Punctuation
Q. At the end of a paragraph, is a single word followed by an ellipsis considered a widow? My thought is that punctuation shouldn’t be considered, and that it would be a widow, but then the ellipsis does seem more substantial than a period or other mark . . . Answer »
Q. We’re having a discussion about dialogue, suspension points, and complete sentences in my editorial department. There’s some confusion whether it’s appropriate to have a period after suspension points, such as, “He walked the dog yesterday. . . .” Is it okay to have four dots like that? Or could we say, “He walked the dog yesterday . . .”? What about other punctuation? “He walked the dog yesterday . . . !” “He walked the dog yesterday . . . ?” I guess it comes down to this: what is the appropriate use of punctuation with the ellipsis in dialogue? Answer »
Q. My colleague and I are having a debate about bulleted lists (I can almost feel you rolling your eyes at yet another list question). We are debating whether something like “Be proactive” and other imperative sentences deserve a period when written as part of a vertical list. What’s your take on this particular dilemma? Answer »
Q. I would love to have your take on an ellipsis problem. I have my children’s book MS back from the copyeditor, and I’m not sure she’s handled instances of trailing speech correctly. I would use three dots in each case. But when I check CMOS, all the examples of trailing speech with three dots consist of grammatically incomplete sentences, and mine are all grammatically complete, so maybe they do take four. Are these all correct with four dots, or should it be three? There are tales . . . What did he say the day we threw the cobs . . . I just thought I’d try . . . Answer »
Q. A colleague and I work for an educational software company that is producing a music video, but we’re unsure of the conventions for capitalizing and punctuating the subtitled lyrics. It seems like I’ve seen a lot of subtitled lyrics with pretty sparse punctuation, but we’re just not sure and haven’t been able to find any definitive answers so far. Any suggestions? Answer »
Q. The sentence in question is “Probability was 1.0% at first, and 2.0% at subsequent, examinations.” I did not have a comma before “examinations,” and another editor added it. Technically, she is correct, since it closes a parenthetical remark, but it reads strangely to me. This is a word-limited document and we can’t rewrite in a way that adds words. Should I leave in the second comma? Answer »
Q. When the appositive rule (commas setting off a nonrestrictive appositive) bumps up against the rule that says a question mark shouldn’t be directly followed by a comma, which rule prevails? Here’s the sentence: The album’s first single “Do You Realize??” features a lush arrangement. Is it better to set off “Do You Realize??” with commas? Leave out the commas? Recast the sentence (which is what I wound up doing)? Thanks for your thoughts. Answer »
Q. One of my supervisors—a former English teacher—insists that the comma and semicolon in the following sentence are correct. I have no intention of arguing the point, but I would love to learn the rule so I don’t make the mistake again. (Yes, I’m too intimidated to ask him directly.) Is this sentence correctly punctuated, in your view? “Your professionalism supports our record for safety and quality, advances our worldwide reputation; and helps us to grow as an industry leader.” Answer »
Q. Hi there! For a sign for bachelorette parties, would the phrase “Bachelorette Out of Control” be more appropriate than “Bachelorette’s Out of Control”? The question is one of contraction, because I don’t see how “Bachelorette’s Out of Control” can be correct without “The” prefacing it. Thank you! Answer »
Q. I am editing a piece that makes several references to unspoken orders. For example: He climbed up the plank and handed the engineer a “go” order. Or, After ten minutes he signaled “stop.” Should these orders be in quotations? Answer »
Q. I checked throughout CMOS and find not a single mention of the interrobang. How could there not even be a single mention of such an intriguing punctuation option?! Answer »
Q. A question recently came up in an English class: how many semicolons can you use in one sentence? We discussed how many you should use, but we were still curious whether or not there is an official limit to how many you can use and still be grammatically correct. What’s your answer? Answer »
Q. Hello, Chicago. You state that “an opening parenthesis should be preceded by a comma or a semicolon only in an enumeration” as in (1) a brown fox, (2) a silver fox. There are no other exceptions. You also say that the same rules apply to brackets. Another editor wants this: New Westminster, BC: Pie Tree Press, [1988]. It looks very wrong to me! I say the comma goes, because the bracketed matter is an interpolation, not part of the original text, and the comma has no function. Therefore the punctuation should be as if that interpolation doesn’t exist. Answer »
Q. I have been asked to make only grammatical edits on a document. I believe my boss is misusing semicolons in a passage similar to this one: “Applications will be reviewed by the board. Selection criteria: (1) profession; (2) type of project; and (3) documented impacts of the project.” I was under the impression that semicolons are used in a series only when the items within the series contain internal punctuation. Would it be correct for me to supplant these semicolons with commas? Or would this be a stylistic change? Answer »
Q. Is there ever a circumstance in which there is not a space before an opening parenthesis? And accordingly, is text within parentheses always written without any additional spacing (as evidenced here)? Answer »
Q. A lot of times we have magazine spreads with titles like these: Answer »
Q. Is it acceptable to use a semicolon and and tagged onto the second-to-last item of a bulleted list? Apologies if I missed this on the CMOS site. Answer »
Q. Is it necessary to use a comma after words like next, then, after that, last, and finally when they are the beginning of a sentence? I am a lower-school teacher and need to clarify this. Answer »
Q. In a sentence, a colon should always be preceded by an independent clause. Why doesn’t the Chicago Manual state this explicitly? All your examples follow the principle. Why doesn’t the manual just say that the introductory clause has to be independent? Answer »
Q. Regarding em dashes, does CMOS continue to unequivocally oppose putting spaces before and after em dashes in typography? The font style on this website leaves at least a tiny space surrounding the em dash. Would it be CMOS heresy for me to stretch that space? Answer »
Q. I have written a novel and am currently working with an editor, and we have different attitudes toward the use of the semicolon. According to my editor I have used semicolons copiously, but I have done so in order to achieve the connection of thoughts and ideas that are related but not so closely that they require a comma, and in order to avoid a series of the staccatolike sentences that so much current literature is subject to. Is this acceptable in today’s modern fiction? Answer »
Q. Can a semicolon ever accompany an exclamation point? I’m not at liberty to share the actual sentence, but here’s an analogous one of my own creation: The missing cookies could mean one of several things: (1) Jane had gotten hungry while she was studying; (2) John had come by and helped himself—that moocher!; (3) I was snacking in my sleep again. I’ve solved the problem in this case by deleting the em dash and enclosing “that moocher!” in parentheses, but I’m wondering what the rule is. Answer »
Q. Why do you continue to support the nonpossessive apostrophe, as in CD’s, MBA’s? It serves no function whatsoever. Answer »
Q. My author is using the last half of a sentence in an epigraph. He begins it with three dots and a lowercase word. Does this violate the general rule not to use ellipsis points at the beginning of a quotation? Answer »
Q. We’ve been debating this one for quite some time. Should a comma follow a date that begins a sentence? (In 2009, . . .) I feel strongly that this is a proper place to put a comma, but others disagree. Is there a correct or incorrect way to use a comma in this situation? Answer »
Previous Page | Next Page