2

I wrote the following:

Eri was still staring at the screen, but her eyes were expresionless, as if in a trance.

Her father laughed. "I admit it was a shocking footage. But Eri, you look like you've just seen a ghost."

"Oh," Eri said, snapping out (of it). "It's nothing. I just had a long day."

Should I just write, snapping out, or snapping out of it?

wyc
  • 13,179

2 Answers2

4

If you mean something like ‘desist from (an attitude, etc.), to change a mood, pattern of behaviour, etc., by sudden effort’, then you need to write ‘snapping out of it’.

Barrie England
  • 140,205
  • But you want a comma - not a full stop - after "it". – TrevorD Sep 09 '13 at 16:41
  • @TrevorD Why? It's OK with the full stop. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 09 '13 at 16:57
  • @StoneyB It seems an unnecessary break. I would have said that "Eri said ... it" is parenthetical needing just commas at each end; and that, if not interrupted by that clause, the spoken first sentence would have been "Oh, it's nothing." and therefore should remain uninterrupted by a full stop. – TrevorD Sep 09 '13 at 19:37
  • @TrevorD But it might equally be, "Oh. It's nothing." Author's call, for whatever linereading she hears. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 09 '13 at 19:57
  • @StoneyB In which case, there shouldn't be a comma inside the initial quotation marks. – TrevorD Sep 09 '13 at 22:26
  • @TrevorD No, that's conventional before the 'she said' sort of thing. "Oh." she said. would be odd in US typography, as would be my own preference: "Oh" she said. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 09 '13 at 22:57
  • @StoneyB I said inside the quotation marks. If the first bit were a separate 'sentence', I would have expected "Oh!", she said ... or maybe "Oh", she said ... - but including the comma as part of the quotation suggests that it was not the end of a sentence. – TrevorD Sep 09 '13 at 23:01
  • @TrevorD Not in US typography, which has a different set of arbitrary rules than British typography. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 09 '13 at 23:03
  • @TrevorD Punctuation within quotation marks is a US thing. I'm sure I read a question about it here somewhere... http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/7548/when-should-end-punctuation-go-inside-quotes – Mari-Lou A Sep 09 '13 at 23:03
3

To say that someone is snapping out colloquially means that they are being snippy. It carries the sense that the person is willfully or conscientiously acting out.

The phrase "snapping out of it" is more in line with your description.

as if in a trance.

It denotes a more 'back to reality' experience, having Eri be engaged in thought and then snapping back to reality.

Az Za
  • 214
  • Reached this discussion exploring these very same two options. Most prolific dissection ever - thank you, Az Za! – Chris Jul 20 '21 at 19:14