Quotation Marks

As a way of bringing other people’s words into our own, quotation can be a powerful writing tool.

Mrs. Macken urges parents to get books for their children, to read to them when they are “li’l,” and when they start school to make certain they attend regularly. She holds herself up as an example of a “millhand’s daughter who wanted to be a schoolteacher and did it through sheer hard work.”

—SHIRLEY BRICE HEATH, Ways with Words

The writer could have paraphrased, but by quoting, she lets her subject speak for herself—and lets readers hear that person’s voice.

Chapter contents:

Quick Help: Editing for quotation marks

Using quotation marks to signal direct quotations

Using quotation marks to signal titles and definitions

Using quotation marks to signal irony and invented words

Avoiding misused quotation marks

Using quotation marks with other punctuation