Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm certain you've seen this common abuse. If you haven't, a glance through your spam folder will give you an opportunity to observe it.

An exclamation point is meant to be used with an interjection. If you're old enough to remember the Schoolhouse Rock video, an interjection "shows excitement or emotion. They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point, or by a comma when the feeling's not so strong." If you're not old enough to remember the video, click the play button.

Or, you can watch it later on YouTube at this link.

You would not use a dozen commas or question marks in a sentence, and you should not use more than one exclamation point.

An author friend of mine teaches the proper use of exclamation points this way: They are to be used if your character is screaming, yelling, or hysterical. If your character is not screaming, yelling, or hysterical, they are not feeling the emotion strongly enough to warrant the use of an exclamation point. Even then, do not put them at the end of every sentence once you have established the character is screaming. If he's involved in a fight, and the reader knows he's screaming, show the emotion once or maybe twice with the exclamation point, and the rest of the time through body language.

Enjoy the video!

~Marie

He said that she said what?

Everyone knows that one little line that looks like this ' is an apostrophe, and is used either to show missing letters or possession. Everyone also knows that two little lines that look like this " is a quotation mark, and is used when you are making a direct quote. However, what if your book character is speaking, and quoting something someone else already said?

That's when you need to know how to use single quote marks as well as double quote marks. Here's how they work.

If I am quoting something Jim said, I would write: Jim said, "Let's go to the store."

If I am quoting something Jim said, and he is quoting Steven, I would write: Jim said, "I wish more people would listen to my friend Steven when he says, 'People should live by the golden rule.' Then the world would be a much nicer place."

Note that what Steven said has single quote marks, while everything that Jim said, both before and after Steven's sentence, is enclosed in double quotation marks.

Although this happens fairly often in real life, as a general rule, don't do this often in fiction because it can be confusing to your readers.

~Marie

He Said What?

Quotation marks are always used to set part of your sentence or paragraph apart from the rest of it. They almost always come in pairs. Never forget to close a quotation.

In writing, they are used to say, “This part of my paper is exactly what somebody else said or wrote.” Do not use quotation marks when you are paraphrasing what the other person said or wrote.

If what you’re quoting is a long section from another work, and the quote takes up more than three lines of text, do not use quotation marks. Set the quotation off by putting it into an indented block.

For example, if Sam said, “I am going to the store,” you would use quote marks if you wrote: Sam said, “I am going to the store.” However, you would not use quote marks if you wrote: Sam said that he was going to the store, because although that conveys the information that Sam gave you, it is not exactly what he said.

Quoting someone exactly is called a direct quote, and requires quotation marks. Paraphrasing what someone said is called an indirect quote, and requires that you do not use quotation marks. Additionally, indirect quotes nearly always follow the word “that”.

Quotation marks have other uses as well. They must go around titles of short works, such as essays, song titles, magazine articles, and one-act plays, while titles of long works such as books, albums, and movies are italicized.

Quotation marks are commonly used when using a word or letter as itself, rather than using it in its usual context.

The only time quote marks do not come in pairs is when you’re writing dialog and your character is very long-winded. In that case, put opening quote marks at the beginning of his speech, and put new quote marks at the beginning of every paragraph, to show he’s still talking. Don’t use the closing quote marks until he shuts up. If you notice you’re doing this a lot, though, you need to work on your dialog writing skills. Books should not have a lot of monologues in them.

~Marie

Which Comes First, the Period or the Quote?

It depends which side of the Atlantic you're on.

This is a question that is constantly getting me in hot water with my composition teachers. The answer is a simple one. It’s just that my teachers don’t like the answer I choose. It’s all right, though my choice of placement has gotten me a few squiggly red marks on my papers, it hasn’t yet cost me my “A”.

American usage demands that all punctuation go inside the quote mark, end of story, no argument allowed.

British usage allows for a little common sense and asks, what is being quoted? If the punctuation is part of what is being quoted, then the punctuation goes inside of the quote mark. However, if the punctuation is part of the larger sentence, and the quote just happens to be at the end of it, then the punctuation goes on the outside of the quote mark.

For example:

John Doe of ACME Pharmaceuticals said, “We are not releasing any waste materials into the river.” What John said is a complete sentence that ends with a period, so the period goes on the inside of the quote marks, since you are quoting the entire sentence.

According to John Doe of ACME Pharmaceuticals, the company is “not releasing any waste”. The words “not releasing any waste” are a direct quote, so they belong inside quotations marks, however they are not a full sentence, and they are not the end of the sentence John said, so the period does not belong on the inside of the quotation marks. However, they are at the end of the sentence I wrote about what John said, so the period belongs at the end of my sentence.

~Marie

Using Commas in a List

When I was learning grammar, the rule concerning commas and lists was easy. In any list, and a list was defined as having three or more items, you put a comma between each item, including before the “and”. In other words, your list liked like this: “I need to go to the store to buy milk, eggs, butter, and cheese.”

When my daughter went to school, they taught her to omit the comma before the “and”, making the list look like this: “I need to go to the store to buy milk, eggs, butter and cheese.” This works well, unless the last two items on the list could be mistaken for a single item. For example, what if my list was slightly different? “I need to go to the store to buy milk, eggs, butter, macaroni and cheese.” Do I need to buy both cheese from the dairy case and macaroni from the pasta aisle, or am I looking for a box of macaroni and cheese from the prepared foods aisle? My daughter’s teacher told me that the comma belonged before the “and” only if there was some ambiguity in the list.

Out of habit, I continued to always put the comma before the “and”. None of my college teachers have objected to its presence. When I sat down to write this post, I decided to do a little research and find out the current rule of correct comma usage. I searched at least a dozen sources, and found a great deal of confusion. No one seems to agree whether to put the comma in before the “and”, or not. Some sources said the comma should absolutely be there, while others said it should only be included in cases of ambiguity. There didn’t seem to be a clear difference between US and UK rules. Finally, I found a resource from the University of North Carolina which seems to be the final authority. They say, “Put commas between items in a list. When giving a short and simple list of things in a sentence, the last comma (right before the conjunction–usually “and” or “or”) is optional, but it is never wrong. If the items in the list are longer and more complicated, you should always place a final comma before the conjunction.”

I’ll keep adding that final comma out of habit, but it’s good to know that while it is optional, it is never wrong.

~Marie