I'm really going to need you to hear me out on this one. This blog is what Backwards Writing Advice is all about, when it comes down to it. I'm here to call out what's wrong, so we can walk over a dangerous cliff, in order to fix what's wrong.
The end of sentence comma, in dialogue, I hate it... it's got to go, and it'll only go if we cross against the red light together. Now, let me present my case.
We'll start with a basic sentence in three different forms, nothing fancy, and you just think for a second about what might be amiss.
1. "The end of sentence comma sucks!" Mike shouted.
2. "Doesn't the end of sentence comma suck?" Mike inquired.
3. "The end of sentence comma sucks," Mike said.
Okay, if you've thought about it and come up with an answer, I'll go ahead and tell you what I see.
The punctuation is not consistent. Exclamation mark, question mark... comma...? *sigh*
Okay, for you grammar gurus, YES, I know that's the rule, and I know the reasoning behind it. But I believe that the reasoning is based on tradition, an agreed upon convention. It was necessary, because humans are not perfect, and we must agree at a certain point to make a rule and live with some imperfections. But when we realize that a rule is wrong, we ought not hold to it so tightly, merely because of tradition. Here's the argument in favor of the comma:
There's a period at the end of the sentence, outside of the quotes; therefore, there should be a comma within the quotes, because it is NOT the actual end of sentence.
My view: If this reasoning were consistent, you wouldn't need to put a question mark, nor exclaimation mark, within the quote. You would also put a comma, and then put the exclamation point or question mark at the end of sentence. What this says to me, is that the inside of the quotation marks is showing a full sentence, which ought to have appropriate punctuation at the end. And outside of the quotation marks is a second sentence, which ought to have appropriate punctuation. #backwardswritingadvice
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