jmsx521

Which one is the correct way... (I think it's the first one):

Mary said "John was at the park."

or

Mary said "John was at the park".


By the way, should my ellipsis be within the parenthesis, or are fine just the way they are outside.

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killned3

Well, this one depends... it differs depending on whether or not this is dialogue or narration that's implying John didn't actually go to the park. I'll assume it's the former. Proper punctuation would be:

Mary said, "John was at the park."

Glad you asked, because a lot of people write it the second way and it's somewhat irksome. Also, don't forget to add that comma when using dialogue in this way . . . that's a bit you forgot to include in the first place.

Hope to have been of help, and the best of luck to you. :]

Colt

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je33ie

Thanks Killned, I always struggle with this myself!

Especially:

Mary asked, "Why are you going to the park?"

or

Mary asked, "Why are you going to the park?".

I always feel like adding the full-stop (period) after the quotation mark because of the following example:

Mary asked "why are you going to the park?" because it was almost dark.

which requires a full-stop.

Any suggestions?

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HarryG

I would use: Mary asked, “Why are you going to the park?”

In the last example, I would use: “Mary asked ‘why are you going to the park?’ because it was already dark.”

The last example would depend on context.

Destroyer

I usually just put the name and the verb after the actual quote. It saves the hassle of working out how it goes.

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killned3

I see many writers add a period after their end punctuation mark in a quote, so you're not alone, je33. Any extra narration following dialogue deserves a period, like the example you gave, but if there is none, the end punctuation mark in the quote itself will suffice.

And HarryG, the second example you gave would be incorrect unless you were quoting somebody saying that entire thing. Otherwise, it would be as je33ie presented it.

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Azmakna

a question mark is, effectively, a full stop, but if you continue with the sentence outside of those hyphens, then a full stop is needed.

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mammamaia

Quote:

Mary asked, "Why are you going to the park?"

...that's correct...

Mary asked, "Why are you going to the park?".

...that's not... the ? is the closing mark, no other is called for... adding a period is wrong... and, in us usage, the period and comma always go inside the quotes... in the uk, the reverse is often done, if not standard...

...makes no sense on several fronts... first, you must have a comma after 'asked'... next, 'why' must be capitalized, as it's the beginning of a quoted sentence... lastly, the part after the quote is awkward and misplaced... should go before 'mary' to make sense...

...only because it's the end of the sentence, which contains a bit of dialog...


what 'hyphens'?

Quote:

In the last example, I would use: “Mary asked ‘why are you going to the park?’ because it was already dark.” The last example would depend on context.

...sorry, but that is wrong in any context, no matter what is meant... see above notes... to make any sense, would have to be:

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jmsx521

OK, so this is the correct way:
Mary said, "John was at the park."

However, I often see it this way:
Mary said, "John was at the park".
which is the incorrect way, right? Is there perhaps a certain case in which that incorrect way would be correct?

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killned3

Nah, I don't think you'd ever see that incorrect way as being correct...

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lisajane

No, that's why its called the INCORRECT way.

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HarryG

je33ie

Haha, love it Harry.

Mamma, I'm pretty sure Azmaka meant quotation marks, not hyphens.

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

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 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?"

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killned3

You wouldn't often see that. In a logically written story, "Harry" would have simply said it like this:

"Mary asked why you guys were going to the park, because it's already dark."

Though, your example is grammatically correct, I will give you that...

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