Learn English – Using the Chicago Manual of Style, do colons go inside or outside quotes

colonpunctuationquotation marksstyle-manuals

I have the following sentence:

The program identifies particular “targets” and “identifiers:” the “targets” are people who are suspected of committing a crime.

Does the colon go inside the quotes or outside of them?

Best Answer

While my edition (14th) of CMOS is getting long in the tooth, I don’t believe the guidance has changed:

5.104 The colon should be placed outside quotation marks or parentheses. When matter ending with a colon is quoted, that colon is dropped:

Kego had three objections to “Filmore’s Summer”: it was contrived; the characters were flat; the dialogue was unrealistic.

@Sven Yargs notes in a comment that the guidance remains in place in the 16th (2010) edition:

6.10 Other punctuation in relation to closing quotation marks Colons and semicolons—unlike periods and commas—follow closing quotation marks; ..."

Related Topic