FROM HERKIMER12
A writing coach received my chapter that included these sentences:
When I agreed to live with Nick, I neglected to point out that I expected this step would lead to marriage. I might start a sentence, “After we’re married this or when we’re married that.”
She changed it to:
When I agreed to live with Nick, I neglected to point out that I expected this step would lead to marriage. I might start a sentence, “After we’re married this or when we’re married that”.
I think she is wrong, but have not been able to find an example that proves either point.
In simple language, what is the rule?
RESPONSE
Alrighty...soapbox deployed and feet planted firmly upon it. Here's the stupid, ridiculous, fatheaded rule that most American English teachers teach today:
A period ALWAYS goes inside double or single quotes.
This rule is probably the king of my grammar pet peeves. For example, if some kid writes "Love and Kisses" on a rock outside a school, that dumb rule would force me to write the following sentence in this way:
On the rock was written "Love and Kisses."
See that? The kid did not write the period on the rock, just the words, but that stupid rule forces me to say that he DID write a period on the rock. But if you correctly apply the puncuation to what it applies, you write the sentence like this:
On the rock was written "Love and Kisses".
A sentence dictates the need for a period, not a quote. Let's look at the example:
When I agreed to live with Nick, I neglected to point out that I expected this step would lead to marriage. I might start a sentence, “After we’re married this or when we’re married that.”
First, I point out that there's actually two quotes in the sentence, so let's correct that:
When I agreed to live with Nick, I neglected to point out that I expected this step would lead to marriage. I might start a sentence, “After we’re married this" or "When we’re married that.”
Now...a declarative sentence ends with a period. Are these quotes declarative sentences? Nope. It states very clearly that each quote is only the beginning of a sentence. Therefore we KNOW the period does not apply to either quote, it applies to the sentence as a whole. So I agree with the writing coach. It should be written like this:
When I agreed to live with Nick, I neglected to point out that I expected this step would lead to marriage. I might start a sentence, “After we’re married this" or "When we’re married that".
So here's my good sensible rule to replace the stupid traditional rule:
If words inside a quote constitute a sentence, place the period inside the quotes. If words inside a quote do not constitute a sentence, place the period outside the quotes.
He said, "I regret that I have only one life to give." The words inside the quotes constitute a sentence. The period belongs inside the quotes.
He lived his life by one word: "honor". The word inside the quotes does not constitute a sentence. The period goes outside the quotes.
And yeah, I almost forgot...it's the same stupid rule for commas as well. Both commas and periods always come before quotes in America. For some reason, commas and periods are really, really special punctuation, so they ALWAYS must precede quotes. But punctuation like question marks and exclamation marks can hurdle back and forth over the quote depending on if they actually belong within the quote. No reason whatsoever for unmoveable commas and periods. For myself, I follow MY rule that makes sense and allows me to write what I mean. Vive la revolution!
Now I'm going to breathe deeply and calm myself with some tea, lol.