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| Home > Editing > Quotation Marks |
  | Quotation Marks WORK WITH QUOTATION MARKS (" ") Quotation marks (" ") identify words you have taken directly from someone else. They tell readers these words are exactly as your source spoke or wrote them. "We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything," said Thomas Alva Edison.
Not:She said that "she was going to the party."
QUOTATIONS WITHIN QUOTATIONS Use single quotation marks around a quotation within a quotation. Benita said, "I told Julio, 'Don't swing on that branch,' but he ignored me and told me to 'get lost.'" The writer quotes Benita, who is quoting herself and Julio. ‘Don't swing on that branch’ and ‘get lost’ are quotations within a quotation.
1. Commas and periods appear inside quotation marks. When I asked what he wanted, he calmly said, "Money." 2. Colons and semicolons appear outside quotation marks. "He who hesitates is not only lost but miles away from the nearest exit"; now that's the kind of line stand-up comics dream about. QUOTATION MARKS AROUND TITLES Use quotation marks around titles of newspaper, magazine, and journal articles; poems; short stories; songs; and episodes of TV programs. B. R. Jerman's article, "Browning's Witless Duke," is about Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess." |
