Dreyer's English - Benjamin Dreyer 2022

Quotation marks
56 assorted things to do (and not to do) with punctuation
The stuff in the front

When I was growing up in Albertson, Long Island, a virtually undetectable suburb of New York City, my mother would regularly send me off on my bike to the nearby bakery for a rye bread (sliced) or a challah (unsliced) or six rolls.

In the bakery, above the rye bread, was a sign that read:

TRY OUR RUGELACH! IT’S THE “BEST!”

I was fascinated. This, as they say in the comic books, is my origin story.

So, then, to break it down for you:

34.

Use roman (straight up and down, that is, like the font this phrase is printed in) type encased in quotation marks for the titles of songs, poems, short stories, and episodes of TV series. Whereas the titles of music albums, volumes of poetry, full-length works of fiction and nonfiction, and TV series themselves are styled in aslant italics.

“American Idiot”

American Idiot

“Song of Myself”

Leaves of Grass

“The Lottery”

The Lottery and Other Stories

“Lies My Parents Told Me”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (also known as, simply, Buffy)

It’s a fairly simple system: little things in roman and quotes, bigger things in italics.

35.

Individual works of art—named paintings and sculptures—are generally set in italics (The Luncheon on the Grass), though works whose titles are unofficial (the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Mona Lisa, for instance) are often styled in roman, without quotation marks.

36.

Dialogue is set off with quotation marks. Some writers like to do without them, to which I simply say: To pull that off, you have to be awfully good at differentiating between narration and dialogue. It’s a sophisticated style choice.

37.

Once upon a time, what I’d call articulated rumination (a direct, dialogue-like thought not expressed aloud) was often found encased in quotation marks:

“What is to become of me?” Estelle thought.

That, over time, gave way to setting direct thoughts in italics:

What is to become of me? Estelle thought.

Now, more often than not, you’ll simply see:

What is to become of me? Estelle thought.

That last is best.^*15

38.

Do not use quotation marks for emphasis—as in, for instance:

Last week we went to the Jersey Shore, and I had the “best” time.

That is why we invented italics.

Such quotation marks do not, strictly speaking, come under the heading of scare quotes, which are quotation marks used to convey that you find a term too slangish or dorky or ridiculous to sit on its own and/or are sneering at it:

That “music” you’re listening to is…interesting.

Avoid scare quotes. They’ll make you look snotty.

39.

Do not use quotation marks after the term “so-called.” For instance, I’m not

a so-called “expert” in matters copyeditorial

I’m simply a

so-called expert in matters copyeditorial

The quotation-marking of something following “so-called” is not only redundant but makes a likely already judgmental sentence even more so.

40.

In referring to a word or words as a word or words, some people go with quotation marks and some people prefer italics, as in:

The phrase “the fact that” is to be avoided.

or

The phrase the fact that is to be avoided.

The first example is chattier, I think, more like speech; the second is more technical- and textbooky-looking. Either one is fine. It’s a matter of taste.

41.

An exclamation point or question mark at the end of a sentence ending with a bit of quoted matter goes outside rather than inside the quotation marks if the exclamation point or question mark belongs to the larger sentence rather than to the quoted bit, as in:

As you are not dear to me and we are not friends, please don’t ever refer to me as “my dear friend”!

What happens when both the quoted material and the surrounding sentence demand emphatic or inquiring punctuation? Do you really write

You’ll be sorry if you ever again say to me, “But you most emphatically are my dear friend!”!

No, you do not. You make a choice as to where the ! might be more effective. (In the example above, I’d keep the first exclamation point.) Or you rewrite your sentence to avoid the collision entirely.

42.

In American English, we reach first for double quotation marks, as I’ve been doing all this time. If you need to quote something within quotation marks, you use single quotation marks. As in:

“I was quite surprised,” Jeannine commented, “when Mabel said to me, ’I’m leaving tomorrow for Chicago,’ then walked out the door.”

If you find yourself with yet another layer of quoted material, you then revert to double quotation marks, like this:

“I was quite surprised,” Jeannine commented, “when Mabel said to me, ’I’ve found myself lately listening over and over to the song “Baby Shark,” ’ then proceeded to sing it.”

Do, though, try to avoid this Russian doll punctuation; it’s hard on the eye and on the brain.

Moreover, I caution you generally, re quotes within quotes: It’s easy to lose track of what you’re doing and set double quotes within double quotes. Be on your guard.

43.

Though semicolons, because they are elusive and enigmatic and they like it that way, are set outside terminal quotation marks, periods and commas—and if I make this point once, I’ll make it a thousand times, and trust me, I will—are always set inside.

Always.