Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Criminal Sentence 43: Question Marks and Quotation Marks

From an illuminating article about funeral arrangements:

Are caskets "one size fits all?"

The question mark should be outside the quotation mark in this case.

Question marks mixed with quotation marks can be tricky. If what you're quoting contains a question mark, then the question mark goes inside the quotation marks; if the entire sentence is a question, then the question mark goes outside.

Here are some correct examples:

Are caskets "one size fits all"?
"Do I look fat in this?" asked Mary.
Can you believe he called me "fat"?

1 comment:

  1. And yet there are style guides that insist the punctuation go inside the quotation marks, regardless. I hate that style and fight it continuously. Thanks for this post!

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