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In American writing, quotation marks are normally the double kind (the primary style). If it is a space or another of a set of hard-coded characters or if the mark begins a line, the mark will be rendered as an opening quote; if not, it will be rendered as a closing quote or apostrophe. In Windows, AutoHotkey scripts can be used to assign simpler key combinations to opening and closing quotation marks. In some languages, if it is desired to include the same quotation marks used to delimit a string inside the string, the quotation marks are doubled. Double quotation marks, or pairs of single ones, also represent the ditto mark. Straight quotation marks (or italicised straight quotation marks) are often used to approximate the prime and double prime, e.g. when signifying feet and inches or arcminutes and arcseconds.

• For example, the journal Language of the Linguistic Society of America requires that the closing quotation mark precede the period or comma unless that period or comma is "a necessary part of the quoted matter".
• At that time typesetting did use curved quotation marks.citation needed The ASCII character set, which has been used on a wide variety of computers since the 1960s, contains the straight versions only (U+0027 ' APOSTROPHE and U+0022 " QUOTATION MARK).
• To make typographic quotation marks easier to enter, publishing software often automatically converts typewriter quotation marks (and apostrophes) to typographic form during text entry (with or without the user being aware of it).
• These same systems often drew the backtick (the free standing character U+0060 ` GRAVE ACCENT) as an 'open quote' glyph (usually a mirror image so it still sloped in the direction of a grave accent).
• In Bulgarian, Icelandic, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Russian, single quotation marks are not used.clarification needed
• In both major styles, regardless of placement, only one end mark (?, !, or .) can end a sentence.

For more on the proper use of multiple punctuation at the end of a sentence, see here. This is called nesting quotations. (1) Quotation marks to identify previously spoken or written words Some quoted passages are longer than others. But suppose you place the quotation mid-sentence, forming a syntactical part of the sentence.

To signal the titles of creative works

In this case, it is necessary to set the translation off with commas. In the previous sentence, “letter” was properly spelled with two “t”s. Though marshaling little evidence, the authors claim that “over half of British prisoners come from single-parent households.” In her closing statement, the prosecutor spoke forcefully of the defendant’s “callous disregard for human life.” Use commas to introduce or interrupt direct quotations of dialogue or text. Always capitalize the first word in a complete quotation, even midsentence. Periods and commas are placed outside the prime and double prime marks. Scare quotes (also known as sneer quotes) are used to cast doubt on a word or phrase, or to emphasize that the word or phrase is being used as a euphemism. Quotation marks are primarily used to indicate material that is being reproduced word for word, as well as some other important uses. In Australia, double quotes are preferred for indicating speech, except in the government and corporate sectors, where the preference is for single quotes. The typographic closing double quotation mark and the neutral double quotation mark are similar to – and sometimes stand in for – the ditto mark and the double prime symbol. Opening and closing quotation marks may be identical in form (called neutral, vertical, straight, typewriter, or "dumb" quotation marks), or may be distinctly left-handed and right-handed (typographic or, colloquially, curly quotation marks); see Quotation mark § Summary table for details. Although the word is the same, “Camelot” the song takes quotation marks because it's part of a larger work—namely, a full-length show called Camelot. Periods and commas ALWAYS go inside quotation marks. In Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the curved quotation marks, „...“, are used as a secondary level or in handwriting, while the angular marks, «...», are used as the primary level on printed text.citation needed The curved quotation marks ("66–99") usage, “...”, was exported to some non-Latin scripts, notably where there was some English influence, for instance in Native American scripts spinorhino casino and Indic scripts. After the publication of Filelfo's edition, the quotation marks for literal quotations prevailed. The single quotation mark is traced to Ancient Greek practice, adopted and adapted by monastic copyists. The method for producing smart quotes may be based solely on the character preceding the mark. To make typographic quotation marks easier to enter, publishing software often automatically converts typewriter quotation marks (and apostrophes) to typographic form during text entry (with or without the user being aware of it).

• Thus, to represent curly quotes in XML and SGML, it is safest to use the decimal numeric character references.
• All other forms of quotation marks, such as angled, lowered, inverted, were not provided by British or American typewriters.
• An exception may be made when writing fiction, where the first comma may be placed before the first closing quote.
• French uses angle quotation marks (guillemets, or duck-foot quotes), adding a 'quarter-em space'a within the quotes.
• To add quotation mark to a word list please sign up or log in.

Titles of artistic works

With narration of direct speech, both styles retain punctuation inside the quotation marks, with a full stop changing into a comma if followed by attributive matter, also known as a speech tag or annunciatory clause. In the United States, the prevailing style is called American style, whereby commas and periods are almost always placed inside closing quotation marks. Periods and commas that are part of the person's speech are permitted inside the quotation marks regardless of whether the material is fiction.

To discuss words

An indirect quote lets you capture or summarize what someone said or wrote without using their exact words. Quotation marks are a type of punctuation with several different functions. This convention was later standardized in RFC 3676, and was adopted subsequently by many email clients when automatically including quoted text from previous messages (in plain text mode). For example, many simple text editors only handle a few encodings or assume that the encoding of any file opened is a platform default, so the quote characters may appear as the generic replacement character � or "mojibake" (gibberish). When inserted in the middle of a person’s actual name, a nickname should appear in quotation marks. As an alternative to parentheses, quotation marks can be used to enclose a translation. A colon should be used when the text introducing the quoted material could stand as a sentence on its own. The comma is the mark most frequently used to introduce quoted material. In general, short-form works like poems, songs, or short stories use quotation marks, while long-form works like books, films, or stage plays use italics.

Capitalize the first letter of the quoted sentence

The Chicago Manual of Style suggests 100 words or more as a general rule, but offers many factors other than length to be considered. How do you determine if your quotation is short (allowing it to be incorporated into the main text) or long (requiring a block quotation)? In contrast to the main text, a block quotation might also have a bigger right-hand margin, be in a smaller or otherwise different font, or have reduced line spacing. Style varies, but at a minimum a block quotation should have a bigger left-hand margin than the main text. Here, we explain the must-know guidelines for proper quotation mark usage, including examples for each. Thus, to represent curly quotes in XML and SGML, it is safest to use the decimal numeric character references. "Smart quotes" features wrongly convert initial apostrophes (as in 'tis, 'em, 'til, and '89) into opening single quotes. Performance by these "smart quotes" features was far from perfect overall (variance potential by e.g. subject matter, formatting/style convention, user typing habits). Before Unicode was widely accepted and supported, this meant representing the curved quotes in whatever 8-bit encoding the software and underlying operating system was using. In Finnish, the beginning of a reporting clause is marked only by the punctuation already existing in the sentence, or (if there was none) by adding a comma.

Primary quotations versus secondary quotations

If the question mark or exclamation mark is not part of the quote but part of a question or statement, place it outside the quotation marks. If the question mark or exclamation mark is part of the quote, place it inside the quotation marks. Place the period inside the quotation marks when a quotation comes at the end of a sentence. Place both parts of the quote within their own set of quotation marks. Because you want to attach the speaker to their dialogue, use a comma rather than a period to end the quote inside the quotation marks. In British English, punctuation marks are placed outside the quotation marks unless they are part of the original quotation. Certain types of works—but not all—use quotation marks around their titles so the reader knows the work is a reference. Below, we list the seven main uses for quotation marks. It helps to break down the rules for when to use quotation marks by their function.

Quotation Marks

If you’re quoting a complete sentence, capitalize the first letter of the first word, just like a typical sentence. To indicate the measurement correctly, place the marks directly after the number with no space. No quotes are necessary if the nickname is how a famous person is most commonly recognized, as with many historical figures. The standard is to place the quoted nickname between the first name and the surname, although that’s not necessarily a rule.