Beyond marking direct speech, quotation marks serve a variety of functions. They can signal skepticism, provisional terminology, nonstandard usage, or emphasis when italics aren’t available. There’s no reason to mock hand-lettered signs for their...
March 4 was National Grammar Day, an occasion that prompted thoughtful essays and discussions about grammar, as well as a Tweeted Haiku Contest, for which Martha served a judge. Arika Okrent, author of In The Land of Invented Languages, took the...
Martha shares a quip that’s all too true: “I don’t find it hard to meet expenses. They’re everywhere!” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Meeting Expenses” Grant, I came across a great...
A favorite quotation from George Eliot: “Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “George Eliot Quotation” Grant, I...
Has the age of email led to an outbreak of exclamation marks? Do women use them more than men? Also, is there a word for the odd feeling when you listen to a radio personality for years, then discover that they look nothing like your mental picture...
Where do you put those exclamation points and question marks– do they go inside or outside the quotation marks? Can you say, “We have the answer!”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Punctuation and Quotation...