Quotation Marks

What is a Quotation Mark? Quotation marks(“ ”) are used to set off material that represents quoted or spoken language.

When should quotation marks be used? To endorse a direct quotation Example: Melanie said, “This car is making a very strange noise.” *Do not use quotation marks for an indirect quotation Example : Stephanie said that she was going to wash the car.

A Direct Quotation Usually begins with a capital letter Example: Explaining the lever, Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand, and I can move the world.”

When an interrupting expression divides a quoted sentence into two parts, the second part begins with a lower case letter. Example: “I wish,” she said," that we went to the same school.”

A direct quotation can be set off from the rest of a sentence by a comma, a question mark, or an exclamation point, but not by a period. Example: “When will we be leaving?” asked Tony

When used with quotation marks, other marks of punctuation are placed according to the following rules: Commas and periods are placed inside closed quotation marks. Example: “I haven’t seen the movie,” remarked Jeanette,”but I understand that it’s excellent.”

Semicolons and colons are placed outside closing quotation marks. Example: Socrates once said,” As for me, all I know is that I know nothing”; I wonder why everyone thinks he was such a wise man.

Question marks and exclamation points are place inside the closing quotation marks if the quotation itself is a question or an exclamation; otherwise they are placed outside. Example: “Yes!” I answered. “Please turn down the air conditioner!”

When you write dialogue ( a conversation) begin a new paragraph every time the speaker changes. Example: “What’s that?” Sally demanded impatiently. “Luisa seemed surprised. “What ‘s what?” “That thing, what you got in your hand.”

When a quoted passage consists of more than one paragraph, put quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph and at The end of the entire passage. Do not put quotation marks after any paragraph but the last Example “ At nine o’clock this morning…. bars of gold. (1 st paragraph) “No arrest have been made,….. the case will be solve in a few days.” ( 2 nd paragraph)

Use single quotation marks to enclose a quotation within a quotation. Example: Annoyed, Ellen snapped, “Don’t tell me, ‘That’s not the way to do it’ ” Tiffany exclaimed, “How dare you say, ‘Yuck!’ ”

Use quotation marks to enclose titles and subtitles of articles, essays, short stories, poems, songs individual episodes on TV series and chapters and other parts of books and periodicals. See next slide for examples!

Examples Articles Essays Short Stories Poems Songs Episodes of TV Series Chapters and other parts of Books and Periodicals “ What Teenagers Need to Know About Diets” “ An Apartment in Moscow” “The Pit and the Pendulum” “Fog” “Peace Train” “The Sure Thing” “Life in the First Settlements”