AT A GLANCE

Editing for Quotation Marks

  • Use quotation marks around direct quotations and titles of short works. (43a and c)
  • Do not use quotation marks around set-off quotations of more than four lines of prose or more than three lines of poetry, or around titles of long works. Consult a style guide, such as that of the Modern Language Association (MLA), for guidelines. (43b and c)
  • Use quotation marks to signal irony and invented words, but do so sparingly. (43e)
  • Check other punctuation used with closing quotation marks. (43f)
  • Periods and commas should be inside the quotation marks.
  • Colons, semicolons, and footnote numbers should be outside.
  • Question marks, exclamation points, and dashes should be inside if they are part of the quoted material, outside if they are not.
  • Never use quotation marks around indirect quotations. (43g)
  • Do not use quotation marks just to add emphasis to words. (43g)