Handbook: Writing Problems and How to Correct Them

15 Quotation Marks

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks (“ ”) are used to indicate direct quotations or to mark words used as words in your sentences. Quotation marks are always used in pairs. The opening quotation mark (“) appears at the beginning of a word or quoted passage, and the closing mark (”) appears at the end.

15a Place quotation marks around direct statements from other speakers or writers

Be careful to include the exact words of the speaker or writer within the quotation marks.

Because dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal repeats Lincoln’s exact words, quotation marks are required.

Words in quotation marks must be quoted exactly as they appear in the original source.

In dialogue, place quotation marks around each speaker’s words. Every time a different person speaks, begin a new paragraph.

He said, “Sit down.”

“No, thank you,” I replied.

With longer passages, indent prose quotations of more than four lines and verse quotations of more than three lines if you are following MLA style; do not use quotation marks. Indent the quotation ten spaces or one inch from the left margin. When you quote a poem, follow the line breaks exactly.

In “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment,” Ann Bradstreet poignantly longs for him to return:

My chilled limbs now numbed lie forlorn;

Return, return, sweet Sol, from Capricorn;

In this dead time, alas, what can I more

Than view those fruits which through thy heat I bore?

Which sweet contentment yield me for a space,

True living pictures of their father’s face. (11–16)

Note: If you are following APA style, indent quotations of forty or more words five spaces from the left margin. For more on the MLA and APA styles of documentation, see Chapter 23.

15b Place a comma or period that follows a direct quotation within the quotation marks

15c Place colons and semicolons outside of quotation marks

15d Place question marks and exclamation points according to the meaning of the sentence

If the quotation is a question or exclamation, place the question mark or exclamation point within the closing quotation mark. If the punctuation mark comes at the end of a sentence, no other end punctuation is needed.

If the entire sentence, of which the quotation is part, is a question or exclamation, the question mark or exclamation point goes outside the closing quotation marks at the end of the sentence.

15e Use a comma to separate a short quotation from an introductory or identifying phrase such as he replied or she said

15f Use single quotation marks (‘ ’) to indicate a quotation or a title within a quotation

15g Place quotation marks around the titles of short works

SECTION OF A BOOK	Chapter 1, “Ozzie and Harriet in Spanish Harlem”
POEM	“Ode on a Grecian Urn”
SHORT STORY	“The Yellow Wallpaper”
ESSAY OR ARTICLE	“Their Malcolm, My Problem”
SONG	“Bad Romana”
EPISODE OF A TELEVISION PROGRAM	“Larry’s Last Goodbye”

15h Do not use quotation marks to call unnecessary attention to words or phrases

Quotation marks can be used to mark words used as words (as an alternative to italics).