Official Ruling

Okay this has bugged me for some time now. What is the proper way of writing a question in dialouge? MS Word tells me one way, Works another and then I see both in practice. The two ways I see questions are as follows:

"What are you doing," Anakin asked.

"What are you doing?" Anakin asked.

MS Word likes the first method and gives an error on the second. MS Works will not give an error on the and this would be my way of preference. However, after using MS Word to write almost all my fics I have gotten used to the first method and my beta readers often spot it as an error.

I would like to hear what everyone prefers and hopefully someone could tell me which is the proper method.

 

To my mind the "What are you doing?" Anakin asked.is correct. The ? is the symbol for a rising inflection (usually taken as the signal of a question) in spoken speech, so I am assuming it would be the same for written text.

Kit

 

MS Word's grammar check is for the birds; don't trust it. English grammar is easier for human beings than it is for computers. (Though I've never had it misread a question mark like that... are you maybe adding an extra space?)

The proper way to put it would be:

"What are you doing?" Anakin asked.
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I just tested it four ways in Word and the only times it gave me the green squigglies were when I introduced extra spaces, once before the question mark and once after it (but before the quote).

"What are you doing?" Anakin asked. (proper, treated as proper in Word)

"What are you doing?" Anakin asked. (extra space after quote; Word still treats it as a proper sentence, as it is.)

"What are you doing? " Anakin asked. (green squigglies--space before quote)

"What are you doing ?" Anakin asked. (green squigglies--space before question mark)

 

OK, I'm going back into the archives of my English grammar classes here. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the way I remember being taught. To better explain the differences, I've added a bit more to the original text.

"What are you doing," Anakin asked, his voice betraying his shock as he looked on in horror. This is the correct format.

The other format would work in situations like the following:

"What are you doing?" Anakin looked on in horror, his voice betraying his shock.

Two different methods, same outcome.

 

The first would only be correct if Anakin wasn't asking a question. The comma replaces the period only in dialogue. It doesn't replace the question mark, the exclamation point, the ellipsis, or any other terminal punctuation. Ending it with a comma changes the meaning of the sentence--Anakin is no longer asking, just kind of making noise into the silence. Not that this would be out of character, but it's a very different connotation than an actual question.

 

Ok thx for the 'ruling' I hope that isn't going to be a big factor in the fic I just submitted to the archives... and it will be difficult for me to change because MS Word has gotten me in a bad habit.

I forgot to mention it but I meant to say in the original post that I am more inclined to believe the writers as opposed to the grammar check... it's been wrong before and it will be wrong again.

 

Oh, Lord yes. If you have an even slightly complex sentence, it tends to lose track of what the subject is!

 

I'm so glad you asked that question! I've come across that one a couple times, made a quick ruling myself (luckily it was the correct one) and forgot about it.... But at the time, it would bug me. Now I know what to do, and I don't have to waste those precious seconds making up my mind whether or not to put a question mark or a comma! Thanks!

 

MS Word has nothing on Strunk and White (let alone common sense).

 

By the way, there is an entire thread for this type of question-- The JCF Grammar Hotline is regularly visited by people who speak correctly and/or are English majors.