Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
Does anyone have any idea of the correct way to punctuate the following sentence (names changed to protect the innocent). The scene is of a character sitting in silence thinking about his friends:
Abby was gone, and Bill was who knows where now.
It's not actually a question, so a terminating question mark seems wrong. Older texts had no qualms about extra punctuation in the middle of a sentence, but it seems that more modern works shun the idea. Otherwise I was thinking something like this might work:
Abby was gone, and Bill was who-knows-where? now.
Any suggestions on what would be considered correct?
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I really don't like the
and in there, but I think your original punctuation is fine. You have two independent thoughts, I think that a period (err... full stop
) :
Abby was gone. Bill was who knows where now.
Or maybe a semicolon:
Abby was gone; Bill was who knows where now.
might be clearer then the "and" building the connection between the clauses there. I think many readers will see as joining the thoughts more then you intend them too.
Personally I am not a fan of the hyphens here at all.