Quotation rule

[TheUnsuspicious]

So I was reading SailusGebel's review for other authors. Because well, I was intending to ask for a review once my novel reaches 15 chapters. But then when I was reading his reviews for other novels. I saw one very important thing that he talked about.

Do you... need to put a period inside a quote?

For example.

"Hello, I am a piece of shit."

Do you need to put a period there? I never thought of this as a big matter. All of my stories never put a period. I always kept it empty. Like this.

"Hello, I am a piece of shit"

So pls for the love of god. answer me seriously. is this bad? like omg i may have to reexamine all my stories again from..... aaaaaghhh!!!! KILL MEE!!!!!
I've been writing for quite some time but no one had ever told me about this!!!! Grammarly never told me this!!!! WHY?!?!?!?!

....i think my soul just left my body

 

[SailusGebel]

 

[TotallyHuman]

you could ask your search engine

More Quotation Mark Rules - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University

owl.purdue.edu

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

Yes, i do believe that you add periods within quotes.
An exception might be if the quote is within a larger sentence that doesn't end with the quote. Here you'd use a comma instead.

"How lovely," she patted him on the head.

 

[foxoftheasterisk]

Yes.

Unless the quote is not the end of the sentence—then you use a comma instead, as in:

"Hello, I am a piece of shit," he said bitterly.

 

[Tumbmar]

Yup you add a period or a comma or any punctuation mark that denotes the end of a phrase or sentence in dialogue.
The only time I think you don't add punctuation with quotes is if the quotes is being used to highlight something, but that can be substituted with either bold or italics.
The latter is just a matter of style.

 

[TheUnsuspicious]

omg... im dying.... god... help me!

 

[georgelee5786]

You always put a period or comma there
"Hello, I am a piece of shit."
or
"Hello, I am a piece of shit," he said.

 

[Snusmumriken]

Yes, i do believe that you add periods within quotes.
An exception might be if the quote is within a larger sentence that doesn't end with the quote. Here you'd use a comma instead.

"How lovely," she patted him on the head.

This actually a bad example in my opinion as you do have two separate sentences here and this quote should be done with a period.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

omg... im dying.... god... help me!

Don't panic, its a minor mistake that is not always noticed.

 

[TotallyHuman]

You could use regex (I think even word has regex support) to add thems punctuation marks

 

[Snusmumriken]

If you are using quotation marks to denote speech or a dialogue, then yes they require punctuation at the end, like many previously mentioned examples above, because they are separate structures so to say.

If you are using them to quote something or to highlight "a powerful phrase" that is a part of a larger sentence then even commas might be unnecessary.

Example 1)

"Stop!"

He raised his hand. "Stop."

"Stop," he said.


Example 2)

The way that he said "stop" told me much about his heritage.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

This actually a bad example in my opinion as you do have two separate sentences here and this quote should be done with a period.

I like to use action tags instead of regular dialogue speaker tags.

You know what? I'm realizing punctuation nuance is hard. For myself at least.

"How lovely," she sighed, patting him on the head.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

I had always thought that this was a required writing rule. At least, my mother would get annoyed with me if I did it any other way. Though she also required me to use a British English dictionary for all my words so I'm not entirely sure. Using British spellings of words is a bad habit that I need to stop.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

If you're using MS Word, you can always use the search and replace functions to correct your mistakes.

It may be pretty tedious, but it's your only alternative unless you'd want to manually search your entire manuscripts.

 

[whitesculptor]

If you want to be grammatically correct, you have to learn all kinds of punctuation, but you can stick to not putting them if that's your writing style. That's not a strong enough reason for people to not read what you write.

 

[LORD_SHAXX]

Well seeing how grammarly always highlights it ad an error. I'll take it as a yes

 

[Sayu]

If someone is saying the words like,
"Hello" you have to put either a comma, period, exclamation mark, question mark, yada yada.
You put a punctuation that ends the sentence if that is the end of what the character is saying or if they have finished a sentence, if not, where the persona is continuing his or her or their speech and that is not a complete sentence you put a comma.

Example:
"Hello." Said John before falling into a manhole.
"Hello," said John, "how are you doing today?"
"Hello, I like not falling into a manhole and breaking my spleen." said John.

If you're quoting something like a sentence, you do not necessarily have to.
Like quoting Macbeth and the words 'My dearest love, Duncan' you do not have to.

Also the quoted line was said by Macbeth himself in Act 1 Scene 5, and considering the fact that in the prophecies Banquo's offspring was to be made Kings of Scotland and Macbeth a King, makes you wonder, with the lines 'My dearest love, Duncan' and the prophecies.

 

[TheUnsuspicious]

Well seeing how grammarly always highlights it ad an error. I'll take it as a yes

yeah I remember it showing up as a mistake. But i thought it was weird so i always dismiss it... i think my past me had actually disabled that suggestion... and idk how to recover it...

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Huh.

"That is a big frog." Robert looked on impassively, "I mean, a really BIG frog."

"That is a big," Robert looked on impassively, "BIG frog."

I always assumed inside the Quotes you used normal sentence structure and that what was inside the quotes was seperate from outside the quotes. One was speaking, one was not. The use of a comma in the first one after "That is a big frog," means to me:

"That is a big frog, I mean a really BIG frog." is what is being said.

The comma after "impassively" is what indicates that the person is speaking, but there is no need to put a comma inside the quotes, because, well, it's obvious WHO is speaking. Robert is speaking. You start with someone speaking, the first proper noun or pronoun was obviously the one speaking. You use this method of writing dialog to break up the monotony so you don't have:

Robert said,
Robert said,
Robert said,