Business writing, common grammar mistakes, confused words, punctuation, verb and pronoun errors, sentence structure

Writing for Business:

quotation marks

Sep 9 2009   4:51PM GMT

Does a question mark go inside or outside of quotation marks?



Posted by: Ivy Wigmore
CIO, quotation marks, question marks, punctuation, quotation marks and punctuation, Business writing, Quiz

Which is correct?
After the presentation, several attendees asked “What are the drawbacks to _________
a. virtualization?”
b. virtualization”?

Answer: a

Explanation:
According to AP style, a question mark is inside quotation marks if that part is the question and outside the quotation marks if the whole sentence is a question. (The same rule applies to exclamation marks and dashes. Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks.)

Grammarbook.com has more information about quotation marks and punctuation.

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Jul 22 2009   12:07PM GMT

Use / mention distinction AKA words as words



Posted by: Ivy Wigmore
CIO, use - mention, words as words, quotation marks, Business writing, Quiz, when to set off words with quotation marks
typing Which is correct?
a. JeOS stands for just enough operating system.
b. “JeOS” stands for “just enough operating system.”

Continued »


Jun 24 2009   5:47PM GMT

When to use quotation marks



Posted by: Ivy Wigmore
CIO, quotation marks, Business writing
typing Which is correct?
The focus group for the new product thought the marketing approach was ___________.
a. “old-fashioned”
b. old-fashioned

Continued »