33 | Quotation Marks
33|Quotation Marks
Quotation marks always come in pairs: one at the start and one at the finish of a quoted passage. In the United States, the double quotation mark (“) is preferred over the single one (‘) for most uses. Use quotation marks to set off quoted or highlighted words from the rest of your text.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” wrote Martin Luther King Jr.
For capitalization with quotation marks, see 37j.
33aUse quotation marks around direct quotations from another writer or speaker.
Enclose someone’s exact words in quotation marks.
Malala Yousafzai reflected the importance of women’s education when she said, “We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”
Use an indirect quotation to credit and report someone else’s idea accurately. Do not use his or her exact words or quotation marks.
Malala Yousafzai asserted the importance of women’s education.
33bUse single quotation marks around a quotation inside another quotation.
Sometimes you may quote a source that quotes someone else or puts words in quotation marks. When that happens, use single quotation marks around the internal quotation (even if your source used double ones); put double quotation marks around the larger passage you are quoting.
“My favorite advice from Socrates, ‘Know thyself and fear all women,’” said Dr. Blatz, “has been getting me into trouble lately.”
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Guidelines for Multilingual Writers
What Is the Difference between Direct and Indirect Quotations?
When you quote directly, use the exact words of the original writer or speaker; set them off with double quotation marks. When you change a direct quotation into an indirect quotation (someone else’s idea reported without using his or her exact words), be sure to reword the quotation. Do not repeat the original wording from a source.
Be sure to change the punctuation and capitalization. You also may need to change the verb tense.
DIRECT QUOTATION Pascal said, “The assignment is on Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian writer.” INDIRECT QUOTATION Pascal said that the assignment was on Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian writer. If the direct quotation is a question, you must change the word order in the indirect quotation.
DIRECT QUOTATION Jean asked, “How far is it to Boston?” INDIRECT QUOTATION Jean asked how far it was to Boston. NOTE: Use a period, not a question mark, with questions in indirect quotations.
You often must change pronouns for an indirect quotation.
DIRECT QUOTATION Antonio said, “I think you are mistaken.” INDIRECT QUOTATION Antonio said that he thought I was mistaken.
33cInstead of using quotation marks, indent longer quotations.
Suppose you are writing an essay about the meaning of a college education. You might include a paragraph like this:
In her 2014 commencement address at Brooklyn College, writer Edwidge Danticat spoke about the importance of bravery:
The great Maya Angelou has said that courage is the most important of all virtues. . . . I wish for you the courage to continue to walk boldly and freely in this world. I wish for you the courage to rule out no dream as too big and no hope as too small. I wish for you the courage to live fiercely though not recklessly both for yourself and others. Be brave and creative as you put all theories and knowledge that you have learned to work. Be brave in spirit; be brave in mind. Because only those with imagination and courage are able to reach beyond the ordinary and take us to the next frontier.
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For more on the MLA and APA styles, see Chs. 36 and 37.
Indenting the passage shows it is a direct quotation without adding quotation marks. In MLA style, indent quotations of five lines or more by one inch. In APA style, indent quotations of forty words or more by one-half inch. In both, double-space the quoted lines, and cite the source.
Follow the same practice if you quote four or more lines of a poem.
Phillis Wheatley, the outstanding black poet of colonial America, often made emotional pleas in her poems:
Attend me, Virtue, thro’ my youthful years
O leave me not to the false joys of time!
But guide my steps to endless life and bliss.
Greatness, or Goodness, say what I shall call thee,
To give me an higher appellation still,
Teach me a better strain, a nobler lay,
Oh thou, enthron’d with Cherubs in the realms of day (15-21).
For advice on capitalization and quotations, see 37j.
Notice that not only the source’s words but her punctuation, capitalization, and line breaks are quoted exactly.
33dIn dialogue, use quotation marks around a speaker’s words, and mark each change of speaker with a new paragraph.
Randolph gazed at Ellen and sighed. “What extraordinary beauty.”
“They are lovely,” she replied, staring at the roses, “aren’t they?”
33eUse quotation marks around the titles of a speech, an article in a newspaper or magazine, a short story, a poem shorter than book length, a chapter in a book, a song, and an episode of a television or radio program.
For advice on italicizing titles, see 39a and the chart in 39b.
The article “Alice Munro’s Magic” begins with a description of “Home,” from Munro’s collection Family Furnishings.
In Chapter 5, “Expatriates,” Schwartz discusses Eliot’s famous poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
33fAvoid using quotation marks to show slang, wit, or irony.
No quotation marks are needed after so-called or similar words.
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33gPut commas and periods inside quotation marks.
For more on commas with quotations, see 28k.
A comma or a period is always placed before quotation marks, even if it is not part of the quotation.
We pleaded, “Keep off the grass,” in hope of preserving the lawn.
The sign warned pedestrians: “Keep off the grass.”
33hPut semicolons and colons outside quotation marks.
We said, “Keep off the grass”; they still tromped onward.
33iPut other punctuation inside or outside quotation marks depending on its function in the sentence.
Parentheses that are part of the quotation go inside the quotation marks. Parentheses that are your own, not part of the quotation, go outside.
We said, “Keep off the grass (unless it’s artificial turf).”
They tromped onward (although we had said, “Keep off the grass”).
If a question mark, exclamation point, or dash is part of the quotation, place it inside the quotation marks. Otherwise, place it after them.
Who hollered “Fire”? She hollered, “Fire!”
Don’t close a sentence with two end punctuation marks, one inside and one outside the quotation marks. If the quoted passage ends with a dash, an exclamation point, a question mark, or a period, you need not add any further end punctuation. If the quoted passage falls within a question asked by you, however, the sentence should finish with a question mark, even if that means dropping other end punctuation (Who hollered “Fire”?).
EXERCISE 33-1 Using Quotation Marks
Add quotation marks wherever they are needed in the following sentences, and correct any other errors. Example:
What we still need to figure out, the police chief said, is whether the victim was acquainted with his assailant.
A skillful orator, Patrick Henry is credited with the comment Give me liberty or give me death.
I could hear the crowd chanting my name—Jones! Jones!—and that spurred me on, said Bruce Jones, the winner of the 5,000-meter race.
The video for the rock group Guns N’ Roses’ epic song November Rain is based on a short story by Del James.
In response to a possible asteroid strike on Earth, former astronaut Rusty Schweickart says, Every country is at risk.
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That day at school, the kids were as “high as kites.”
Notice, the professor told the class, Cassius’s choice of imagery when he asks, Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, / That he is grown so great?
“As I was rounding the bend,” Peter explained, “I failed to see the sign that said Caution: Ice.
John Cheever’s story The Swimmer begins with the line It was one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around saying, I drank too much last night.
Who coined the saying Love is blind?