Punctuation

Question

I would be grateful if someone could help me to punctuate the following paragraph:

“Do you want a chocolate bar?, it´s Fair Trade!, do you know what Fair Trade is?, I can give you a leaflet but remember to recycle it later!”, said a young entrepreneur.

JoshStafford · Accepted Answer

“Do you want a chocolate bar? It´s 'Fair Trade'; do you know what 'Fair Trade' is? I can give you a leaflet but remember to recycle it later!” said a young entrepreneur.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you! I always have problems with punctuation!!!

BarbaraPA · Answer

Josh, any reason you used a semi-colon before do? I would have made that the start of a new sentence. Both are correct. I was jus wondering why you picked the semi-colon.

JoshStafford · Answer

I’m glad you asked. I love semicolons; they (at least for me) prod the imagination, guiding it to the imagery of the speaker, in this case extending his/her arm outward, palm upwards in a ‘here you are’ sort of gesture…maybe adding a little mocking or slight aggressiveness in the speaker’s face: “It’s ‘Fair Trade’; do you know what ‘Fair Trade’ is?”

A full stop would lose that (please, this is only my opinion), leaving it kind of flat or robotic. Also, at least for me, full colons have that same prod in that they guide the mind, answering the question of “what” or “why” that the imagination is surely to ask, sort of “here you are: this is why; this is what I mean…”.

A fragment from “Beneath a Bloodstained Moon”, my current work in progress where I use both:
Feng was called to help; each day he drove the prodigal to school, waited for him, and then brought him home to physical labour: mucking out the stables, making sure the horses had food and water, fixing fences. At night his mother drilled the prodigal in his studies as only a Chinese tiger mother can do, forcing his marks from fail to mediocre to a university entrance pass and acceptance to an engineering college in Toronto, Ontario.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I'm not sure the semi-colon is a great choice to join an affirmative statement to a question.

But it's all a matter of style.

JoshStafford · Answer

Grammar GeekI'm not sure the semi-colon is a great choice to join an affirmative statement to a question.

Agreed. There is no question (not yet); the writer is providing explanation before the question can be formed in the reader's mind.

As you say, it's a matter of style. Thank goodness also that I am as constrained by the rules as might be a student, although I am judged by my readership. The consequence of deliberately breaking the rules for me may cost me a reader or two, but for a student it may be the difference between pass and fail so I am careful, or try at least to be careful in what I post here.

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