QM: quotation marks.

If your teacher writes “QM,” write the rule you violated.  For problems of quoting literature, see Q (Part Five).  For quotation marks and titles, see Titles (Part Four).

QMD: quotation marks with dialogue.

Three errors are common.

1. If there is a new speaker, start a new paragraph.

WRONG (paragraph break needed):

            A woman who must have been her mother greeted me at the door.  My heart was pounding so hard that I was afraid it was audible, but I composed myself enough to say, “Hello, is Alice home?” “Yes, I’ll get her,” she replied.  “May I tell her who is visiting?”

RIGHT:

            A woman who must have been her mother greeted me at the door.  My heart was pounding so hard that I was afraid it was audible, but I composed myself enough to say, “Hello, is Alice home?”

           “Yes, I’ll get her,” she replied.  “May I tell her who is visiting?”

The same rule applies to poetry that uses dialogue.  Do not begin every line with quotation marks.  If one character’s speech continues across two stanzas, do not close the quotation at the end of the first stanza.

In the two stanzas below from the folk ballad “Sir Patrick Spens,” the captain of a ship speaks for two lines, and one of his crewmen answers in the next six.  Note where the quotation marks are placed (and where they are omitted).

“Make haste, make haste, my merry men all,

Our good ship sails the morn.”

“O say not so, my master dear,

For I fear a deadly storm.

“Late late yestre’en I saw the new moon,

With the old moon in her arm,

And I fear, I fear, my master dear,

That we will come to harm.”

2. Do not add unnecessary paragraph breaks with dialogue.  A person’s speech can be part of the previous paragraph, the next paragraph, or both, as long as there is no change of speaker.  The paragraph below needs no breaks, because the boy’s question is conveyed without dialogue and the mother continues after two interrupting sentences:

            When I answered the doorbell, a boy asked if my daughter was home.  “Yes, I’ll get her,” I said.  I wondered if it was David from her Science class.  She is always talking about him.  “May I tell her who is visiting?”  I could tell he was nervous, but he spoke politely and sounded sincere.

3. If one person speaks two or more paragraphs, begin each paragraph with new quotation marks, but use no closing quotation marks on any paragraph except the speaker’s last.

            “I had the highest grade in the class on my Science test,” he said.  “My English teacher told me I’m a great writer.  Father bought me a new sports car for getting straight A’s.  It’s a red Porsche.  And did I tell you about my new haircut?

            “But enough about me.  Let’s talk about you for a while.  Do you play golf?  I shot my best score ever at Father’s country club.”

For related rules see CWD (Part Five: Creative Writing).

QMP: punctuation marks with quotation marks.  

If your teacher marks “QMP,” identify the rule you violated.  

The practice of publishers varies regarding punctuation marks with quotations.  The rules below are the ones most commonly accepted in American publishing.

1. Place periods, commas, question marks, and exclamation points inside quotation marks:

WRONG: I said, “Well”.  “Well”, I said.  I asked, “Well”?

RIGHT: I said, “Well.”  “Well,” I said.  I asked, “Well?”

A question mark or an exclamation point can go inside or outside, depending on its use:

INSIDE: I asked, “Why?”  I cried, “Go!”  Why did you ask “Who?”

OUTSIDE: Why do you say “I’m like” and “he’s like”?

OUTSIDE: You’re driving me crazy!  Please stop saying “like”!

2. Semicolons, colons and dashes go outside quotation marks:

I meant “No”; I did not mean “Yes.”

I meant “No”—not “Yes,” but “No.”

3. Use only one end punctuation mark with quotation marks.  The only exception is dashes.

WRONG: “How true!,” he exclaimed.

RIGHT: “How true!” he exclaimed.

WRONG: The three diners had different reactions: “Ugh!,” “Yeech!,” “Yuck!”

RIGHT: The three diners had different reactions: “Ugh!” “Yeech!” “Yuck!”

RIGHT: All three observations—“Ugh!” “Yeech!” “Yuck!”—indicated disapproval of my cooking.

QQ: use single marks for quotations within quotations and for no other purpose.

The sentence below has a quotation within a quotation:

The first question on the quiz was “Who wrote ‘The Raven’?”

For any other purpose, single quotation marks are wrong.  See QMX below.

Do not use single quotation marks unless narrative is mixed with dialogue.  Here is a passage from Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice:

“Come, Darcy,” said he, “I must have you dance.”

Only if you include “said he” in your quotation must you use single quotation marks:

He offers encouragement: “‘Come, Darcy,’ said he, ‘I must have you dance’” (6).

If you omit “said he,” you should use only double quotation marks:

Encouraging the reluctant Darcy, he says, “I must have you dance” (6).

In the rare instance of quotations within quotations within quotations, use double marks.  Note where the question mark goes:

I had predicted, “I’ll bet the teacher asks, ‘Who wrote “The Raven”?’”

QMLQ: indent long quotations, using no quotation marks.

If a quotation of prose takes more than four lines, if a quotation of poetry takes more than three lines, or if you need to give a shorter quotation special emphasis, do not use quotation marks.  Indent the quotation one inch (not one-half inch) and double-space.  Do not single-space.  If dialogue or quotations occur within the indented passages, use regular quotation marks.  Indent any new paragraphs within an extracted quotation an additional three-tenths of an inch.  See QLQ and QP for examples and more information.

QMW: use quotation marks or italics for words, letters, and numbers when you refer to them as such.

I can never pronounce “twelfths.”

I can never pronounce twelfths.

The final “e” in “make” is silent.

The final e in make is silent.

Be consistent; use italics or quotation marks, but not both:

INCONSISTENT: I sometimes write “incident” when I mean incidence.

Italics have one advantage.  They look better than quotation marks if you must include apostrophes, which are used to indicate plurals of words and letters:

UGLY: Dot your “i”’s and cross your “t”’s.

BETTER: Dot your i’s and cross your t’s.

Do not highlight letters and numbers when they are not referred to as such:

WRONG: My grade was “B-.”

WRONG: My grade was B-.

RIGHT: My grade was B-.

QMT: typography with quotation marks.  

If your teacher marks QMT, identify which error you committed:

1. Leave no blank space between quotation marks and a quoted word:

WRONG: “ Good afternoon. ”

RIGHT: “Good afternoon.”

2. Do not forget to close quotations.

3. Do not leave quotation marks stranded.  Never leave half of the quotation marks at the right or left margin, with the rest of the quoted passage on another line.

 Formatting Quotation Marks: "" or “”

 Depending on the font, you may have the option of two kinds of quotation marks:

Straight quotation marks: "like these"

Curly quotation marks: “like these”

On Microsoft Word, you can change the settings with a few steps: Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoFormat as You Type > Replace as you type > "Straight quotation marks" with “smart quotation marks” > OK.

QMX: do not use quotation marks, single or double, to indicate that you are speaking ironically.  

Rephrase to make your meaning clear:

WRONG: The poem is about the “unsinkable” Titanic.

WRONG: The poem is about the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic.

RIGHT: The poem is about the supposedly unsinkable Titanic.

If you are worried that readers will think an embarrassing expression is your own, rephrase your sentence to allow quotation marks.  Use only double quotation marks:

WRONG: The Twist was “the in thing.”

WRONG: The Twist was ‘the in thing.’

RIGHT: The Twist was what teenagers in 1960 called “the in thing.”

Twisting with Chubby Checker.