- Right: "When a word is followed by both a quotation mark and ... an exclamation point, ... the exclamation point should come ... last, if it applies to the main sentence." [Abridged citation of [g] above.]
[j.] Do not use superfluous quotation marks:
1. Around the title at the head of a theme (unless it is a quoted title);
2. As a label for humor or irony.
- Superfluous: The "abstemious" Mr. Crew ate an enormous dinner.
- Better: The abstemious Mr. Crew ate an enormous dinner.
Exercise:
- Carew says, "that the profit comes from selling knickknacks."
- What's the matter with that horse? asked Williams. He's as frisky as if he had been shut up a week.
- "Who's your favorite character in the play?, persisted Laura. Is it "Brutus"? No, answered Howard; I admire his wife "Portia".
- "It's amazing, said Mrs. Phelps, how children love playthings. Helen Locke said yesterday, Hughie always tells me when I am putting him to bed, I want my Teddy bear".
- "You see, said Daugherty, the two offices across the corridor from each ether." "One is the county clerk's." "The other is the county collector's."
[The Apostrophe]
[97a.] In contracted words place the apostrophe where letters are omitted, and do not place it elsewhere.
- Wrong: does'nt, theyr'e, oclock.
- Right: doesn't, they're, o'clock.