM

Why, thank you, Harry... I can say the same for you, as well.

mammamaia · 05-04-2007, 06:54 PM

don't know about the hyphens vs quotation marks... will have to wait for a reply from az...

Quote:

My sentence was just an example, and you dismissed it completely by moving the 'because it was already dark' to the start of the sentence.

i did so, because it was a very poor sentence... the explanation of why she asked what she did only works well at the beginning, not as you wrote it...

Quote:

There would definitely be cases where the speech would need to be in the middle of the sentence:

no, there wouldn't be... not 'need to' anyway, as there are always alternatives and the most workable one should be the one used, if you want to be a good writer...

Quote:

Mary stood up and asked, "Why are you going to the park?" before turning on her heel and marching purposefully out of the room.

Surely that adds more to a story

...not really... new writers all too often badly overword dialog tags, to the detriment of the writing overall, as well as to the sense of the sentence... and that is not the same thing as what you had above, re the 'park/dark' thing... here, it's a dialog tag with action added... there, it was an inserted narrative explanation of why she said what she did...

this is a good example of bad dialog tag extension... there's no reason all of that needs to be glued onto the dialog... the action/mood can be gotten over to the reader much more effectively, if separated...

Quote:

than (the better punctuated):

Before turning on her heel and marching purposefully out of the room, Mary stood up and asked, "Why are you going to the park?"

...neither one is really good writing... and both are action/dialog tag hybrids that are best not indulged in...

SeattleCPA · 05-09-2007, 04:04 PM

I think there's a trick you can use to usually determine where the quotes go... The quotes show the total thing said...that basically includes the words and any punctuation that's implicit is what the speaker says. E.g., the period at the end of the sentence, or the question mark..."

Also, the pragmatic answers to these sorts of grammar and punctuation questions are probably most easily discovered by pulling out the most recent copy of the Chicago Manual of Style. If one's budget doesn't allow for buying the current copy, hey, pick up a cheap used copy of a previous edition... and it'll almost be right.

je33ie · 05-09-2007, 06:03 PM

I saw an example of my confusion in a book I'm reading. It said something like this:

"Do you like fish?" Jamie answered with a nod.

This is two sentences but I first read it as one.

Now, in context, it was appropriate to have them on the same line (as it was a part of a larger paragraph). If the author had written it like this however there would be no confusion on who was saying what:

"Do you like fish?". Jamie answered with a nod.

I know this isn't gramatically correct but the first example confuses me.

lakotadan · 05-09-2007, 06:28 PM

"Do you like fish?". Jamie answered with a nod.

If Jamie is answering, should not he say "I like fish." Not "Do you like fish?"

"Do you like fish?"

"Yes, I do," answered Jamie with a nod.

Svalbard · 05-09-2007, 07:21 PM

Hey everyone,

I have a massive problem with been and being. I keep getting it wrong when I write. Any with the same problem?

lakotadan · 05-09-2007, 07:38 PM

been= I have been poor all my life, and I don't like being poor.

mammamaia · 05-09-2007, 10:01 PM

"Do you like fish?". Jamie answered with a nod.

both examples are wrong... no period after a ?, period!...

and the second part is narrative about another character, that should not follow immediately after the dialog... should be like this [but indented, of course, which i can't do here]:

"Do you like fish?"
Jamie answered with a nod.

killned3 · 05-09-2007, 11:59 PM

Yeah... I don't get why you can't indent on this website... it's a writing website.