Punctuation Two | Quotation Marks

Mkay, second punctuation lesson: the quotation marks. Yes, these are your friends if you use any dialogue in your story, meaning they ARE your friends. Those who have never met the almighty quotation must be vanquished with my punctuation powers. Ahem ahem. Moving on now. Using quotation marks allows readers to clearly distinguish what is spoken dialogue or quoted material.

1. Quotation marks come in pairs.

They are never, ever seen without their buddy quotation mark. It makes them feel sad and lonely, that’s why there are always two of them. If I see that you neglected to give a quotation mark a buddy, I will look down upon you. With very mad punctuated eyes.

2. Character Dialogue

Use quotation marks to separate dialogue from the rest of the story.

Example: “I’m going home,” I told Anna. Here the quotation marks surround what I told Anna, which is “I’m going home.” The ending punctuation WITHIN a quotation can be a comma, question mark, exclamation mark, or period.

Example: I always say, “Never bite off more than you can chew.” See the ending punctuation within the quotation is a comma? The previous example had a comma instead of a period.

3. Periods and commas always stay inside the quotation marks.

In the United States (where I'm from), periods and commas always remain inside the quotation marks. There is no exception. No matter how ugly it looks, the periods and the commas stay inside.

4. Technical Terms/ Expression of Word in an Unusual Way

You know, like jargon and stuff like that. Or that thing where you add air quotes.

Example: It’s known as “apoptosis”, programmed cell death.

Example: He used to “experiment” back in college. The quotes around “experiment” imply his experimentation was very different from our view of experimenting. He might be experimenting with drugs or something, we dunno.

5. Single Quotation Marks are for quoting within a quote.

I bet that sounds weird. It’s like quoting a book and that quote has a quote from another book. Quoteception!

Example: My friend said to me, “David elaborated that ‘he like girls.’” See the period that is inside all the quotation marks? Remember punctuation always stays inside the quotation marks no matter how weird it looks. I’ve bolded and underlined the single quotation marks.

6. Silent Speech / Thoughts to Oneself

Tip for the writers writing who like to mention character thoughts! If you’re doing “silent speech,” or speech that is spoken but not aloud, you can choose to either use quotation marks or not. Both are okay to do, whichever method you prefer.

Example: “It’s a fine day today,” Bob said to himself.

Example: It’s a fine day, Bob said to himself.