P.S. You have no idea how much I hate putting that question mark in the final quote. But those who know tell me it is the correct (though not logical) way to punctuate.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
The beginning of a new word epidemic.
The only reason I am concerned about this issue is that I noticed it three times on TV this morning. The first time the newscaster, in referring to the recent shooting rampage in Connecticut, said that, "people are still in shock right now." Minutes later on CNN, another announcer said, "An investigation is going on right now." And, minutes later, another announcer stated, "Right now I'm live from..." In all three cases right now is redundant. Will this be another deluge of annoying grammatical inaccuries like the great "virtually" epidemic of 2009 or the unstoppable "literally" battle that continues to this day? Or will it be a infrequent annoyance like the newcasters who say such things as, "She was also cited for illegal parking as well?"
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In this case, I think the question mark should be outside the quote, since the original quote is not a question.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but others tell me that if the entire sentence is a question that ends in a quote, the ? must be inside. I should start trusting my own
ReplyDeletejudgement (like using an e in judgement because, damn it, I prefer it).
Gotta go with The Cat's Meow on this one. You are asking the question. You quoted the newscaster making a statement.
ReplyDeleteSee rule two at this site:
http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/quotes.asp