Part III: No Garage but Plenty of Mechanics in Visual Studio .NET

Creation Code 128 Code Set A in Visual Studio .NET Part III: No Garage but Plenty of Mechanics

Answer: Sentence B is correct Because the quoted words are not a question and the entire sentence is a question, the question mark goes outside the quotation marks

A word about exclamation points: These punctuation marks follow the same general rules as question marks In other words, NOT-50-DUMB RULE 12: If the entire sentence is an exclamation, but the quoted words aren't, put the exclamation point outside the quotation marks NOT-50-DUMB RULE 13: If the quoted words are an exclamation, put the exclamation point inside the quotation marks Here are some sample sentences with exclamation points: Ratrug said, "[ can't believe it's not butter!" (The quoted words are an exclamation but the entire sentence is not) I simply cannot believe that Ratrug actually said, "No, thank you"! (Now the entire sentence is an exclamation but the quoted words are not) For those of you who like to dot every i and cross every t: DUMB RULE 14: If both the sentence and the quotation are exclamations, put the exclamation point inside the quotation marks Take a look at this example: I simply cannot believe that Ratrug actually said, "Not if it were my mother's dying wish would I run for president!" No matter what, don't use two exclamation points: WRONG: I refuse to believe that Ratrug said, "In your dreams!"! RIGHT: I refuse to believe that Ratrug said, "In your dreams!"

Every hundred years or so you may write a sentence that has both a quotation and a semicolon (In 15, I explain the semicolon rules in detail) When you need to combine semicolons and quotations, here's the rule

DUMB RULE 15: When writing a sentence that includes a quotation and a semicolon, put the semicolon outside the quotation marks Sneak a peek at this example: Cedric thinks that polyester is a food group; "I can't imagine eating anything else," he said and Cedric said, "I can't imagine eating anything but polyester"; he must have the IQ of a sea slug Okay, maybe that last sentence was a bit nasty 1apologize to sea slugs everywhere

Now the topic of quotations becomes a little complicated Sometimes you need to place a quotation inside a quotation Consider this situation: Agwamp, President of the Future Engineers of America, sees himself as a paragon of popularity He doesn't want Archie to join the club because Archie wears a plastic pocket-protector filled with pens and pencils Agwamp wants Archie to dump the pocket-protector, but Archie is outraged by the demand You're writing a story about Archie and the Future Engineers of America You're quoting Archie, who is quoting Agwamp How do you punctuate this quotation Archie says, "Agwamp had the nerve to tell me, 'Your pocket protector is nerd-city and dumpster-ready'" A sentence like this has to be sorted out Without any punctuation, here's what Agwamp said: Your pocket protector is nerd-city and dumpster-ready Without any punctuation, here are all the words that Archie said: Agwamp had the nerve to tell me your pocket protector is nerd-city and dumpster-ready Agwamp's words are a quotation inside another quotation So Agwamp's words are enclosed in single-quotation marks, and Archie's are enclosed (in the usual way) in double quotation marks Which brings me to DUMB RULE 16: A quotation inside another quotation gets single quotation marks

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Another example: Lola says, "I'm thinking of piercing my tongue" Lulu tells Lola's mom about Lola's plan, adding a comment as she does so Here's the complete statement: Lulu says, "As a strong opponent of piercing, I am sorry to tell you that Lola told me, 'I'm thinking of piercing my tongue'" Lola's words are inside single quotation marks and Lulu's complete statement is in double quotation marks Commas and periods follow the same rules in both double and single quotations Which sentence is correct

A Angel complained, "He said to me, 'You are a devil'"

B Angel complained, "He said to me, "You are a devil" Answer: Sentence A is correct You must enclose You are a devil in single quotation marks and the larger statement He said to me you are a devil in double quotation marks The period at the end of the sentence goes inside both marks

Quote or quotation I've been using the term quotation because that's the correct word In conversational English, quote and quotation are interchangeable Strictly speaking, however, quote is what you do (in other words, a verb) and quotation is a thing (that is, a noun) See 1 for more information on when conversational English is acceptable