Know how to use quotation marks - Six ways to avoid punctuation errors

100 ways to improve your writing - Gary Provost 2019

Know how to use quotation marks
Six ways to avoid punctuation errors

All words taken directly from another’s speech or writing must be set off in quotation marks.

Wrong

Right

He said, Sometime I will, and then he walked away.

He said, “Sometime I will,” and then he walked away.

It was Shakespeare who wrote, To be or not to be.

It was Shakespeare who wrote, “To be or not to be.”

Do not use quotation marks around words that are not directly taken from speech or writing.

Wrong

Right

He said that “Sometime he would,” and then he walked away.

He said that sometime he would, and then he walked away.

Hamlet wanted both “to be and not to be,” and so he couldn’t bring himself to commit suicide.

Hamlet wanted both to be and not to be, and so he couldn’t bring himself to commit suicide.

She told them to “Get up in the morning.”

She told them to get up in the morning.


Or:


She told them, “Get up in the morning.”

If a quote is contained within another quote, use single quotation marks around the inner quote.

Wrong

Right

“Do you know what Bernice said?” JoDean asked. “She said, “I’ll be dead in the morning.””

“Do you know what Bernice said?” JoDean asked. “She said, ’I’ll be dead in the morning.’”

Use quotation marks around a word or phrase you intend to explain or define.

Wrong

Right

Nervous breakdown refers to a complete collapse and not to a slight feeling of depression.

“Nervous breakdown” refers to a complete collapse and not to a slight feeling of depression.

What is meant by nuclear meltdown?

What is meant by “nuclear meltdown”?

I use the word hopeful only when I mean full of hope.

I use the word “hopeful” only when I mean “full of hope.”


Or:


I use the word hopeful only when I mean “full of hope.”

Titles of articles in magazines, poems, songs, and sermons are set off in quotation marks:

Wrong

Right

My favorite Beatles song is ELEANOR RIGBY.

My favorite Beatles song is “Eleanor Rigby.”

Did you read One Million Ways to Lose Weight in “Glamour” or in some other magazine?

Did you read “One Million Ways to Lose Weight” in Glamour or in some other magazine?

The words yes and no are put in quotation marks only when they are directly quoted:

Wrong

Right

She could not say “no” to her mother.

She could not say no to her mother.

Tell her “No.”

Tell her no.

She looked me in the eye and whispered no.

She looked me in the eye and whispered, “No.”