Quotation Marks with Other Marks
(#93)
FROM THE UWF WRITING LAB’S 101 GRAMMAR MINI-LESSONS SERIES
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.
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!”
If a question mark,
exclamation point, or
dash is part of the
quotation, place it
inside the quotation
marks.
If both the quotation
and the tag are
questions or
exclamations, place
them outside the
quotation marks.
Dean Martin once
asked, “Ain’t love a
kick in the head?”
Save us from his
“mercy”!
“Sometimes I so
remind myself of
Socrates!” Jason said.
Was it Patrick Henry
who said “Give me
liberty or give me
death”?
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?
. . . or to set off
slang, nicknames,
clichés, or
intentional
ungrammatical
expressions.
Dr. Harry “Lee Lee”
Lewis is a brilliant
but “laid-back”
professor.