The Complete Guide to Writing in English

Punctuation Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are absolutely essential in writing. They are used to offset speech in writing whether it be spoken or quoted and also to offset words that you want to indicate as special.

If you are writing a story, you will want to use dialogue to give your characters life and to move your story along in an interesting way that engages the readers. You have to be able to set the speech of your characters apart so that the reader can easily follow along and know what is speech and what is story.

Using quotation marks is very simple and the best way to put them into your writing is to follow logic and choose a style that you like and stick with it.

There are two different kinds of quotation marks; single, ' ', and double, " ". They are both the same thing. It is entirely up to you which kind you prefer to use; but once you have chosen, you must thereafter be consistent.

So, now that you have decided on what kind of quotation marks you are going to use, here is what you need to know to use them properly. I prefer double so most of the examples will be given using them.

Rules are in regular type, examples are in italics.

Quotation Marks (' ') (" ")

Use one at the beginning of speech or quotation and one at the end. (Easy, right?)

"I always wanted to go to Paris." My mother said with a sigh.

He said, "Let's go grab dinner."

'Don't take too long,' she yelled as we left. 'I've got dinner on the stove!'

Do you see in the above examples how everything that is spoken is contained in quotation marks? If you notice the last one; that is a good demonstration of why it is usually preferable to choose double quotation marks. The single marks tend to get mixed up with the apostrophes and make the writing look cluttered.

If your quotation is very long and takes up more than one paragraph; don't put a closing quotation mark until the very end of the quote and put a new opening quotation mark at the beginning of every new paragraph to remind the reader that it is still part of the quotation.

If you are nesting quotation marks (quoting someone within the dialogue), switch to the opposite quotation mark style.

He said, "Abraham Lincoln said, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick,' and I believe it!"

Use a capital letter for the first letter after a quotation mark, unless it doesn't fit logically into the entire sentence.

Mrs. Jones told me, "Please wipe your feet before coming in."

"Look into my eyes," the magician said to the volunteer.

The sign says "No loitering allowed".

"Get that mutt out of here," Grandpa shouted, "before I shoot him!"

 

Punctuation for quotation marks.

The use of punctuation both inside and outside the quotation marks should fit logically into the structure of the sentence.

If the attribution tag comes before the dialogue, put a comma before the quotation mark.

He said, "I've never felt this way before."

If the attribution tag comes at the end, put the comma inside the quotation mark.

"I've never felt this way before," he said.

If the attribution tag comes in the middle, put a comma inside the first set of quotation marks and before the second set.

"I've never," he said, "felt this way before."

In the US it is common to put commas and periods inside of the closing quotation marks no matter if it fits logically or not, but the UK and Commonwealth countries tend to follow logic so this is an area where you are free to choose what fits best in your style of writing.

US:  "Useless," as a word, means "having no use or value."

UK:  "Useless", as a word, means "having no use or value".

As you can see, there is little to choose between them. It is entirely up to you what looks best. Logic says that "useless" should be alone in the quotation marks because we are signifying that we are referring to the word itself, and the same applies to the meaning as well.

 

Question marks and exclamation marks may be placed inside the closing quotation marks if they apply only to the quoted portion of the sentence, or outside if they apply to the entire sentence. Semicolons and colons are always placed outside of quotation marks.

Did she say, "Way to go"?

No, she said, "Is this the way to go?"

There are three homophones for the word "pear": pare, pair, and pear.

Try to avoid using double punctuation (one mark inside the closing quotation and one out at the end of a sentence). If in doubt, go with the stronger mark; the one that is most relevant to the end of the sentence.

Quotation marks are also used to offset words and phrases that the writer would like to signify as being used in an unusual way.

The computer "knows" when it's me and usually crashes as soon as I log on.

Also, they are used when the writer wants to show irony.

My father's favorite form of "parenting" was to beat me senseless.

The "road less travelled" was crowded with tourists today.

They are used to embed a person's nickname within their full name.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter

They are used to offset titles of literature, music, or journalism.

I was reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" when the phone rang.

If you didn't find the answer to your question about quotation marks here, don't forget that the whole of the world-wide web is open to you. Google it or look it up on Wikipedia, but follow your instincts. If it looks weird to you or sticks out, it might make your reader stop to figure it out; which will interrupt the flow of your writing.