GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION
Dialogue or Conversation
Use a hyphen to join doubled prefixes.
Sub-subparagraph
“Will you go?” “Yes.”
n
n
Suffixes See the AP Stylebook .
“When?” “Thursday.”
n
Composition Titles Use italics, not quotation marks, for composition titles. See Composition Titles , Page 7; Composition Titles , Page 21. Nicknames Use quotes when a nickname is inserted into the identification of an individual or how an individual is referred to.
Question Marks
End a Question
How long will it take?
n
Placement with Quotation Marks Question marks should go inside quotation marks.
He asked, “How long will it take?”
n
Sen. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson
n
Miscellaneous The question mark supersedes the comma that is nor- mally used when supplying attribution for a quotation.
Jackson is known as “Scoop.”
n
Quotes within Quotes Alternate between double quotation marks and single quotation marks.
“Who is there?” she asked.
n
Quotation Marks
She said, “He told me, ‘I love you.’”
n
Direct Quotations Surround the exact words of a speaker or writer when reported in a story. See Dialogue , Page 8.
Placement with Other Punctuation The period and the comma always go within the quo- tation marks. The dash, the semicolon, the colon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.. n Wallace said, “She came back from Spain with an accent.” n “She came back from Spain with an accent,” said Wallace. n He described the experiment as a “definitive step forward”; other scientists disagreed.
n “I have no intention of staying,” he replied.
Running Quotations If a full paragraph of quoted material is followed by a paragraph that continues the quotation, do not put close-quote marks at the end of the first paragraph. Do, however, put open-quote marks at the beginning of the second paragraph and continue in the same manner, using the close-quote marks at the end of the quoted material.
n He said, “I am shocked and horrified by the incident.
“I am so horrified, in fact, that I will ask for the maximum sentence.”
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