This compelling grammar lesson answers such thorny questions as this one: “Mom, does a period go before or after the last quotation mark?”

You can find the first in the series of grammar tutorials here; it’s all about compound sentences, coordinating conjunctions, and commas. And if that doesn’t create some excitement in the classroom, I don’t know what will.

Punctuation and quotation marks tutorial

This week’s tutorial includes the following:

An infographic to teach the material
A set of sentences your students can correct to reinforce the material
The answers to the sentences

There are only two rules (can you believe it?), and they are easy (again, is it to be believed?).

This lesson does not cover quotation marks in dialog. Tarzan is in charge of that here.

As you’ll notice by the infographic, these two rules are for American English conventions. The British English system handles punctuation with end quotation marks differently. Any of your observant readers will notice the difference between the American and the British ways of handling the punctuation and most likely have been confused about this huge and dire issue. But no more. Let’s go! For a PDF of this infographic, click here.

Here’s the exercise your students can do after they’ve learned the two punctuation rules.

Directions: Use your new powers of punctuation to correct these sentences. Only one sentence is correct as it stands. Click here to download a printable PDF of this exercise.

1. Roxanne promised, “I’ll go to the party with you”. However, she sent her sister instead.

2. You must admit one thing about deliveries marked “rush order;” they eventually arrive.

3. Someone stole her books, her magazines, and her file labeled “How to do a triple Lutz”.

4. The first story Mark Twain ever wrote, “The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, was an instant success.

5. I just read Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog;” I’ve never thought before of fog as a stealthy cat.

6. Uncle Art looked up and snapped, “It’s time you learned to be accurate”; then he went back to checking the columns of figures.

7. I answered, “That’s very good of you”, but I didn’t mean it.

8. I had to look up these words from the poem “The Bells:” tintinnabulation, euphony, and expostulation.

Teachers, here are the answers with the corrected punctuation in red:

1. Roxanne promised, “I’ll go to the party with you.” However, she sent her sister instead.

2. You must admit one thing about deliveries marked “rush order”; they eventually arrive.

3. Someone stole her books, her magazines, and her file labeled “How to do a triple Lutz.”

4. The first story Mark Twain ever wrote, “The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” was an instant success.

5. I just read Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog”; I’ve never thought before of fog as a stealthy cat.

6. Uncle Art looked up and snapped, “It’s time you learned to be accurate”; then he went back to checking the columns of figures. This one is correct as it stands.

7. I answered, “That’s very good of you,” but I didn’t mean it.

8. I had to look up these words from the poem “The Bells”: tintinnabulation, euphony, and expostulation.

Yours for a more vibrant writing class,