English Punctuation in Quoted Speech

Dionysus

I've a straightforward question on the correct place for the full stop/period in quoted speech.

Example: 'Tom has no views on the issue and thinks the argument is foolish.'

If I want to quote this fully I write: ''Tom has no views on the issue and thinks the argument is foolish.'
Full stop inside the quoted speech, OK?

However, I want to quote an extract from it, so where do I put the full stop? For instance in 'Tom has no views'. I know in former times you simply put '...' or '....' at the end of your extract. Simple. Nevertheless, is it now correct to put the full stop outside the quoted speech as the indicator that you have merely taken an extract from the full sentence?

That's all. Thanks.

FlutterinBantam

I have a straightforward answer-I don't know.

However, my opinion would be to put the full stop outside the quotation marks to indicate extract would be ok.

The Raven.

Dionysus wrote: »

I've a straightforward question on the correct place for the full stop/period in quoted speech.

Example: 'Tom has no views on the issue and thinks the argument is foolish.'

If I want to quote this fully I write: ''Tom has no views on the issue and thinks the argument is foolish.'
Full stop inside the quoted speech, OK?

However, I want to quote an extract from it, so where do I put the full stop? For instance in 'Tom has no views'. I know in former times you simply put '...' or '....' at the end of your extract. Simple. Nevertheless, is it now correct to put the full stop outside the quoted speech as the indicator that you have merely taken an extract from the full sentence?

'Tom has no views on the issue and thinks the argument is foolish.'

This is correct, as the quotation is a complete sentence.

In the case of an extract from a quotation, where the omission is at the end of a sentence, I would say that it is more correct to put the ellipses followed by a fullstop inside the quotation mark, as follows:

'Tom has no views….’

However, there are conflicting views as regards the ellipses, but this is my preference, although I haven't always written it this way. Also, if the quotation is within a sentence, there are other considerations.

Permabear

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