Grammar-Quizzes › More Practices › Writing Aids › Punctuation › Quotation Marks
Quotation Marks
Mark quoted speech, titles of minor works and terms
Restating speech or written text
| STYLE MANUAL GUIDELINES |
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When quoting someone, we take their words and restate them. To be fair to the author or speaker, we should not add, omit or edit the quotation in any way that might change its intended meaning. Because if the quotation is taken out of its original context, there is always a danger of misquoting. |
| 1. THE QUOTE |
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| 2. THE QUOTE COMPLETES THE SENTENCE |
A quotation may also be included as the subject or predicate of a clause. Place the period inside the quotation mark when it occurs at the end of the sentence. Also see Reported Speech and Subj-Predicate. |
| 3. THE QUOTE AFTER THE STATEMENT |
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| 4. THE QUOTE BEFORE THE STATEMENT |
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| 5. A QUESTION WITH A QUOTE |
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| 6. A QUOTED QUESTION |
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| 7. EXCLAMATION |
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| 8. A QUOTE WITHIN A QUOTE |
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| 9. AN INTERRUPTED QUOTE |
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| 10. A CONDENSED QUOTE / A QUOTE WITH AN OMISSION |
ELLIPSIS KEYBOARD CHARACTER: Windows: ALT 0133, or Mac: Opt ; (…) no spaces. Typed ellipses: Use three periods with a space before each and a space after ( . . . ) STYLE MANUAL DETAILS: Use three dots with a space after each. (MLA 3.7.5) Use three, spaced points for omitted material within a sentence Use four dots after a sentence when omitting material after the sentence (a period at the end of a sentence as well as the three dots.) (CMOS 11.55) Treat an ellipsis as a three-letter word: three periods and two spaces. ( ... ) (APA 6.08) |
| 11. INSERTING ADDITIONS OR CLARIFICATIONS |
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| 12. MARKING A STRANGE OR MISSPELLED WORD |
STYLE MANUAL DETAILS Italicize the Latin word: sic and enclose with brackets when placed inside the quote, or parentheses when placed after the quote. (CMOS 11.69) Use brackets with sic when inside the quotation. Use parentheses when sic follows quotation. (MLA 3.7.5) Insert the word sic italicized and bracketed immediately after the error. APA 6.06) AP Style does not use sic. Instead it places a note at top of news article (AP 203) |
| 13. ONE OR TWO SENTENCES |
Place the quotation in line with the rest of the text if the quotation is short, one or two sentences. If less than a paragraph (CMOS 11.72–84) If less than four lines (MLA 6.51-2) If under 40 words. (APA 6.03) |
| 14. MULTIPLE LINES |
STYLE MANUAL DETAILS Place the quotation in an indented block using the same line spacing as the rest of the document. Cite your source at the end of the block and add the source to your bibliography. (MLA 6.2) If the quotation is more than a paragraph separate the quotation into a block quote. Format the block quote in the same way as the rest of the text. (CMOS 11.23-4 11.36) If a quotation extends to more than four lines when run into the text, set it off from your text by beginning a new line, indenting on inch from the left margin, and typing it double-spaced, without adding quotation marks. A colon generally introduces a quotation displayed in this way [block], though sometimes the context may require a different mark of punctuation or none at all. (MLA 3.7.2) If the quotation comprises 40 or more words, display it in a freestanding block of text and omit the quotation marks, Start such a block quotation on a new line and indent the block about a half inch from the left margin Double space the entire quotation . At the end of a block quotation, cite the quoted source and page or paragraph number in parentheses. (APA 6.03) |
Place quoted speech inside quotation marks. Place the period inside the final quotation mark. For a dialog, indent the lines. Begin each part with the speaker's name in capital letters followed by a period. (MLA 3.74) 
Place a 
Place a comma at the end of the first quote and period after the last quote when a quote is broken into two parts within a sentence. Place punctuation inside the quotation mark. 
| EXAMPLE |
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Quoted speech is placed inside quotation marks, also called quotes. All periods, commas and exclamation marks go inside the quotation marks. (Quotation marks are also called inverted commas in British English. |
| QUOTATION MARKS FOR DIALOG |
In this scene, Eric and Lisa interpret their parting words differently:
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| FINAL PERIOD |
He said the proverb is “too old to know where it came from.” completes the sentence |
| COMMA |
He said, “Time is money.” *He said that time was money. Proverbs often lose their meaning or effect in reported speech. Use direct speech for proverbs.
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| COMMA |
“Time is money, ” he said.
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| QUESTION MARK OUTSIDE |
Have you heard the proverb “time is money”? |
| QUESTION MARK INSIDE |
He asked, “What does that mean?” |
| EXLAMATION MARK INSIDE / OUTSIDE |
She said, “Wow!”
/ “Wow!” she said. I can't believe he said, "I agree" ! Stop saying, "How did that happen"! (exclamation is the stronger marker, here) A FINAL ABBREVIATION: (Gregg 257) |
| SINGLE / DOUBLE QUOTES |
She said, “My father used to say, ‘Time is money.’ ” |
| DOUBLE QUOTES |
Malcolm said, “All of us seem to make up our minds about other people in an instant,” and added, “without really doing any real thinking.” |
| ELLIPSIS / DOT DOT DOT |
Malcolm said, “All of us seem to make up our minds … in an instant.” mid-sentence: 3 dots Malcolm said, “It's a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. … Well, “Blink” is a book about those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good.” end of sentences: 4 dots INFORMAL USES: beginning a sentence—Malcolm said, “…all of us seem to make up our minds in an instant.” ending the sentence (four dots)—Malcolm said, “All of us seem to make up our minds in an instant….” trailing off into silence—Marcia said, “I have to leave…” pausing—Marcia said, “Yeah… I care.” (Sabin 291.c) to be continued later—Marcia screamed, “Help...” |
| BRACKETS [ ] |
Malcolm said, “They [the curators] changed their minds in an instant.”
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| (SIC) OR [SIC] |
She wrote, “There [sic] minds changed in an instant.” (inside the quotation) She wrote, “There [There,] minds changed in an instant”. or add information
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| INTEXT QUOTE |
“You don't start at the top if you want to find the story. You start in the middle, because it's the people in the middle who do the actual work in the world,” writes Gladwell in the preface to What the Dog Saw. Include author's name and the page number. Give a bibliographic citation at the end of your writing or paper. |
| BLOCKQUOTE |
Thomas Friedman quotes Paul Gilding, the veteran Australian environmentalist-entrepreneur:
Bibliography (at end of paper¹) Gladwell, Malcom. What the Dog Saw. New York: Little, Brown and Company. 2009, Print. Friedman, Thomas L. “The Earth is Full”. Editorial. New York Times. 7 Jun 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2011.
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¹ When mentioning a book, a bibliography should appear at the end of the paper or research. See Citing Sources.
Style Manual Abbreviations: AP (Associated Press), APA (American Psychological Association), CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style), GREGG (Gregg Reference Manual); MLA (Modern Language Association)
Quotation Marks
Minor Works (books, media, performance arts)
Referring to parts of major works
| STYLE MANUAL GUIDELINES |
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Quotation marks are used with minor works— part of a book, video, musical or theatrical performance. |
| 15. TITLES FOR PARTS OF BOOK, PERIODICALS |
Enclose in quotation marks: chapters of books, poems in collected works of poems, articles in periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and journals).
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| 16. TITLES FOR PARTS OF FILMS & AUDIO RECORDINGS |
Enclose in quotation marks: television episodes, scenes in films or videos, chapters in audio recordings ( audio books)
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| 17. TITLES FOR PARTS OF MUSIC, DANCE, PLAYS |
Enclose in quotation marks: tiles of songs within albums, dances within dance performances, scenes within plays.
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| 18. TITLES FOR PARTS OF VISUAL WORKS OF ART |
Enclose in quotation marks smaller works that make up a series, an album or a book. such as paintings, photographs, drawings, sculpture.
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| 19. TITLES FOR WEB PAGS / E-MAIL MESSAGES |
Enclose in quotation marks the title of a Web page within a Web site, and the title (subject line) of an email. |
| EXAMPLE |
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Double, not single quotation marks, are used with works such as articles, chapters, musical tracks, photographs within series, and paintings. Compare the markup of the major work in italics with the minor work in quotation marks. |
| ITALICS VS. QUOTES |
The book Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness includes the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”. (2004) In the Time Magazine article “Near the Madding Crowds.” Vilano warns the national parks to prepare for a large number of visitors this year. (25 Apr 2011) |
| ITALICS VS. QUOTES |
In the Wall Street Journal article, “Apple Surpasses HP as Largest Buyer of Chips,”Jack Swanson asserts… Jim Dale performs eleven different voices for characters in “Lord Voldemort's Request” in the audio book recording of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In the episode “House of the Rising Sun” of Lost, the television series, we learn why Jin was on ill-fated flight 815. |
| ITALICS VS. QUOTES |
“Norwegian Wood”, written by John Lennon, was a track on the Rubber Soul album. Lady Gaga's Born This Way includes the song “Edge of Glory”. “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies”, from The Nutcracker, is one of the best known in ballet. |
| ITALICS VS. QUOTES |
In Lee Friedlander's, book America by Car, the photograph of the same name “America by car” reveals a complex visual composition filled with wit and nostalgia. (Whitney 2010 ) |
| ITALICS VS. QUOTES |
I used Wikipedia.com to find the web page “Puccini”. Sara Palin “Re: Alaskan Natural Gas.” Message to J. McCain. 24 June 2008. Email. |
Style Manual Abbreviations: AP (Associated Press), APA (American Psychological Association), CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style), GREGG (Gregg Reference Manual); MLA (Modern Language Association)
Quotation Marks
Other uses
Unusual Sense of a Word and Foreign Words
| STYLE MANUAL GUIDELINES |
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| 20. AN UNUSUAL SENSE OF A WORD |
Enclose a word that is used in a different sense in quotes. Only the first use of the word need be placed in quotes. (MLA 3.2.9a) (CMOS 7.59) (APA 4.07) Slang should be enclosed in quotations marks if it is foreign to normal vocabulary. Do not put colloquial terms in quotation marks. (CMOS 7.61) Slang refers to informal (and often transient) lexical items used by a specific social group. Colloquial speech is informal, relaxed speech used on occasion by any speaker. |
| 21. FOREIGN WORDS |
Only the AP Stylebook (Associate Press) uses quotes for foreign words. This is because italics do not work well within their electronic environment (over the wire.) Note In electronic environments that do not permit italicization, it is common to place one underline before and after each word or group of words that would be italicized in print (e.g., _Casablanca_) (MLA 3.3) |
| EXAMPLE |
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| AN UNUSUAL SENSE OF A WORD / SCARE QUOTES |
His “friend” was the one who caused his ruin. irony His so-called friend caused his ruin. When he took off his shirt, it looked as if he was still wearing a sweater. I think a little “manscaping” is in order. (unfamiliar or new word) COLLOQUIAL USAGE |
| QUOTES vs. ITALICS |
AP Stylebook—quotes Blake's “joie de vivre”makes him a favorite among friends. (AP)
Chicago Manual of Style, MLA, APA— italics Blake's joie de vivre makes him a favorite among friends. (foreign words — CMOS, APA, MLA)
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scare quotes (pl. n.) — a pair of quotation marks used around a term or phrase to indicate that the writer does not think it is being used appropriately or that the writer is using it in a specialized sense: a “huge breakthrough” in the negotiations.
Also see Italics
Quotation Exception
Emotional outbursts
Quoted speech form only
| QUOTED SPEECH |
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In most situations, quoted speech can be changed to reported speech, but not in the following examples. |
She cried, “Mom! Johnny hit me.” |
He said, “Time is money.” a proverb
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| REPORTED SPEECH |
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Speech that is emotionally charged has more impact when left as quoted speech. Also, sayings and proverbs sound odd when changed to reported speech. |
She cried to her mother that her brother had hit her. |
*He said that time was money. |
Also see Reported speech
Unicode character: (left double quote – “ right double quote ”)
Common Mistakes
Errors and Solutions
Error and Solution
| ERROR |
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She's my “girl friend”. She is a “girl” and a “friend”.
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The brain of Watson, Jeopardy's IBM computer, works differently from the brains of the contestants. It examines and eliminates all wrong possibilities. |
My great success as a comedian occurred when I fell off the stage and the audience thought it was hilarious. hilarious – extremely funny
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| SOLUTION |
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She is my “girlfriend”. (my dog) She is a girl and a friend. |
The “brain” of Watson, Jeopardy's IBM computer, works differently… The system logic of Watson... |
My great “success” as a comedian occurred when… |
Resources
- The Chicago Manual of Style. 16th ed., U of Chicago P, 2010.
- MLA Handbookfor Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2009.
- The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. Edited by Thomas Kent, et al., 51st ed., AP, 2016.
- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th ed., American Psychological Association, 2009.
- "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." Purdue OWL, Edited by Tony Russel et al., Purdue U, 15 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01.
- The Gregg Reference Manual. Edited by William A. Sabin, 11th ed., McGraw-Hill Education, 2011.
- Wikipedia contributors. "Italic type." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 23 Dec. 2013.
Style Manual Abbreviations (used in this website)
- AP (Associated Press), APA (American Psychological Association), CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style), GREGG (Gregg Reference Manual), MLA (MLA Handbook)
Practice 1
Running Into an Old Friend
Read for Errors
Eric said, “Hello, Lisa”!
“Hello Eric”; she said “How have you been doing?”
“Pretty good.” he said. (informal)
He asked, “What's new with you?”
“A lot of things.” “Let's get some coffee and talk,” she responded.
Eric mentioned, “A friend said, ‘Lisa is getting married.’ ”
“What you heard through the “grapevine” is old news. We broke up.” she lamented.
“I’m sad to hear that. Ubi amor, ibi dolor,” responded Eric.
ubi amor, ibi dolor — Latin where [there is] love, there [is] pain
Complete the sentence.
- Select the response from the list that best completes the sentence.
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Practice 2
Negotiating a Car Deal
Complete the sentence.
- Select the response from the list that best completes the sentence.
- Compare your response to the feedback by clicking the "check" button.
Practice 3
Quotes from Stories, Myths and Film
Read for Errors
The White Rabbit said I'm late. I'm late. For a very important date. No time to say "Hello." Goodbye. I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! (Lewis Carroll. Alice in Wonderland. 1951.film)
When asked if one should end a sentence with a preposition, Churchill replied That is a rule up with which I shall not put. (source unknown – story)
Who cut down my cherry tree? asked George Washington's father.
I cannot tell a lie said George I cut down your cherry tree. (Parson Weems 1800 print)
Dorothy looked around and remarked to her dog Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more. (L. Frank Baum.The Wizard of Oz. 1938. film)
The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook said Julia Child (Julia Child TV chef)
My teacher said Plato said wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something. (Attributed to Plato, 427 – 347 BC)
Scarlet: Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?
Rhett Butler: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. (Gone with the Wind. 1939. dialog)
Edit for errors.
- Edit the sentence(s) in the text box.
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