comma after direct speech (BrE vs. AmE; quotation): found," the

majlo

majlo

Banned
Union of European Socialist Republics
Polish
Hey,
"According to Dr. Lee, preliminary findings indicate that the death appears to be a suicide. It should be noted that no evidence of foul play has been found," the medical examiner's office said in a statement.
Is it the right order of the punctuation marks? Do BrE and AmE differ in this respect?
Thanks in advance
 
    • L

    la reine victoria

    Banned
    Relaxing at Osborne, Isle of Wight
    England, English
    majlo said:
    Hey,
    "According to Dr. Lee, preliminary findings indicate that the death appears to be a suicide. It should be noted that no evidence of foul play has been found," the medical examiner's office said in a statement.
    Is it the right order of the punctuation marks? Do BrE and AmE differ in this respect?
    Thanks in advance
    Click to expand...

    "According to Dr. Lee, preliminary findings indicate that the death appears to be a suicide. It should be noted that no evidence of foul play has been found", the medical examiner's office said in a statement.
     
    GenJen54

    GenJen54

    Senior Member
    Downright Pleasant, USA
    USA - English
    I believe La Reine Victoria's example, with the comma after the quotation mark, is the standard for BE.

    In AE, it is pretty much standard in news-writing that any punctuation ending a sentence goes inside the quotation marks. There are exceptions to every rule, however, including this one.
     
    foxfirebrand

    foxfirebrand

    Senior Member
    The Northern Rockies
    Southern AE greatly modified by a 1st-generation Scottish-American mother, and growing up abroad.
    We've had threads on this point of punctuation, and I didn't come away with any inkling that the [",] sequence was possible in BE, much less standard usage.

    Other BE stylists? Anyone have a stylebook source for this?

    My idea of the correct sequence is [,"] and [?"] and so forth for quote marks-- and the other way around for parentheses, [),] and [)."] and so forth.

    Real quibbles arise when the parenthetical or quoted passage is a question and the sentence containing it is not-- or vice-versa. Maybe someone else will have better luck than I did searching for the thread we made on that very topic.

    edit:
    well, here's the thread after all:
    http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=39821&highlight=parentheses

    .
     
    panjandrum

    panjandrum

    Senior Member
    Belfast, Ireland
    English-Ireland (top end)
    First of all, it's not a very good sentence. Here is a shorter seasonal equivalent.

    "According to my friend Bill, turkey is boring. The stuffing tastes better," the dinner table said in a statement.

    In fact, having looked more closely, I think it is a dreadful sentence.

    "According to Dr. Lee, preliminary findings indicate that the death appears to be a suicide. It should be noted that no evidence of foul play has been found," the medical examiner's office said in a statement.

    Is Dr Lee the medical examiner?
    Is the medical examiner's office reporting what some other Dr Lee has said?
    Who said that no evidence of foul play had been found? Was it Dr Lee?

    The confusion arises because the medical examiner's office is quoted as saying something that includes their statement, in reported speech, of Dr Lee's findings.

    Anyway, I'd like to suggest that punctuation as above would be my preference, regardless of the quality of the statement as a whole:D
     
    cuchuflete

    cuchuflete

    Senior Member
    Maine, EEUU
    EEUU-inglés
    Why doesn't the quoted portion end with a period/full stop?

    It appears to be a complete sentence.

    Once this is resolved, I can begin to worry about whether the comma belongs on one side of the ""s or another.

    With the ascendence of entropy,
    Cuchu
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Top