Hi, Carol:
Hyphens are my nemesis! I specialize in economics papers, and professors use concepts with numerous adjectives. Case in point is “short sale rule.” I left this unhyphenated because a “short sale” is a well-known trading term and there is no real chance of confusion. But a proofreader hyphenated all instances. Technically, that is correct. What camp are you in? I believe that there is no confusion here and the hyphen should be left out. I'm curious—
EditorMoore
Dear EditorMoore:
Hyphens seems to cause way more grief than their tiny size merits. In this case, you made a reasonable decision, given your knowledge of the field, and it was undone by a proofreader. But the question isn’t “Who was right?” It’s “What went wrong?” And what went wrong is that you didn’t communicate a departure from style to the proofreader. Next time, pass your style sheet along so the proofreader can honor your decisions.
Carol
I ran across this sentence in a proofreading job that encouraged me to nap for, well, ever: The next time Roger asks, “So what did you think about the game?”, offer a quick response. I think that’s wrong, because in American punctuation, the comma goes inside the quotation marks. But then there’s a question mark already there. And the sentence continues, so there’s that whole mess to contend with. So then I thought about moving the comma inside the quotation marks, but that seemed wronger. Is the answer ultimately no comma? (The solution I offered to the writer: The next time Roger asks about the game, offer him a quick response. But I feel like there has to be a right answer that keeps most of the original punctuation.) Frustrated Regards—
Dear SCE,
Mike
Dear Mike,
Your imagined rewrite is the perfect solution, but I understand that you’re still curious about the comma situation. Personally, I like the way you styled it in your question (except that the comma goes inside the quotation marks, as you guessed). The problem is, I can’t justify the comma in any of the stylebooks at hand. The Chicago Manual of Style allows it only if the quoted chunk is the title of something (a song or journal article). But to me, logic dictates that your comma be sanctioned. I say go for it. If you get in trouble, let me know.
Carol
Dear Carol:
I have a question about previous publication—several years ago I posted a short story on Gather.com. This short story became the basis for the first chapter of the book I'm writing. The original story was removed when I started writing the book, and the current version of the story is at least 50% changed from the original. What impact does this have on chances for publication? What can/must I do to clear any issues this creates? Would it be better to remove the existing first chapter and write an unrelated new one containing nothing of the original other than character names? I'm hoping you can address these questions in your blog, as I'm sure I'm not the only person in this situation. Thank you very much for your time.
Bryan
Dear Bryan,
First, kudos to you for considering who has rights to this content, even though you created it. How civilized of you! I checked out the terms of service at Gather.com, which state clearly that they “do not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service.” By posting there, you did grant them “world-wide, royalty free, perpetual, unlimited, and non-exclusive license(s) to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, create derivative works, publicly perform and publicly display such Content via the Service or on any other Skyword property”—but that still allows you to use the content in any way you like. Although you should disclose the previous publication to your publisher, I doubt that it will be a problem. Their rights department will advise you.
The lesson here is one you’ve heard before: read the fine print! When Skyward collects an Oscar for the movie of your first chapter, you’re going to seriously regret posting there.
Good luck with your book—
Carol
Readers: I would love to hear from you at my Questions and Suggestions page!
I remember asking a similar question in my 9th grade English class. In my case is was about a question within a question:
Why did she ask, "Where are you going?"?
I wanted that second question mark. I still want it.
So you'd think I'd agree with your wish to have the ? + , combination, but I'm afraid I don't. While it might fulfill my craving for logical application of the rules, it seems to me that the reader really doesn't need it. What do you think it would add to the sentence?
Of course I do agree with that the rewrite is the best solution, but it's still worthwhile to explore these technicalities!
Posted by: Valerie (Kyriosity) | 03/30/2011 at 10:46 AM
Ah, Valerie, a person after my own heart. I, too, wondered about the question-in-a-question situation. As a matter of fact, I posted it on the Chicago Manual of Style forum (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/forum.html; if you're a member of the forum, go to Punctuation, and search for "Double question mark"). Although the other forum contributors to my question disagreed, I felt that it should be ?"? I also agree that there's no need for the comma in Mike's example, but maybe that's just because I'm used to American punctuation rather than British.
Posted by: Patricia Boyd | 03/30/2011 at 03:55 PM
It's not that I think Mike's question demands a comma; it's that I'd like the comma to be accepted anywhere it normally would if there were no question mark. Here's an example:
The answer to "Dare I?" should you ask me, is obvious.
It's more clear with a comma:
The answer to "Dare I?," should you ask me, is obvious.
Posted by: Carol Saller | 03/30/2011 at 04:13 PM
Patricia -- Yes, I remember that thread. I'm surprised I didn't put my oar into that conversation!
Carol -- You're right, and that example makes it even more obvious. Fight on, sister! ;-)
Posted by: Valerie (Kyriosity) | 04/01/2011 at 09:45 AM
Valerie--The obsessive in me feels compelled to mention that CMOS, 16th ed., section 6.120, did have an answer to my question-in-a-question question (otherwise known as QIQQ). I just happened to see it now. It suggests using just one of the marks unless they're different or the meaning is unclear. So I guess it's just
What do you say when someone asks, "Can I help you?"
Posted by: Patricia Boyd | 04/06/2011 at 01:21 PM