Quotation Marks
The placement of quotation marks perplexes people. Do they go inside or outside of the other punctuation marks, like periods and commas? Should they be used to set off titles or to emphasize certain words?
Quotation marks are used for a variety of purposes, including dialog, quotes, and titles. Many people also use quotation marks to emphasize words and phrases.
One of the most common questions about quotation marks deals with their usage with titles. Are quotation marks appropriate for setting off the title of a book or is it better to use italics, underlining, or some other punctuation mark or formatting?
Quotation Marks and Dialog
She said, “I’m writing a book.”
“I’m working on it,” she whispered, “but it’s going to take awhile.”
Then she asked, “Are you going to write one too?”
When using quotation marks to portray dialog, the quotes go outside of the dialog’s punctuation. Also, dialog is almost always preceded by a comma (i.e. she said,). In formal documents, the comma may be replaced by a colon (i.e. she said:). The dialog itself should follow the rules of grammar, with the first letter of sentences capitalized, and the appropriate end punctuation (period, question mark, etc.) as well.
Using Quotes for Emphasis
I was wondering if her “book” was going to be any good.
Should you use quotes for emphasis? No. Absolutely not. It’s an amateur maneuver, and you can only get away with it successfully if you’re a punctuation master. Don’t use quotation marks in this manner. If you must emphasize a word, use italics or bold. Better yet, let the way you structure your sentence provide natural emphasis where needed. Never use quotes to emphasize words and phrases. Repeat that three times, then rinse.
Setting Off Titles with Quotation Marks
Most titles should be italicized. But in some cases quotation marks are more appropriate, particularly when using a combination of titles from a single publication, i.e. a magazine title plus article titles or a book title plus chapter titles.
For example, you might be referring to an article in a magazine. You don’t want to use italics to set off the name of the magazine and the title of the article. In this case, you’ll probably use italics for the name of the magazine, and put the article title in quotes. In fact, quotation marks are often used for the titles of shorter works: articles, chapter titles, short stories, and essays.
Using quotation marks for titles is not grammatically incorrect, however. It’s actually a style issue, so if you’re not sure how to format your titles, check your style guide.
British vs. American English
It’s interesting to note that British writing differs greatly when it comes to placing other punctuation marks inside or outside quotation marks. In fact, a British quote looks like this:
She said, “I’m writing a book”.
This looks incredibly strange to me, and I’m quite surprised that I never knew about this difference until just a couple of months ago. It’s worth noting, however, and it’s also worth keeping in mind that different English speaking regions have different rules about grammar and punctuation, which is good to know in this age of globalization.
Summary
A few final tips for using quotation marks:
- For American English, place end punctuation marks inside the quotes.
- Do not use quotation marks to emphasize words or phrases.
- Use italics for the names of books and magazines, and use quotation marks for titles of shorter, embedded pieces, such as articles and chapters.
Do you have any questions about quotation marks? Leave a comment and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll dig it up for you!
Good article!
You’re not quite correct on British English usage though; for dialogue in a story, it would actually be:
She said, “I’m writing a book.”
However, the example you gave would be correct for quoted material – for instance:
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare writes “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.
I recommend something like the Oxford Manual of Style for anyone who wants to know more about how punctuation works in different regional variants of English.
@Sharp Words, Ah, thank you. I’m definitely not that knowledgeable of British English (obviously). I’m glad you’ve pointed out how dialog is treated there, because I kept thinking that I’m sure I’ve read British novels, and why didn’t I notice the quotes placed differently? Now it all makes sense. Thank you!
In the phrase “dialog, quotes, and titles” in the second paragraph, wouldn’t the word quotations be the correct word rather than quotes, as quote is a verb and quotation is a noun?
Hi Sharon, The word “quotes” is also used to refer to actual quotation marks. In fact, “quote(s)” has a few different meanings. Check out the entry in the dictionary: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/quotes.
Question about quotation marks used for chapter titles: If the chapter title falls at the end of a sentence, or before a comma, does the punctuation go inside the quotation marks? I have seen several writers do this. My thinking is that the chapter title does NOT include punctuation, so, unlike actual quoted speech, the punctuation is outside of the quotation marks. Example: The first chapter is “How to Tie Knots”. Or, would it be, as many writers do: The first chapter is “How to Tie Knots.”
In America, we put punctuation inside the quotation marks. British English puts punctuation marks outside of the quotations. I was grateful when I learned this because at one point I remember being quite concerned about all the terminal punctuation marks outside the quotations marks I was seeing on the Internet. I kept thinking that this was pretty basic stuff, and I saw it coming from a few astute writers. Then, I learned that it is correct placement in Britain, and I was relieved. So, here’s your answer:
If you are writing American English: The first chapter is “How to Tie Knots.”
If you are writing British English: The first chapter is “How to Tie Knots”.
This formatting is applied whether the terminal punctuation mark is part of the text in quotes or not. The above examples would the be same if the text within the quotation marks was dialogue. If you’re writing for a mixed audience (e.g. online), then you have to make a judgment call. You might choose based on the majority of your readership or you might simply go with which way feels or looks best to you. Good luck!
THANK YOU for posting this!
very helpful
You’re very welcome! Punctuation can be fun
o_o can you put a quotation if your thinking something?? (Example:”hmm thats weird” I thought to myself) or this one (hmm thats weird, I thought to myself) which is correct?
As far as I know, there isn’t a right or wrong way to format thoughts. However, most writers use italics since that’s a good way to avoid confusion between internal dialogue (thoughts) and external dialogue (conversation). Example:
Hmm, that’s weird, I thought to myself.
Glad that the subject of internal dialogue was brought up.
In external dialogue, a line might be as follows:
“I’m bored,” she said.
She said, “I’m bored.”
“I’m bored,” she said, “out of my skull.”
In either case, the character’s statement has a terminating punctuation (comma in the first, period in the second, both in the third), which is contained INSIDE the quote marks…independent of whether that punctuation would have been used if the dialogue were formatted as a complete sentence (as the comma in the third example).
In INTERNAL dialogue, I would not use quote marks; rather I would italicize the dialogue.
My question is thus:
Do I format the terminating punctuation with the dialogue in the internal, just as I would include it within quotes in the external? Or do I count it and format it as “narration?”
Chances are, not too many people are going to notice which one I use, but I’d just gone through one of my stories and noticed that I’d been inconsistent in this concern.
If I have two or more statements that are not separated by narration, THAT punctuation will be formatted according to the dialogue, of course, as in:
I’M BORED. I’M BORED OUT OF MY SKULL, she thought.
The first period would remain formatted with the dialogue, but what about that comma?
I’ve seen so many pages that discuss internal dialogue, AND discuss how to punctuate dialogue, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a combination.
Thank you.
I think that if you’re including the phrase “she thought,” then you need the comma:
I’m bored. I’m bored out of my skull, she thought.
However, once you establish that italicized text indicates internal dialogue, you may not need “she thought” or the comma. You do, however, need to be sure it’s clear which character the internal dialogue belongs to:
Lacy sighed. I’m bored. I’m bored out of my skull.
Melissa, thank you so much for all of the helpful info.
I’m actually writing a short story, but I’ve never been a fan of the way this looks — “How are you?” she asked.
Does anyone (including Melissa) know of a way to avoid using quotes altogether in creative fiction dialogue? I have some ideas, but nothing that I feel really works.
Thank you everyone.
Yes! Actually, I have seen writers forgo dialogue quotes altogether and use italics instead. In that case, the challenge is to make sure that it’s very clear who is speaking. I would try some different methods and see if any of them work for your project. If they don’t, then you may have to come back to standard quotation marks. Best of luck to you!
It’s easy – everything goes within the quotation marks. The best way to learn is to practice writing dialogue.
Unless you’re British, in which case everything (and by “everything,” I mean terminal punctuation marks) goes outside of the quotation marks. You’ve summed up how I first ingrained punctuation and quotation marks