The ever-confusing conundrum of the order of closing quotation marks and punctuation. There are certain circumstances in which the closing quotation mark comes before a piece of punctuation and others when it comes after. Usually when a direct quote is involved the piece of punctuation goes inside the quotation mark like this:
Together they would form, in the words of their press release: “The world’s first fully-integrated media and communications company for the internet century.”
In The BBC‘s article, “Why AOL Time Warner failed to change the world,” the previous quote appeared. In the same article, however, this quote also appeared:
“Shockwaves from the merger are already being felt around the business world”.
In the first example, the punctuation went inside the quotation mark and in the second, a sentence of similar construction, the punctuation went outside the quotation mark…hmm.
Unfortunately for The BBC, not only is this second sentence grammatically incorrect, it is not consistent with the manner in which quotes are managed elsewhere in the article. I praise you, BBC, for your excellent reporting and I look forward to the day of grammatical perfection in online news copy.
To capitalize or not to capitalize. That is the question. It would appear that the Fox News author(s) of this article, “EPA Issues Greenhouse Gas Warning Despite Concerns Over Leaked E-Mails” did not find the correct answer before going to press. This article, also contributed to by The Associated Press, wrote:
“These long-overdue findings cement 2009′s place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform,” she said.
I’m afraid the “United States Government” does not exist. There is, however, a “United States government”
and a “government of the United States”. If a particular committee within the United States government were being referenced then that name would be capitalized, but “government”, in this case, is not eligible for such a privilege.
The BBC had it right in their similar article.
Love Skype. Love eBay. Love The BBC. Do not love typos. Off the front page of The BBC is an article entitled, “eBay in Skype deal with founders.” Forgiving a few commas here and there whose presence or absence is open to interpretation, no copywriter worth her salt could let these “ises” go uncorrected.
The BBC said:
The deal, announced by eBay in September, is is expected to be finalised in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Freelance copywriter Amber would have said:
The deal, announced by eBay in September, is expected to be finalised in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Simple.
