Thursday, September 18, 2008

QUOTATION MARKS - LESSON 2

BACK TO BASICS

Find and fix the error in the following piece.

"None of the stores are being expanded but all are undergoing multi-million dollar renovations, reorganizations and facelifts."
Dave Hall, "Zehrs stores converted in face of stiff competition", The Windsor Star, Thursday, September 18, 2008.


QUOTATION MARKS

LESSON B - Special Punctuation


Rule 3a

A question mark can be found outside the quotation mark if the sentence is asking about a quotation, but the quotation itself is not a question.
Did Mark Antony say, "Friends, Romans, countrymen"?

Rule 3b

When the question is about a quotation ending in a question, the sentence ends with a single question mark before the quotation mark.
Who said, "Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle toward my hand?"


Exercise

Insert quotation marks, capitalizations and punctuation in the following. (I have purposely left out all punctuation and capitalizations.)

did Oscar Wilde say ambition is the last refuge of failure

For another view of quotation marks and punctuation, check the "Back to Basics" entry above.


TODAY'S WORD

The word for today is "acerbic".
Define "acerbic" and use it in a sentence.

No comments: