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Use of Quotation Marks in English Punctuation ("__") - Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2

Mark It up with Quotation Marks

Congratulations ! You have reached the right place to know more about the use of quotation marks ("__") in English writing. This article will look at all the ways in which you can use quotation marks as a punctuation mark in your English writing. For accurate proofreading of quotation mark use and other punctuation or grammar rules, the artificial intelligence of the WhiteSmoke online English writing and grammar software will give you perfect results every time. Even the best writers use an English editor to make their work shine.

Enjoy your reading and start using those quotation marks correctly.

Quotation Marks – What Are They ?

Quotation marks are important punctuation marks in English that have four different uses. Whenever you quote words, ideas or texts taken from an external source, whether spoken or appearing in print, you have to set them off with quotation marks. This accredits the source to being the origin of the text, a compulsory practice in academic writing, and a recommended one in virtually any type of writing. In standard academic writing, you must also provide a reference to the actual source of the quote, detailing how the reader may track back to it. This bibliographic referencing should be performed according to strict rules provided in various documentation style guides, such as the MLA, APA, etc.

It is both unprofessional and unethical to take credit for ideas that are not your own. Therefore, quotation mark usage is a sign of developed writing, created by writers who are well read and able to have their text communicate with ideas from other texts, in an ever-growing web of information. This article will follow MLA style conventions regarding the usage of the quotation marks in English writing.

The 4 uses of quotation marks are:

1. Setting off quotations
2. Setting off dialog and poetry
3. Setting off special text
4. Setting off titles

In addition, the following section is important to consider
5. Quotation marks style conventions

Uses of Quotation Marks in English Writing

4. Setting off Titles

1. When referring to short works by their titles, enclose these titles with quotation marks. Short works may consist of short stories, essays, poems, magazine or journal articles, book chapters, brochures, pamphlets, songs and episodes from television or radio series.
We discussed Baldwin's "When my Dungeon Shook " back in high school.
[essay]

Frost's poem "The Road not Taken " has really gotten me thinking about my plans for the future.
[poem]

I think "Vogue " is one of Madonna's greatest songs ever !
[popular song]

I couldn't sleep after watching "The Best of both Worlds ,"  the double Star-Trek episode broadcasted last week.
[TV series episode]

2. Longer works, such as titles or names of books, plays, films, magazines, journals, newspapers, and TV or radio series are not enclosed in quotation marks. Instead, they are sometimes italicized or underlined, and sometimes they are given in regular Roman type. As there may be many variations, consult a style guide in case you need to write along the lines of one.
The cinematic trilogy The Matrix is partly based on Jean Baudriard's book Simulacra and Simulations.
[film, book - given in italics]

There is a very positive review in The New York Times on last night's performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
[newspaper, musical piece - given in regular Roman Type]

3. Do not use quotation marks with political parties, geographical locations and institutions.
The Democratic Party held rallies in suburban YMCA centers in the southern districts.

5. Quotation Marks – Style Conventions

1. Quotation marks only appear in pairs so do not forget to add the closing quotation marks where needed.

2. In most computer fonts, opening quotation marks look like tiny 6s ( “ ) and the closing quotation marks like tiny 9s ( ”). Make sure you are consistent with these forms. Regular typewriters usually have regular quotation marks which are also acceptable ( "__ "). The same applies for single quotation marks.

3. American English uses double quotation marks for all the uses reviewed in this article, except for quotes within quotes, expressed by single quotation marks. British English typically does the opposite, starting with single quotation marks and setting off internal quotes with double quotation marks. Canadian English uses both styles.

4. If double and single quotation marks happen to touch each other, separate them with one space.

My uncle, who was very critical of the government, would always say, "Don't believe any word they tell you about government 'reforms '  " and continued with his theories of political corruption.

5. If you need to set off a quote within a quote within a quote, you need to go from double to single to double quotation marks. Nevertheless, most writing guides call for refraining from such "recursive" quoting and rephrase the sentence in a such a way that would call for no more than two-level quoting.

6. Refrain from using a single quotation mark with an apostrophe. If the need for this arises, rephrase your sentence. ”

No: “…quote   ‘a man’s world’    quote...”

7. There is a difference between dialog and non-dialog text when it comes to combining other punctuation marks with quotation marks. When you use quotation marks in dialog, all the other punctuation marks should be placed within the quotations. When you write non-dialog text, there are some variations.
"I want to be alone ," said Greta.
[comma]

Greta said, "I want to go ."
[period]

"Leave me alone !" Greta shouted.
[exclamation mark]

"Why can't you just leave me alone ?" asked Greta angrily.
[question mark]

"Just go, leave me – " she continued.

[dash]

8. In non-dialog text, put periods and commas inside the quotation marks. However, colons, semicolons always go outside the quotation marks, unless they are part of the original quote.
On yesterday's quiz, you could get either "very good ," "good ," or "pass ."
[comma and period before closing quotation marks]

I knew the teacher would say , "I am very pleased with the quiz results ": Nearly everybody got "very good " ; however , some students did not even pass .
[colon and semicolon after closing quotation marks]

9. Put dashes, question marks and exclamation points inside quotation marks only if they apply to the quoted part, and outside if they apply to the whole sentence.
I just love Madonna's song Who's that Girl ?"
[question marks applies only to quoted text]

Did you like Madonna's song "Vogue " ?
[question mark applies to whole sentence]

"You won't believe it ! Madonna was on my flight to Paris !" Joy cried out loudly.
[exclamation point applies only to quoted text]

If only I could I could remember all the words of "Vogue " !
[exclamation point applies to whole sentence]

10. In British English, all punctuation marks go outside the quotation marks. Canadian English uses both American and British styles. Whatever style you choose, remember to be consistent in any given piece of writing.

Quotation Marks: Summing it up

As our brief article shows, those tiny 6s and 9s – the quotation marks – turn out to have quite a few usages in addition to just indicating quotation. It is important for good writers to be able to make use of the wide range of quotation mark usage, as it is the small details that give your writing the final polishing touches. As we cannot all be expected to know the rules of English grammar and punctuation, tools like WhiteSmoke English Writing Software can ensure that our use of quotation marks and other punctuation marks is always correct. With WhiteSmoke technology checking your grammar, punctuation and spelling, your writing will always be perfect.

This has been the third and final part of our review of quotation marks in English writing.