When a question is an item in a series

heza · Sep 21, 2011

I wrote a sentence the other day, realized I wasn't sure how to punctuate it, and then deleted it so I didn't have to. The niggling question of how to punctuate still lingers, though, so I thought I'd ask.

So the question is: How do you punctuate a series of items in which one of the items is a quoted question?

Ex:

"So she ran to the door, yelled, "Is everyone okay in here?", grabbed the med kit, and started patching up the first person she came to."

I'm quoting a question, so I need the question mark, right? But for items in a series, I need a comma to separate them.... Is what I have right? Should I omit the comma following the closed quotes? Maybe this is a no-brainer, and I'm just being stupid this week.

Rather than focusing on rewording or reordering the example, I'd like to entertain theories of how best to punctuate it, as is. There has to be a rule, or an extrapolation of a rule, for it somewhere.

Fallen · Sep 21, 2011

heza said:
"So she ran to the door, yelled, "Is everyone okay in here?", grabbed the med kit, and started patching up the first person she came to."

Single quotes inside double quotes, hun.
Yes on question mark.

"So she ran to the door, yelled 'Is everyone okay in here?', grabbed the med kit, and started patching up the first person she came to."

heza · Sep 21, 2011

D'oh. Single quotes. I knew that.

But, so yes, on both the question mark and the comma, then?

allz28 · Sep 21, 2011

I like the way Fallen punctuated the sentence.

Fallen · Sep 21, 2011

Sorry, yep, you need the comma after the inner single quotes, hun.

heza · Sep 21, 2011

Sorry... one more time.

question mark, comma after the single quote... but I just noticed there's not a comma before the single quote. That was the one I was sure of. Reasoning?

Fallen · Sep 21, 2011

More stylistic choice than anything.

The four actions you mentioned are:

So she ran to the door
Yelled 'is everything okay?'
grabbed the med-kit
and started patching up....

So all I've done is separate the main actions with a comma:

So she ran to the door, yelled 'is everything okay?', grabbed the med-kit, and started patching up....

I know why you want a comma there: it's a speech tag. So you're rightly thinking: [she] yelled, 'Is everything okay?', but I just wanted to keep it one flat tone (in line with speaking out a list).

Take a look at these similar set-ups (only without question mark):

She ran to the door, wrote 'help me', fell, and...
She ran to the door, tapped 'help me', fell, and...
She ran to the door, screamed 'help me', fell, and...
She ran to the door, whispered 'help me', fell, and...

Each time I look at your 'and', though, I keep feeling tempted to add a 'then'. I friggin' hate 'and then's'....

Chase · Sep 21, 2011

Fallen, my good friend and grammarian, writes in the UK. Sadly, our US brand of English differs when it comes to punctuation.

Since I assume Heza in Texas is writing for U.S. publication, stateside punctuation differs.

CMoS, 5.5, "Multiple Punctuation":

When two different marks of punctuation are called for at the same location in a sentence, the stronger mark only is retained:

The pertinent example:

"Have you read the platform?" asked Williams in distress.

Note the usual dialog comma is omitted.

Thus, for U.S. publication, this:

"So she ran to the door, yelled, 'Is everyone okay in here?' grabbed the med kit, and started patching up the first person she came to."

No comma after the necessary question mark. Also note here in the US, commas usually go inside the quote marks. All of them. If it looks too strange, the writer can always write around it:

"So she ran to the door, yelled, 'Is everyone okay in here?'" The speaker gulped a breath and rushed on. "She grabbed the med kit and started patching up the first person she came to."

That's how I view it here, but it won't be the first time my version of "correct" isn't the most popular. If I need to be corrected, it's how we all learn.

Fallen · Sep 21, 2011

Nope, wouldn't surprise me if it were me, Chase. Having a really shite week this week.

Hadn't noticed location. Mind you, the way I'm going I've screw-up Brit Eng and gone straight into my own world of WTF?

Op's gonna sue me for being made to chase his tail....

heza · Sep 22, 2011

Thank you both for answering.

boron · Sep 24, 2011

Chase said:
Thus, for U.S. publication, this:

"So she ran to the door, yelled, 'Is everyone okay in here?' grabbed the med kit, and started patching up the first person she came to."

Couldn't the last comma be omitted, according to the "no comma needed before the last item in the list" rule?

Or the "every action has to be separated by a comma" rule(?) applies?

Fallen · Sep 24, 2011

@boron: some American publishers go by the Chicago Manual of Style, and the oxford comma (with the comma) is preferred. Some others don't.

Being English, the oxford comma is always just an option, although it's good just help clear up potential list srew-ups.

When a question is an item in a series

heza

Fallen

Stood at the coalface

heza

allz28

No Stranger To Rejection

Fallen

Stood at the coalface

heza

Fallen

Stood at the coalface

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Fallen

Stood at the coalface

heza

boron

Health writer

Fallen

Stood at the coalface