Writing Lab Quotation Marks with Other Marks Quotation

Writing Lab Quotation Marks with Other Marks

Quotation Marks with Other Marks • Use quotation marks to set off direct quotes, but not to set off indirect quotation. • Lily said, “This is the slowest service I’ve ever seen. ” • The waiter said that our food will be here soon. • Use single quotation marks to enclose a quotation within a quotation. • “As my own mother used to say, ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, ’” warned Mom.

Quotation Marks with Other Marks cont. • A comma or a period belongs inside the quotation marks at the end of a quotation. • “The Charleses probably don’t have money for shoes, ” Mother answered. “You have shoes, and you will wear them. ” • A semicolon or colon belongs outside the quotation marks at the end of a quotation. • The graffito on the wall reads “ESP should be outlawed”; underneath is “I knew you were going to say that!”

Quotation Marks with Other Marks cont. 2 • If a question mark, exclamation point, or dash is part of the quotation, place it inside the quotation marks. • Dean Martin once asked, “Ain’t love a kick in the head? ” • “Sometimes I so remind myself of Socrates!” Jason said. • If both the quotation and the tag are questions or exclamations, place them outside the quotation marks. • Save us from his “mercy”! • Was it Patrick Henry who said “Give me liberty or give me death”?

Quotation Marks with Other Marks cont. 3 • Use quotation marks to include any words, phrases, or short passages quoted from another source. • If Descartes had said “I think not. . . , ” would he have disappeared? • Use quotation marks to set off slang, nicknames, clichés, or intentional ungrammatical expressions. • Dr. Harry “Lee Lee” Lewis is a brilliant but “laid-back” professor.

That’s all, folks! • This lesson is part of the UWF Writing Lab Grammar Mini-Lesson Series • Lessons adapted from Real Good Grammar, Too by Mamie Webb Hixon • To find out more, visit the Writing Lab’s website where you can take a self-scoring quiz corresponding to this lesson