What's the correct punctuation for quoting a question within a sentence?

Asked by andrew (16543

) November 4th, 2008

Something like:

When addressing the question, ‘What should I wear today?’, one must think about…

What should be done about the question mark vis-a-vis the comma? Oxford Style Manual states that you should use punctuation in both the embedded quote and the enclosing sentence, but only in the specific case of terminal punctuation where it serves equal but different functions, e.g. Did he really shout ‘Stop thief!’?

No conjecture, please. Oxford Style Manual rules preferred, but CMoS will work as well. Looking for an “official” answer.

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1 Answer

The comma is not required. You may leave it out altogether, or put it inside the quotation marks. Source (search for “quotation”).

That’s according to CMoS, and assuming you’re using American-style quotation marks (where punctuation normally goes inside the quotation mark).

If you’re using British-style quotation marks, then you’d probably leave the first example as you’ve written it (as this source suggests in its final example), though I think the section of rule 5.13.2 which reads “When the requirements of the quotation marks and the main sentence differ, use the stronger mark” should apply (source)—in which case you could leave the comma off. But I haven’t found an official example that speaks to that.

I have also seen examples in which the question mark is omitted, which seems like the worst option. I’d personally advise rewording sentences when possible to avoid this problem; none of the solutions seem elegant enough to be invisible to the reader.

bob (3223

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