Speaking Semicolons

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features the semicolon, outside the closing quotation mark.

No one wants to be misquoted a semicolon. The punctuation mark’s nature—weaker than a period, stronger than a comma—allows it to convey a writer’s meaning or cadence. (Okay, maybe you speak in semicolons.) So, conventionally it appears outside the closing mark as not to disturb the quoted matter.

To me the distinction seems arbitrary. The period and comma can appear inside closing marks, why not the semicolon?

As always, your comments.

In your styleguides

The AP Stylebook page 336: “Place semicolons outside the quotation marks” and “within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only.”

Chicago verse 6.9: Semicolons “follow closing quotation marks.”

Gregg paragraph 248a: “Semicolons and colons always go outside the closing quotation mark.