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.
Off the front page of BBC News, in the article entitled “Apec leaders drop climate target,” this freelance copywriter found a typo.
What The BBc wrote:
But leaders have failed to agree a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum.
What A. James Editing (also known as me) would have written:
But leaders have failed to agree on a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum.
While the aim of my site is to catch linguistic hiccups wherever I find them and not make comments regarding the politics of the day, I would still recommend that you read this article. It’s short, I promise.
There are, of course, hundreds of thousands of internet resources for writers. One of the multitude that I know about and regularly recommend to others, is Mediabistro.
Mediabistro offers classes for further writing development in the areas of your choice, information and resources, job postings for seekers, and resume postings for employers. I don’t use this site enough but this post has reminded me why I should!
Welcome to A. James Editing!
My name is Amber James and I help businesses, organizations, and individuals promote themselves. I achieve this promotion by copywriting, editing, or proofreading any print or web-based materials that you might generate. Such materials include articles for web publication, newsletters, website content, surveys, and brochures to name a few.
Please click on one of the links above for more information about what exactly it is I do and how I can help you achieve a higher level of promotion.
