Is this sentence: What kind of a mother would say, “That backpack looks ugly on you.”? correctly punctuated? Answer I read the AP StyleBook’s section on this and, yes–it is correctly punctuated. From APStylebook, accessed 10-3-2019, 7:37 am, It says, “Using parentheses with other punctuation marks: 1. When a complete sentence within parentheses stands alone … Read more
How does one display a date and a time on one line? Example: Sep 25, 2019 20:59 How would this be displayed on one line? Adding another , after 2019 does not look/feel right to me. Is there a rule? Answer I would write either Sep 25, 2019 at 20:59 or 20:59 on Sep 25, … Read more
I’m not sure which of these sentences is best: ‘There are a large number of alternative, sometimes dangerous interventions being performed on children with ASD.’ ‘There are a large number of alternative and sometimes dangerous interventions being performed on children with ASD.’ ‘There are a large number of alternative, and sometimes dangerous, interventions being performed … Read more
So I’ve got this sentence in my IELTS prep book: The chart shows information about how many people worked from home, in the USA and UK, between 2005 and 2010. The commas sound so weird. I would be grateful if somebody could explain what are they doing up there. Actually, the following sentence looks similar … Read more
I was reading a book where the dialogues of the actors were written in paragraphs. The dialogues, were broken down by the author into pieces of sentences, and between the pieces, the author inserted his thoughts/facts/humour, and then proceeded with the dialogue. For example, He continued, “Just after the Independence,” and rose from his chair. … Read more
My literature teacher was explaining punctuation and its relation to quotations when writing a paper according to MLA guidelines and I thought of a question that he didn’t have an answer to. I figured this Stack would be an appropriate place to try. If I’m asking a question that ends in a short quotation, how … Read more
I wonder if we need to use a question mark following “I wonder” for requesting something. For example: I was wondering if you’d like to come to the cinema with me this evening? Is using the question mark correct here? Answer Maybe, but I wouldn’t, since the question “I was wondering if you’d like to … Read more
Consider the following sentence: The baker may seem to be a gentleman, the butcher may seem to be a rascal, and the candlestick maker may seem to be a fool. Since the verb phrase “may seem to be” is pretty long, I might want to elide “may seem to be”. Can I use gapping commas? … Read more
Where should a period be placed when a sentence ends in a word that is meant to be copied exactly? Contrived example: Let’s say that my friend is house-sitting and I want to text them the password to my laptop. The password is password123. There is no period in the password. Which of these has … Read more
I’m unsure if this is written as: ‘Worse even, than…’ ‘Worse, even, than…’ ‘Worse, even than…’ Or without commas at all. I tried looking it up, but all I can find are examples of the usage of ‘worse still’ and ‘even worse than’. Answer Even has been inserted into the phrase worse than, so I … Read more
