Quotation
marks (" ") are used around text to signal that the information
is a title,
a phrase, or information from another writer or speaker.
Using Quotation Marks Properly
1) Place quotation marks around direct quotations from writers or speakers.
Our guest said, “I appreciate your dedication to hospitality.”
2) Place single quotation marks around a quoted quotation.
David said, “I heard Dean say, ‘She’s a dangerous girl’
when someone asked
him about Karla.”
3) Do not use quotation marks around a block quotation.
The visiting poet’s words about the nature of inspiration were intriguing:
Inspiration requires effort. I know no aspiring writer likes to hear those words, but they
are the best words an aspiring writer can hear. Anyone who waits for divine lighting to
strike from Parnassus waits only for a steady decline into obscurity. If you write a few
lines every day, you will discover inspiration after a few flicks of the pen.
4) When rendering an exchange of dialogue, mark
each change of speaker with
a new paragraph.
“She won’t be returning,” said Oliver.
“Yes, she will,” said Henry, “and she’ll bring her husband.”
5) Use quotation marks around titles of speeches,
articles, short stories, poems,
chapters, songs,
and television or radio program episodes.
Katherine Anne Porter’s “Flowering Judas” is an
excellent example of realistic
regionalism.
6) Commas and periods belong inside quotation marks.
The old lady said, “Stay on the path,” so the hiker would not trample her flowers.
7) Semicolons and colons belong outside quotation marks.
The old lady said, “Stay on the path”; the hiker ignored her and trampled her flowers.
8) Parentheses that are not part of a quotation belong outside quotation marks.
Ricky said, “I don’t want any help” (although we could tell he needed assistance).
9) Question marks, exclamation points, and
dashes belong after closing quotation
marks if said punctuation
marks are not part of the quoted material.
Did Carl’s cousin say, “I don’t want to go dancing”?
10) Do not use quotation marks to indicate slang, signal sarcasm, or suggest cleverness.
He is really “smart.”
BECOMES
He is not intelligent.