The English Oracle

Break quotation in the middle of a sentence with a complete sentence

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Track title: Puddle Jumping Looping

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Chapters
00:00 Break Quotation In The Middle Of A Sentence With A Complete Sentence
00:43 Accepted Answer Score 12
00:56 Answer 2 Score 3
01:11 Answer 3 Score 3
01:52 Answer 4 Score 1
02:15 Answer 5 Score 0
02:36 Thank you

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Tags
#punctuation #quotations

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 12


"Please welcome" — he pauses for effect — "our very own John Smith!"




ANSWER 2

Score 3


This kind of sentence would usually be stated like this:

The announcer said, "Please welcome," then, pausing for effect, "our very own John Smith!"




ANSWER 3

Score 1


"He pauses for effect" is like a stage direction, and a commonly used convention is to put stage directions in italics and to isolate them somehow, perhaps by putting them in brackets, in parentheses, or outdenting them. E.g.

Please welcome [he pauses for effect], our very own John Smith!




ANSWER 4

Score 0


Well, I'm late, but the sentence should still always be written as a complete sentence, even if with dialogue. To make it a complete sentence, you need to connect the fragments with a transition word: "and", "then", etc. Long dashes work too, but are less elegant.