Grammar Geek mode

[ceebeegee]

I'm proofing another manuscript right now for WWIP, and while searching for a citation style in the CMS site, came across this:

Q. Realizing that every style guide I have read states that periods always go inside quotation marks, I argue that, if a quote is only a part of a sentence, the period at the end applies to the entire sentence, and not just to the quoted part; therefore, it should be placed outside the closing quotation mark. Does this reasoning “hold any water” at all?

A. Sure—but for style rules, unlike buckets, holding water isn’t always the main goal. Although the British agree with you and punctuate accordingly, the time-honored convention in American-style punctuation is to put the period inside the quotation marks.

I love the CMS Q&A, it's so chatty. I should look up what it says about "quote" versus "quotation"--another silly thing that irks me nonetheless.

Comments

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

What do they say about statement sentences that end with a quotation that is a question. Is ?". acceptable?

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

I'm 99.5% sure that's not acceptable but let me check anyway.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

I can't do a search on CMS for it because I'm not a subscriber but here's another style manual that says (in the Punctuation--Quotation" section) "when the question mark ends the sentence, the period is, of course, omitted." (I can't do a C&P because it's a .pdf document.) The period is assumed because it looks very cluttered if you spell it out. A good amount of style is how things look on the page.