Category: grammar

As someone that does a lot of quoting, I’m embarrassed to say I had to look up the grammer usage rule for a colon vs a comma when giving a quotation for my grade 5 class. I’m posting here for future reference.

There are few different rules but the main thing to keep in mind are these two rules which will help you get it right most of the time:

Rule 1: Complete sentence: “quotation.” (If you use a complete sentence to introduce a quotation, use a colon (:) just before the quotation.)

Rule 2: Someone says, “quotation.” (If the word just before the quotation is a verb indicating someone uttering the quoted words, use a comma. Examples include the words “says,” “said,” “states,” “asks,” and “yells.” But remember that there is no punctuation if the word “that” comes just before the quotation, as in “the narrator says that.”)

Rule 3: If Rules 1 and 2 do not apply, do not use any punctuation between your words and the quoted words.

And remember that a semicolon (;) never is used to introduce quotations.

The APA is supposed to have posted rules for blockquotes on its style blog, but it’s gone dark. I found, via the Waybackmachine, a copy of APA block-quotation examples(84KB .pdf).

(Link)

I was just wondering when or if it is more appropriate to use hyphens when writing “up to date”. In my quick research I found this:

Re: up to date vs. up-to-date

The rule is the same as for most other compounds like this. It depends on the function in the sentence. If it is an adjective, the hyphens are preferred: up-to-date fashions, up-to-date immunizations, etc.

If the phrase follows a linking (copulative verb), the hyphens are not needed.

The immunizations were up to date.
Her fashion sense required that she always be dressed in clothes that were up to date.

Just thought I would help the world out by posting that. I guess you are now up to date on hyphen usage because of my up-to-date tip.