Quotation
Transitions
Quoted
Material
Periods
and Commas
Semi-colons
and Colons
Question
Marks and Exclamation Points
Quotation Transitions
When punctuating a quotation transition, it is essential to discover if the words lead without interruption or with interruption. If there is an interruption into the quotation, you must use either a comma or a colon to signal this interruption.
Martin Luther King said: "I have a dream."If the group of words which comprise the quotation transition is a complete sentence at the interruption point, you must use a colon because the colon in this case is used as an end mark of punctuation similar to the grammatical function of a period.
If the quotation transition moves into
the quotation without any interruption, no mark of punctuation is needed.
When you use an uninterrupted quotation transition and the first letter
of the quoted materials begins with a capital letter, you must lower-case
the first letter of the quotation.
Abraham Lincoln stated that "in a larger sense we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow" this ground anymore then the men who died here.
Periods and Commas
Periods
and commas are always positioned inside quotation marks.
Semi-colons and Colons
Semi-colons
and colons always come outside quotation marks.
When should you use a semi-colon? Semi-colons are used to exemplify, to qualify, to elaborate a statement.
The following examples explain how to use semi-colons properly.
To exemplify:
Global warming is escalating; for example,
the Columbia Ice Shield is loosing its thickness at an alarmingly fast
rate.
To qualify:
Higher education is increasingly costly
in Canada; however, ignorance is even more expensive.
To elaborate:
Health care cuts have affected the morale
of hospital employees; that is, budget cuts have affected the kind
and quality of service that health care workers can deliver, and indeed,
has resulted an increase in part-time staff.
Colons are used to order long lists--typically more than three items. Use semi-colons in between each listed item. Two spaces follow the colon and then one space after each semi-colon.
The following issues have not dominated the federal policy agenda: day care; a national education system; women's health; child poverty.
Sometimes you can bullet the long list of items.
On a typical day, a primary teacher has to perform the following responsibilities:
Question
marks and exclamation points come inside or outside quotation marks depending
upon whether the question mark or the exclamation point applies to the
quoted material only or to the entire sentence. If the question mark
or the exclamation point applies only to the quoted material, these marks
of punctuation come inside the quotation mark. If the question mark
or exclamation point apply to the entire sentence, not just the quoted
material, these marks of punctuation come outside the quotation mark.