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potential use of comma after question mark-end quote

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 5:36 pm
by transcriptionist01
Note the following sentence:

When the waiter came and asked the age-old question, “Is everything okay?” all of the people who had just complained about their steak said, "Sure, everything is fine."

Ths is the only point of grammar I am confused about -- should there be a comma after the end quote after the question, "Is everything okay?"

Thanks.

Post subject: potential use of comma after question mark-end

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:51 pm
by nikita
Hello,

I know that the English punctuation is actually very difficult. I have been putting off getting into it for a very long time.

But I don’t think there should be a comma after the question mark and the quotation marks. It would look too cumbersome this way. Just imagine having something like ?”, in the text. :)

I will try to look it up in the Chicago Manual of Style, though.

Best regards,

Nikita