Welcome to Writing Tip Wednesday!

I’m still on a grammar kick. I was beginning to think I was “old-fashioned” in being a stickler for where the period or the comma went when using quotation marks, especially in seeing modern pieces online.

But, no, it turns out that the American English (Chicago Manual of Style) way to handle quotation marks is the same way I was taught as a kid. Even the Associated Press style that I wrote about last month, which does not use the Oxford comma, follows these same quotation mark rules as “American English.” (See what I did there?)

I think a refresher is in order for those of us writing in the United States.

Periods and commas go INSIDE the quotation mark, even if it isn’t logical.

          She called it “a masterpiece.”
          “I hate that word,” he said.
          “I’m tired of Allison writing about grammar,” moaned the reader.

Question marks and exclamation marks can be on the inside or the outside. They follow logic, depending on what it would do to the context of the sentence.

          Did she really say “I’m leaving”?
          He shouted, “Get out!”
          “When will we talk about something more interesting?” asked the reader.

The same logical punctuation is applied to the dash, the colon, and the semicolon.

The difficult part in remembering all of these quotation mark grammar rules is that we live in a global society. We read more works than ever from around the world. The rules I’m talking about are American English rules.

Even this quotation mark meme doesn’t use proper punctuation!

Heck, they are simply American rules. Even in foreign languages, most follow a different rule than ours. I once had an employee with impeccable English skills but who often made errors with quotation marks because English was not her first language. She was following her mother tongue’s grammar.

Our cousins in Britain use logical punctuation throughout with the use of quotation marks, including commas and periods. To illustrate, let’s revisit the sentence I used above:

          She called it “a masterpiece.” (American English punctuation)

But in England, it would be written this way:

          She called it “a masterpiece”.  (UK-style English punctuation)

There are other uses of quotation marks, such as titles, when italics aren’t available or practical.

          The boat “Luna” will set sail tomorrow at dawn.

They are also used to signify alleged:

          Brutus was a “friend” of Caesar.

And to refer to the word itself:

          “Men” is the plural form of “Man.”

With the sloppiness of today’s writing, including much that is published, even by respectable sites, it is difficult to keep up with proper grammar. Even in looking for graphics and memes to include for this piece, I found many with typos. A grammar meme with a typo. We’re doomed.

Here is a little quiz to test your quotation mark skills!

Test your grammar skills.

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Don’t forget! Leave a comment on any April blog post to be entered into a drawing for free books!

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Allison Keeton writes the Midcoast Maine Mystery series. Arctic Green, Book Two, is now available. She can be reached at http://www.akeetonbooks.com. Check out the event tab to see where she’ll show up next!

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Answers to the quiz:

1. Jack said, “We’re late.”
2. “Can I help you?” asked the clerk.
3. The child said, “My toy is missing.”
4. “Please stop running!” said the teacher.
5. “Let’s go to the park,” said Mia.
6. Tom asked, “Where did you go?”
7. Dad said, “Clean your room!”