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Grammar Workshop: Double the punctuation, double the fun? Not Necessarily!
by Jennie Ruby
When two or more punctuation marks are called for at nearly the same spot in your sentence, how do you decide whether to use both or omit one? And if you decide to use both, which comes first? Three places this question arises are with quotation marks, with dashes, and with parentheses.
With quotation marks, what do you do with a sentence like this? Do you keep both the question mark and the comma?
"Is this the correct design?", she asked.
The Gregg Reference Manual says delete the comma.
"Is this the correct design?" she asked.
What if an interruption set off by dashes contains punctuation?
The cattle--Can you believe how many there were?--crossed the road slowly.
Grammar books say keep the question mark and the dash, just like that.
What if an abbreviation needs a period inside parentheses, and the sentence ends right after the parentheses. Do I use two periods? In a word, yes:
He worked for several years with the company that manufactured the software (Adobe, Inc.).
That's one no and two yeses for using multiple punctuation marks in a row. I welcome any questions and complicated examples on this topic.
About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.
Want help with a grammar issue? Email us your troubles and we'll turn Jennie loose!
July 31, 2008 | Permalink