Category Archives: punctuation

Years old: Hyphen or no hyphen?

Posted on April 26, 2013 by

  Today we’re discussing when to hyphenate the phrases years old and year old. Let’s take a look at two sentences: His son is four years old. He has a four year old boy. In the first sentence, you would … Continue reading →

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Inserting accent marks

Posted on April 5, 2013 by

There are times in writing when you have to deal with dreaded accent marks. I feel for you. I really do. I’ve typed enough French essays to cry cedillas. So here’s a handy list of accent mark names and how … Continue reading →

Posted in copy editing, foreign language, punctuation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Types of questions

Posted on March 13, 2013 by

Today we will discuss three types of questions: direct questions, tag questions, and indirect questions. We will also learn how to distinguish these types of questions and determine whether they require a question mark. Direct questions This is the most … Continue reading →

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AP vs. Chicago

Posted on January 8, 2013 by

The Onion posted a funny (well, funny to me) article yesterday about copy editing: 4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence NEWS IN BRIEF • News Media • News • ISSUE 49•01 • Jan 7, 2013 NEW YORK—Law enforcement officials confirmed Friday that … Continue reading →

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Inside or outside: question marks, exclamation points, and quotation marks

Posted on July 30, 2012 by

In American English, periods go inside quotation marks. However, this is not always the case with exclamation points and question marks. Whether these punctuation marks go inside or outside quotation marks depends on context. If the quote is a question … Continue reading →

Posted in copy editing, punctuation | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments