Re: comma inside quoted-string-with-question-mark ?

["William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>]

Back when I was learning to write in a dark cave huddled against dinosaurs 
and sabertooth tigers, my teachers made a point of saying you include the 
punctuation inside the quotation if it is part of that phrase or sentence 
and outside if it has nothing to do with the quotation unless they would be 
the same either way.

For example:

1. He said, "Let's go to the movies."

2. We should look at "Let's go to".

3. Did you hear him say "Let's go to the movies"?

Obviously, if you move the question mark inside on the last one, it changes 
the meaning completely, as he did not say "Let's go to the movies?" but 
rather "Let's go to the movies."

In 2, a period after "to" is not correct as it is not a complete sentence.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>
To: "Lauren" <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>; <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 6:04 PM
Subject: RE: comma inside quoted-string-with-question-mark ?