Which sentence places a question mark within quotation marks?

Which sentence places a question mark within quotation marks?

• A. He asked, "Are you coming?"
• B. He asked, "Are you coming"?
• C. He asked, Are you coming?"
• D. He asked,"Are you coming?"

Answer: (A)

When reporting speech, the punctuation that belongs to the quoted material stays inside the quotation marks. If the quoted portion is a question, the question mark goes inside. Since the speaker’s sentence is a question, the question mark belongs within the quotes. The comma after the reporting verb belongs outside the quotes and should come before the opening quotation mark, with a space after the comma: He asked, "Are you coming?" That makes the quoted question clearly part of what was asked.

The other options misplace punctuation or formatting: putting the question mark after the closing quote incorrectly separates the mark from the quoted question; omitting the opening quote or misplacing spacing around the comma breaks the direct-quote convention; andMissing space after the comma in the reporting clause is a formatting error.