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)