Question

Which sentence is punctuated correctly?

The author noted "The
grass was dry and brittle.
(page 32)"
He writes, "Water your
grass before 10 AM;" he
lists several reasons why.
She grew two plants from
the "nightshade family":
tomatoes and eggplants.
He asked, "What should I
do if I have brown patches
in my lawn"?

Answer 1

The correctly punctuated sentence is the second one:

He writes, “Water your grass before 10 AM;” he lists several reasons why.

Because...
- There should be a comma before quotes.
- Any punctuation after a quote should be inside the quotation marks.
- Semicolons are used to combine two independent clauses that relate to one another.