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How to Use Quotation Marks

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Using Quotation Marks

The primary function of quotation marks is to set off and represent exact language (either spoken or written) that has come from somebody else. The quotation mark is also used to designate speech acts in fiction and sometimes poetry. Since you will most often use them when working with outside sources, successful use of quotation marks is a practical defense against accidental plagiarism and an excellent practice in academic honesty. The following rules of quotation mark use are the standard in the United States, although it may be of interest that usage rules for this punctuation do vary in other countries.

The following covers the basic use of quotation marks. For details and exceptions consult the separate sections of this guide.

Direct Quotations

Direct quotations involve incorporating another person's exact words into your own writing.

• Quotation marks always come in pairs. Do not open a quotation and fail to close it at the end of the quoted material.

Mr. Johnson, who was working in his field that morning, said, "The alien spaceship appeared right before my own two eyes."

Although Mr. Johnson has seen odd happenings on the farm, he stated that the spaceship "certainly takes the cake" when it comes to unexplainable activity.

"I didn't see an actual alien being," Mr. Johnson said, "but I sure wish I had."

When quoting text with a spelling or grammar error, you should transcribe the error exactly in your own text. However, also insert the term sic in italics directly after the mistake, and enclose it in brackets. Sic is from the Latin, and translates to "thus," "so," or "just as that." The word tells the reader that your quote is an exact reproduction of what you found, and the error is not your own.

Mr. Johnson says of the experience, "It's made me reconsider the existence of extraterestials [ sic ]."

• Quotations are most effective if you use them sparingly and keep them relatively short. Too many quotations in a research paper will get you accused of not producing original thought or material (they may also bore a reader who wants to know primarily what YOU have to say on the subject).

Indirect Quotations

Indirect quotations are not exact wordings but rather rephrasings or summaries of another person's words. In this case, it is not necessary to use quotation marks. However, indirect quotations still require proper citations, and you will be committing plagiarism if you fail to do so.

Many writers struggle with when to use direct quotations versus indirect quotations. Use the following tips to guide you in your choice.

Use direct quotations when the source material uses language that is particularly striking or notable. Do not rob such language of its power by altering it.

The above should never stand in for:

Use an indirect quotation (or paraphrase) when you merely need to summarize key incidents or details of the text.

Use direct quotations when the author you are quoting has coined a term unique to her or his research and relevant within your own paper.

When to use direct quotes versus indirect quotes is ultimately a choice you'll learn a feeling for with experience. However, always try to have a sense for why you've chosen your quote. In other words, never put quotes in your paper simply because your teacher says, "You must use quotes."

Writing Studio

Quotation basics: grammar, punctuation, and style, some general quotation guidelines.

In an effort to make our handouts more accessible, we have begun converting our PDF handouts to web pages. Download this page as a PDF: Quotation Grammar, Punctuation, and Style Return to Writing Studio Handouts

When writing a formal essay, you will often need to use quotes from a text or texts as evidence to prove your point or to make an argument. Below are grammar and punctuation guidelines to help you integrate those quotes into your essay successfully.

We recommend consulting a style manual or your instructor for specific queries.

Periods and Commas

• You do not need to use any punctuation before a quotation if it forms part of your own sentence.

Example: Dennis cries that he is “being repressed!”

• Use a comma when introducing a quote with a phrase such as ‘he said.’

Example: The old man protests, “I don’t want to go on the cart.”

• Place parenthetical citations outside the end quotation mark, but before the punctuation.

Example: King Arthur declares, “Let’s not go to Camelot. It is a silly place” (13).

Colons and Ellipses

• Use a colon when introducing a quotation with a full independent clause (one that can stand on its own).

Example: Emily feels frustrated by his response: “Is there someone else that we can talk to?”

• Use an ellipsis (three periods, sometimes with spaces between: ‘…’ ) to indicate an omission in a quotation (Exception: it is not necessary to use an ellipsis when omitting words at the beginning of a quote unless you are using a block quote format).

Example: “The kind of intelligence a genius has … leaps with ellipses.”

• When you want to omit one or more full sentences, use a period and a space before the three ellipsis dots.

Example: “Hatred paralyzes life. … Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”

Slashes and Brackets

• When you are quoting poetry, use a slash ( / ) to mark a line break.

Example: “Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments” (1-2).

• Use square brackets to add a word, change a pronoun, or change a verb tense in the quote.

Original quote: “It’s my duty as a knight to sample all the peril I can.”

In your essay: Sir Galahad thinks “it’s [his] duty as a knight to sample all the peril [he] can.”

Question Marks and Exclamation Points

• With a question mark or exclamation point, there is no need to use a comma or a period.

Example: The interested observer wonders, “Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?”

• If the mark is part of your sentence and not part of the quote, it goes outside the last quotation mark.

Example: I don’t think we can ever understand the “ineluctable modality of the visual”!

Block Quotes

• MLA style calls for use of a block quote (indent 10 spaces, or 2 tabs) when citing five or more lines of typed prose or four or more lines of verse. APA style calls for block quotes when citing forty words or more.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate. / Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, / And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. (1-4)

Quote Within a Quote

• When using a quote within a quote, single quotation marks are used for the inner quote.

Example: Josh laments, “Every time I try to talk to someone it’s ‘sorry this’ and ‘forgive me that.’”

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Punctuation: Quotation Marks

Quotation mark basics.

Quotations marks are used to denote language taken from another author or source .

Quotation Mark Placement

For titles. If referencing the title of a chapter or smaller section of a larger work, set off the title with quotation marks.

Example: The fourth chapter of the APA 7 manual, "Writing Style and Grammar," contains a lot of useful information.

In sentences . When copying language from any other source (including published texts, internet resources, marketing or business materials, test or interview questions, and more) into your paper, you must use quotation marks (and proper citation ) to indicate the source. Direct quotations will never begin a sentence, but you might use them in the middle or at the end:

Middle: Christensen (2010) regarded the "infiltration of only red light" (p. 32) as a success in the experiment.   End: The experiment concluded with an analysis of what Franks et al. (2011) considered "a heightened fright" (para. 43).

Note that quotations longer than 40 words require block quotation formatting , which does not use quotation marks.

For more information about quotation marks, refer to APA 7, Section 6.7.

Quotations and Punctuation

Quotation marks should always face the quoted material. One set of quotation marks will show the beginning of the quote and the other will show when it ends. Leave no space between the quotation marks and the text they surround.

Correct: Samson (2010) stated, “Mirror neurons allow for imitation and empathy” (p. 214).

Incorrect: Samson (2010) stated, ”Mirror neurons allow for imitation and empathy“ (p. 214).   Missing quotation marks: Samson (2010) stated, Mirror neurons allow for imitation and empathy (p. 214).

The sentence period should always go after a parenthetical citation.

Correct: Samson (2010) stated, "Mirror neurons allow for imitation and empathy" (p. 214).

Incorrect: Samson (2010) stated, "Mirror neurons allow for imitation and empathy." (p. 214).   Note: This sentence has double punctuation.

Incorrect: Samson (2010) stated, "Mirror neurons allow for imitation and empathy." (p. 214)    Note: This sentence will need to end with a period after the parentheses so there are no hanging parentheses.

Capitalization in Quotations

Capitalize the first word of the quotation when it is introduced as dialogue.

Example: Smith (2010) stated, “School is difficult” (p. 5).

Note that a comma precedes the quotation.

Example:  Johnson (2017) reported, "Walden students should use APA" (p. 45).

Quotations are introduced as dialogue when writers use the following sentence structure: Author (Year) verb, "Quotations" (p. x). Note that a comma precedes the quotation.

Do not capitalize the first word of the quotation when it is integrated into the sentence.

Example: Smith (2010) reported that “school is difficult” (p. 5).

Note that no comma precedes the quotation.

Example: According to Samson (2010), "mirror neurons allow for imitation and empathy" (p. 214).

Note that the first word in the quotation is not capitalized in this example since the quotation has been integrated into the sentence.

Additional Common Uses of Quotation Marks

Linguistic clarification.

Use quotation marks rather than italics to clarify linguistic examples. This is a new rule in APA 7. (APA 6 recommended using italics instead of quotation marks for linguistic examples.)

Example: The student struggled with the use of "their" "they're," and "there."

Introducing a Word or Phrase Used Ironically

Use quotation marks around words or phrases that are presented ironically. Use quotation marks only the first time the words or phrases are used, not for later uses.

Example: There were many instances of "friendly joking" that created a hostile workplace environment.

Do Not Use Quotation Marks in These Instances

Do not use a quotation mark in the following instances.

Use italics instead of quotation marks around key terms or scale anchors.

Example : The survey required participants to scale their responses from very bad to very good.   Example: For the purposes of this paper, the term participation will be defined as...

Note that after the first time you define a key term, you will format it normally.

Do not use quotation marks to hint at a different meaning. Use more precise language instead.

Incorrect: The "orientation" turned out to be only a 2-hour meeting.

Correct: The orientation meeting lasted only 2 hours, which was not long enough to cover all topics sufficiently.

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Quotation marks: rules and usage in sentences

Jessica Malnik

I’d wager you’ve probably seen at least a handful of quotation marks so far today. They’re everywhere. These upside-down commas can be tricky if you don’t understand the rules.

For instance, when should you use a single quote or a double quote? Where does the punctuation go?

In this post, we’ll cover the differences in single and double quotation marks, common quotation mark rules (including the Golden Rule), and when to use quotation marks.

What’s the difference between single and double quotation marks?

Single and double quotes have different uses but are commonly mixed up by writers. It’s hard to tell the purpose of the quotation marks if they’re used incorrectly.

In general, double quotes should be used to indicate direct speech in your writing. Double quotes look like this and are highlighted in the example below:

Single quotes aren’t used in the same way as double quotes, but they’re often used in the same sentence as them. Single quotes are used to indicate a quote within a quote. Single quotations can also be used to show a quote within a headline or a title placed within a quote.

Here’s an example of what that would look like with the single quotation marks highlighted:

It’s important to note that quotation grammar rules vary between American English and British English, which can be a challenge for international students. For this post, we’ll focus on quotation rules that affect American English writing and literature. If you’re writing in British English, be sure to consult your style guide or other relevant writing references.

Before we dive into when you should use quotation marks, we first need to cover some ground rules.

What are common quotation mark rules?

When it comes to quotation mark usage, there is one Golden Rule you need to know:

Once a quote is open, it has to be closed.

Essentially, don’t start what you can’t finish. If you have an opening quotation mark, then you’ll need to close the word, sentence, or phrase with a closing quotation. This means that leaving a quote open like this is  incorrect :

Can you spot where the closing quotation needs to go? The closing quote should be placed directly after the comma beside the word  backpack . Think of quotes as existing in pairs. If you start a quote, it needs to be followed by its buddy.

Aside from the Golden Rule, there are a few additional quotation mark rules.

3 of the most common quotation mark rules you need to know

1. using quotes within quotes.

This was already mentioned above, but it’s an important rule to remember. When you’re quoting something inside of an existing quote, you should use single quotes within the quote.

Here’s an example of what a single quotation mark looks like for a quote within a quote:

As you can see in the example above, the closing quotations almost look like three marks. That’s what it looks like when you have a single quote next to a double quote. It might seem odd, but it’s grammatically correct.

Here’s another example. In this case, the quote within the quote is smack-dab in the middle instead of butting up next to the closing double quote:

2. Capitalization and quoting

Text within quotation marks is sometimes capitalized and other times not. It strictly depends on the quote itself. The first letter of the text should be capitalized if you’re quoting a complete sentence. Here’s what that looks like as an example:

This would be true even if the quoted phrase fell in the middle of a sentence. You would still need to start it with a capital letter in that instance.

But a quote doesn’t always have to start with a capital letter. If you’re simply quoting a piece of the sentence or a phrase, then you can start the quote with a lowercase letter. Here’s an example of that:

3. Using quotes with other punctuation

It can be confusing for writers trying to figure out whether punctuation marks go inside or outside of quotes. For this rule, there are a few tips to keep in mind to help you place punctuation marks in the right spot.

For instance, punctuation marks that introduce the quote shouldn’t be placed within the quotation mark. But sentence-ending punctuation marks follow different guidelines. Sentence-ending periods and commas go within the quotation marks while semicolons, dashes, and colons are placed on the outside of the quote.

Here are two examples to show the difference in sentence-ending punctuation placement:

Exclamation and question marks are another story. They can go either inside or outside of the quote, depending on the context. If the punctuation mark applies to the quoted word or phrase, then they should be placed within the quotes. If they apply to the entire sentence instead, then they go outside of the quotation marks.

Here’s an example to show you the difference:

When to use quotation marks

Here are some examples of when quotation marks should be used and how they can be applied to your writing.

1. Quotes within quotes

As stated above, quotes within quotes are commonly used. These require a single quotation mark inside of double quotation marks.

He said, “I love the theater. I went to see ‘Sample Performance’ last week.”

In this example above, the single quotes are framing the title of a show.

2. Quotes within quotes

Remember that a single quote should still be used when it’s followed directly by a double quote, such as in this example:

She said, “My favorite album is ‘Sample Band Debut.’”

3. Words as words

You can also use quotation marks to refer to a word. Here’s an example:

Effective “copywriting” can persuade people to take a desired action.

The quotation marks in this example show that you’re talking about the word itself, and it’s not a direct quote from someone.

4. Scare quotes

Scare or shudder quotes are used to imply a term is being used in a nontraditional way or the writer is trying to distance themselves or the subject from the word. For example:

She thinks she’s a “talented” artist.

The use of quotation marks here shows that the writer doesn’t necessarily think the person is talented. Keep in mind that scare quotes can easily be overused, and you should try to use them sparingly in your writing.

5. Titles of short works

Titles of short works like poems, articles, blog posts, and chapters should use quotation marks. However, larger pieces of work such as novels and magazines would be italicized, according to many style guides, including Chicago. Here’s an example of a short body of work in quotation marks:

‘How to Write’ was an interesting article.

6. Direct quotes

Direct quotes are possibly the easiest and most straightforward use of quotes. When you’re quoting someone’s direct speech, add quotation marks. Here’s an example:

“I only have two classes left today,” she said.

Quotation marks follow many rules, but they aren’t too complicated. Just keep practicing to get the hang of it. And of course, you can always bookmark this post to use as a reference.

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What this handout is about

Used effectively, quotations can provide important pieces of evidence and lend fresh voices and perspectives to your narrative. Used ineffectively, however, quotations can clutter your text and interrupt the flow of your argument. This handout will help you decide when and how to quote like a pro.

When should I quote?

Use quotations at strategically selected moments. You have probably been told by teachers to provide as much evidence as possible in support of your thesis. But packing your paper with quotations will not necessarily strengthen your argument. The majority of your paper should still be your original ideas in your own words (after all, it’s your paper). And quotations are only one type of evidence: well-balanced papers may also make use of paraphrases, data, and statistics. The types of evidence you use will depend in part on the conventions of the discipline or audience for which you are writing. For example, papers analyzing literature may rely heavily on direct quotations of the text, while papers in the social sciences may have more paraphrasing, data, and statistics than quotations.

Discussing specific arguments or ideas

Sometimes, in order to have a clear, accurate discussion of the ideas of others, you need to quote those ideas word for word. Suppose you want to challenge the following statement made by John Doe, a well-known historian:

“At the beginning of World War Two, almost all Americans assumed the war would end quickly.”

If it is especially important that you formulate a counterargument to this claim, then you might wish to quote the part of the statement that you find questionable and establish a dialogue between yourself and John Doe:

Historian John Doe has argued that in 1941 “almost all Americans assumed the war would end quickly” (Doe 223). Yet during the first six months of U.S. involvement, the wives and mothers of soldiers often noted in their diaries their fear that the war would drag on for years.

Giving added emphasis to a particularly authoritative source on your topic.

There will be times when you want to highlight the words of a particularly important and authoritative source on your topic. For example, suppose you were writing an essay about the differences between the lives of male and female slaves in the U.S. South. One of your most provocative sources is a narrative written by a former slave, Harriet Jacobs. It would then be appropriate to quote some of Jacobs’s words:

Harriet Jacobs, a former slave from North Carolina, published an autobiographical slave narrative in 1861. She exposed the hardships of both male and female slaves but ultimately concluded that “slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.”

In this particular example, Jacobs is providing a crucial first-hand perspective on slavery. Thus, her words deserve more exposure than a paraphrase could provide.

Jacobs is quoted in Harriet A. Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, ed. Jean Fagan Yellin (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987).

Analyzing how others use language.

This scenario is probably most common in literature and linguistics courses, but you might also find yourself writing about the use of language in history and social science classes. If the use of language is your primary topic, then you will obviously need to quote users of that language.

Examples of topics that might require the frequent use of quotations include:

Southern colloquial expressions in William Faulkner’s Light in August

Ms. and the creation of a language of female empowerment

A comparison of three British poets and their use of rhyme

Spicing up your prose.

In order to lend variety to your prose, you may wish to quote a source with particularly vivid language. All quotations, however, must closely relate to your topic and arguments. Do not insert a quotation solely for its literary merits.

One example of a quotation that adds flair:

President Calvin Coolidge’s tendency to fall asleep became legendary. As H. L. Mencken commented in the American Mercury in 1933, “Nero fiddled, but Coolidge only snored.”

How do I set up and follow up a quotation?

Once you’ve carefully selected the quotations that you want to use, your next job is to weave those quotations into your text. The words that precede and follow a quotation are just as important as the quotation itself. You can think of each quote as the filling in a sandwich: it may be tasty on its own, but it’s messy to eat without some bread on either side of it. Your words can serve as the “bread” that helps readers digest each quote easily. Below are four guidelines for setting up and following up quotations.

In illustrating these four steps, we’ll use as our example, Franklin Roosevelt’s famous quotation, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

1. Provide context for each quotation.

Do not rely on quotations to tell your story for you. It is your responsibility to provide your reader with context for the quotation. The context should set the basic scene for when, possibly where, and under what circumstances the quotation was spoken or written. So, in providing context for our above example, you might write:

When Franklin Roosevelt gave his inaugural speech on March 4, 1933, he addressed a nation weakened and demoralized by economic depression.

2. Attribute each quotation to its source.

Tell your reader who is speaking. Here is a good test: try reading your text aloud. Could your reader determine without looking at your paper where your quotations begin? If not, you need to attribute the quote more noticeably.

Avoid getting into the “they said” attribution rut! There are many other ways to attribute quotes besides this construction. Here are a few alternative verbs, usually followed by “that”:

Different reporting verbs are preferred by different disciplines, so pay special attention to these in your disciplinary reading. If you’re unfamiliar with the meanings of any of these words or others you find in your reading, consult a dictionary before using them.

3. Explain the significance of the quotation.

Once you’ve inserted your quotation, along with its context and attribution, don’t stop! Your reader still needs your assessment of why the quotation holds significance for your paper. Using our Roosevelt example, if you were writing a paper on the first one-hundred days of FDR’s administration, you might follow the quotation by linking it to that topic:

With that message of hope and confidence, the new president set the stage for his next one-hundred days in office and helped restore the faith of the American people in their government.

4. Provide a citation for the quotation.

All quotations, just like all paraphrases, require a formal citation. For more details about particular citation formats, see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . In general, you should remember one rule of thumb: Place the parenthetical reference or footnote/endnote number after—not within—the closed quotation mark.

Roosevelt declared, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (Roosevelt, Public Papers, 11).

Roosevelt declared, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”1

How do I embed a quotation into a sentence?

In general, avoid leaving quotes as sentences unto themselves. Even if you have provided some context for the quote, a quote standing alone can disrupt your flow.  Take a look at this example:

Hamlet denies Rosencrantz’s claim that thwarted ambition caused his depression. “I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space” (Hamlet 2.2).

Standing by itself, the quote’s connection to the preceding sentence is unclear. There are several ways to incorporate a quote more smoothly:

Lead into the quote with a colon.

Hamlet denies Rosencrantz’s claim that thwarted ambition caused his depression: “I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space” (Hamlet 2.2).

The colon announces that a quote will follow to provide evidence for the sentence’s claim.

Introduce or conclude the quote by attributing it to the speaker. If your attribution precedes the quote, you will need to use a comma after the verb.

Hamlet denies Rosencrantz’s claim that thwarted ambition caused his depression. He states, “I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space” (Hamlet 2.2).

When faced with a twelve-foot mountain troll, Ron gathers his courage, shouting, “Wingardium Leviosa!” (Rowling, p. 176).

The Pirate King sees an element of regality in their impoverished and dishonest life. “It is, it is a glorious thing/To be a pirate king,” he declares (Pirates of Penzance, 1983).

Interrupt the quote with an attribution to the speaker. Again, you will need to use a comma after the verb, as well as a comma leading into the attribution.

“There is nothing either good or bad,” Hamlet argues, “but thinking makes it so” (Hamlet 2.2).

“And death shall be no more,” Donne writes, “Death thou shalt die” (“Death, Be Not Proud,” l. 14).

Dividing the quote may highlight a particular nuance of the quote’s meaning. In the first example, the division calls attention to the two parts of Hamlet’s claim. The first phrase states that nothing is inherently good or bad; the second phrase suggests that our perspective causes things to become good or bad. In the second example, the isolation of “Death thou shalt die” at the end of the sentence draws a reader’s attention to that phrase in particular. As you decide whether or not you want to break up a quote, you should consider the shift in emphasis that the division might create.

Use the words of the quote grammatically within your own sentence.

When Hamlet tells Rosencrantz that he “could be bounded in a nutshell and count [him]self a king of infinite space” (Hamlet 2.2), he implies that thwarted ambition did not cause his depression.

Ultimately, death holds no power over Donne since in the afterlife, “death shall be no more” (“Death, Be Not Proud,” l. 14).

Note that when you use “that” after the verb that introduces the quote, you no longer need a comma.

The Pirate King argues that “it is, it is a glorious thing/to be a pirate king” (Pirates of Penzance, 1983).

How much should I quote?

As few words as possible. Remember, your paper should primarily contain your own words, so quote only the most pithy and memorable parts of sources. Here are guidelines for selecting quoted material judiciously:

Excerpt fragments.

Sometimes, you should quote short fragments, rather than whole sentences. Suppose you interviewed Jane Doe about her reaction to John F. Kennedy’s assassination. She commented:

“I couldn’t believe it. It was just unreal and so sad. It was just unbelievable. I had never experienced such denial. I don’t know why I felt so strongly. Perhaps it was because JFK was more to me than a president. He represented the hopes of young people everywhere.”

You could quote all of Jane’s comments, but her first three sentences are fairly redundant. You might instead want to quote Jane when she arrives at the ultimate reason for her strong emotions:

Jane Doe grappled with grief and disbelief. She had viewed JFK, not just as a national figurehead, but as someone who “represented the hopes of young people everywhere.”

Excerpt those fragments carefully!

Quoting the words of others carries a big responsibility. Misquoting misrepresents the ideas of others. Here’s a classic example of a misquote:

John Adams has often been quoted as having said: “This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it.”

John Adams did, in fact, write the above words. But if you see those words in context, the meaning changes entirely. Here’s the rest of the quotation:

Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been on the point of breaking out, ‘this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!!!!’ But in this exclamation, I should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in public company—I mean hell.

As you can see from this example, context matters!

This example is from Paul F. Boller, Jr. and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions (Oxford University Press, 1989).

Use block quotations sparingly.

There may be times when you need to quote long passages. However, you should use block quotations only when you fear that omitting any words will destroy the integrity of the passage. If that passage exceeds four lines (some sources say five), then set it off as a block quotation.

Be sure you are handling block quotes correctly in papers for different academic disciplines–check the index of the citation style guide you are using. Here are a few general tips for setting off your block quotations:

• Set up a block quotation with your own words followed by a colon.
• Indent. You normally indent 4-5 spaces for the start of a paragraph. When setting up a block quotation, indent the entire paragraph once from the left-hand margin.
• Single space or double space within the block quotation, depending on the style guidelines of your discipline (MLA, CSE, APA, Chicago, etc.).
• Do not use quotation marks at the beginning or end of the block quote—the indentation is what indicates that it’s a quote.
• Place parenthetical citation according to your style guide (usually after the period following the last sentence of the quote).
• Follow up a block quotation with your own words.

So, using the above example from John Adams, here’s how you might include a block quotation:

After reading several doctrinally rigid tracts, John Adams recalled the zealous ranting of his former teacher, Joseph Cleverly, and minister, Lemuel Bryant. He expressed his ambivalence toward religion in an 1817 letter to Thomas Jefferson:

Adams clearly appreciated religion, even if he often questioned its promotion.

How do I combine quotation marks with other punctuation marks?

It can be confusing when you start combining quotation marks with other punctuation marks. You should consult a style manual for complicated situations, but the following two rules apply to most cases:

Keep periods and commas within quotation marks.

So, for example:

According to Professor Poe, werewolves “represent anxiety about the separation between human and animal,” and werewolf movies often “interrogate those boundaries.”

In the above example, both the comma and period were enclosed in the quotation marks. The main exception to this rule involves the use of internal citations, which always precede the last period of the sentence. For example:

According to Professor Poe, werewolves “represent anxiety about the separation between human and animal,” and werewolf movies often “interrogate those boundaries” (Poe 167).

Note, however, that the period remains inside the quotation marks when your citation style involves superscript footnotes or endnotes. For example:

According to Professor Poe, werewolves “represent anxiety about the separation between human and animal,” and werewolf movies often “interrogate those boundaries.” 2

Place all other punctuation marks (colons, semicolons, exclamation marks, question marks) outside the quotation marks, except when they were part of the original quotation.

Take a look at the following examples:

I couldn’t believe it when my friend passed me a note in the cafe saying the management “started charging $15 per hour for parking”!

The coach yelled, “Run!”

In the first example, the author placed the exclamation point outside the quotation mark because she added it herself to emphasize the outrageous nature of the parking price change. The original note had not included an exclamation mark. In the second example, the exclamation mark remains within the quotation mark because it is indicating the excited tone in which the coach yelled the command. Thus, the exclamation mark is considered to be part of the original quotation.

How do I indicate quotations within quotations?

If you are quoting a passage that contains a quotation, then you use single quotation marks for the internal quotation. Quite rarely, you quote a passage that has a quotation within a quotation. In that rare instance, you would use double quotation marks for the second internal quotation.

Here’s an example of a quotation within a quotation:

In “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Hans Christian Andersen wrote, “‘But the Emperor has nothing on at all!’ cried a little child.”

Remember to consult your style guide to determine how to properly cite a quote within a quote.

When do I use those three dots ( . . . )?

Whenever you want to leave out material from within a quotation, you need to use an ellipsis, which is a series of three periods, each of which should be preceded and followed by a space. So, an ellipsis in this sentence would look like . . . this. There are a few rules to follow when using ellipses:

Be sure that you don’t fundamentally change the meaning of the quotation by omitting material.

Take a look at the following example:

“The Writing Center is located on the UNC campus and serves the entire UNC community.”

“The Writing Center . . . serves the entire UNC community.”

The reader’s understanding of the Writing Center’s mission to serve the UNC community is not affected by omitting the information about its location.

Do not use ellipses at the beginning or ending of quotations, unless it’s important for the reader to know that the quotation was truncated.

For example, using the above example, you would NOT need an ellipsis in either of these situations:

“The Writing Center is located on the UNC campus . . .”

The Writing Center ” . . . serves the entire UNC community.”

Use punctuation marks in combination with ellipses when removing material from the end of sentences or clauses.

For example, if you take material from the end of a sentence, keep the period in as usual.

“The boys ran to school, forgetting their lunches and books. Even though they were out of breath, they made it on time.”

“The boys ran to school. . . . Even though they were out of breath, they made it on time.”

Likewise, if you excerpt material at the end of clause that ends in a comma, retain the comma.

“The red car came to a screeching halt that was heard by nearby pedestrians, but no one was hurt.”

“The red car came to a screeching halt . . . , but no one was hurt.”

Is it ever okay to insert my own words or change words in a quotation?

Sometimes it is necessary for clarity and flow to alter a word or words within a quotation. You should make such changes rarely. In order to alert your reader to the changes you’ve made, you should always bracket the altered words. Here are a few examples of situations when you might need brackets:

Changing verb tense or pronouns in order to be consistent with the rest of the sentence.

Suppose you were quoting a woman who, when asked about her experiences immigrating to the United States, commented “nobody understood me.” You might write:

Esther Hansen felt that when she came to the United States “nobody understood [her].”

In the above example, you’ve changed “me” to “her” in order to keep the entire passage in third person. However, you could avoid the need for this change by simply rephrasing:

“Nobody understood me,” recalled Danish immigrant Esther Hansen.

Including supplemental information that your reader needs in order to understand the quotation.

For example, if you were quoting someone’s nickname, you might want to let your reader know the full name of that person in brackets.

“The principal of the school told Billy [William Smith] that his contract would be terminated.”

Similarly, if a quotation referenced an event with which the reader might be unfamiliar, you could identify that event in brackets.

“We completely revised our political strategies after the strike [of 1934].”

Indicating the use of nonstandard grammar or spelling.

In rare situations, you may quote from a text that has nonstandard grammar, spelling, or word choice. In such cases, you may want to insert [sic], which means “thus” or “so” in Latin. Using [sic] alerts your reader to the fact that this nonstandard language is not the result of a typo on your part. Always italicize “sic” and enclose it in brackets. There is no need to put a period at the end. Here’s an example of when you might use [sic]:

Twelve-year-old Betsy Smith wrote in her diary, “Father is afraid that he will be guilty of beach [sic] of contract.”

Here [sic] indicates that the original author wrote “beach of contract,” not breach of contract, which is the accepted terminology.

Do not overuse brackets!

For example, it is not necessary to bracket capitalization changes that you make at the beginning of sentences. For example, suppose you were going to use part of this quotation:

“The colors scintillated curiously over a hard carapace, and the beetle’s tiny antennae made gentle waving motions as though saying hello.”

If you wanted to begin a sentence with an excerpt from the middle of this quotation, there would be no need to bracket your capitalization changes.

“The beetle’s tiny antennae made gentle waving motions as though saying hello,” said Dr. Grace Farley, remembering a defining moment on her journey to becoming an entomologist.

Not: “[T]he beetle’s tiny antennae made gentle waving motions as though saying hello,” said Dr. Grace Farley, remembering a defining moment on her journey to becoming an entomologist.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Barzun, Jacques, and Henry F. Graff. 2012. The Modern Researcher , 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald. 2016. The Craft of Research , 4th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gibaldi, Joseph. 2009. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers , 7th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America.

Turabian, Kate. 2018. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, Dissertations , 9th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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• Writing Tips

Punctuation Tips: Using Quotation Marks

• 3-minute read
• 17th November 2016

Quotation marks play a vital role in many types of writing. This is especially true of academic work , where you’ll often need to quote a source to provide evidence for your arguments.

However, the rules for how quotation marks should be used in formal writing can be complicated. As such, we’ve prepared this quick guide to using these punctuation marks .

Direct Quotation and Dialogue

When quoting a source in a paper, the quoted text should be enclosed within double quotation marks (“ ”):

According to Sartre (1969, p.30), “Every conscious existence exists as consciousness of existing.”

Note that a citation is given here. In an academic context, this is crucial when quoting a source. In other forms of writing, such as fiction, quotation marks can indicate speech:

“What a lovely day,” muttered Sally, her voice dripping sarcasm.

While double quotation marks are the norm in American English, keep in mind that single quotation marks (‘ ’) are more common in British English. If you’re not sure which kind to use, check your school/publisher’s style guide .

Quotations within Quotations

The only time single quotation marks (also known as inverted commas ) are conventionally used in American English is when quoting text that already contains quotation marks:

Sartre (1969, p.504) states that “assertions such as ‘I am ugly,’ ‘I am stupid,’ etc.” are anticipatory by nature.

Here, “I am ugly” and “I am stupid” are placed within single quotation marks because they were within quotation marks in the original source. This helps ensure clarity.

Capitalization and Punctuation

You might have noticed that the quotes above use different styles of capitalization and punctuation. This depends on what you’re quoting and how it’s framed by the sentence.

The rule here is generally to capitalize the first word when quoting a complete sentence, but not when quoting part of a larger sentence:

Full sentence: He told me, “You’re not listening.” Then he left.

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Partial quotation: He said I was “not listening,” and then he left.

The other difference you can see in these examples regards using a comma to introduce a quotation. If a quotation follows naturally from the rest of the sentence, no comma is required:

No comma: He said that “The sky is blue.”

However, if there would usually be a pause in the sentence, a comma might be required. This is common when a quotation follows a phrase like “he said” or “she said”:

Comma required: He said, “The sky is blue.”

More generally, American English places commas and periods inside quotation marks even if they weren’t part of the original quotation. For other punctuation marks, such as question marks, it depends on whether they were part of the original text:

Part of quoted text: She asked, “What color is the sky?”

Not part of quoted text: Did you just say that “the sky is blue”?

Scare Quotes

Finally, sometimes quotation marks are used to indicate use of a non-standard term or to suggest skepticism or irony when we don’t agree with how a term has been used:

He’s not a gangster; if you value your health, he’s a “businessman.”

However, it’s best to use scare quotes sparingly in academic writing, as they’re often misused .

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Understanding Quotation Marks (Rules, When to Use, Single, Double, Examples)

What are quotation marks? Quotation marks are known as quotes, inverted commas, talking marks, and speech marks. Many students of the English language don’t have a complete understanding of where and how to use quotation marks. Moreover, it’s important to know about the different types of quotation marks to use them appropriately when writing.

In this article, we’ll discuss quotation marks and their appropriate grammatical use.

What are quotation marks?

Quotation marks highlight a word, phrase, or sentence that is in some way different from the rest of the text. It could be a quotation from someone or some book, a proverb, maxim, word meaning, name, or anything else that requires special attention from the readers.

We also use quotation marks to ironically talk about something.

Consider the following examples:

• My school canteen serves “delicious” food
• He is a “progressive” in his beliefs

In the above sentences, the words ‘delicious’ and ‘progressive’ are meant to express the opposite of what they mean. The food in the school canteen is actually terrible, and the person’s beliefs aren’t really progressive. We generally need a context to understand when quotation marks are being used ironically.

Different quotation marks are used in different contexts. Let’s learn more about the variations of quotation marks.

Double and single quotation marks

• Double quotation marks: “”
• Single quotation marks: ‘Single’

When to use double quotation marks and when to use single quotation marks? The answer depends largely on which variation of English we are talking about. Single quotes are more common in British and Australian English. On the other hand, double quotation marks are more frequent in American and Canadian English.

When writing for a publication or journal, follow the in-house guidelines on using quotation marks. Some prefer double quotations, while others go for single quotation marks.

Consistency is often more important than the type of quotation mark used. When we primarily use double quotation marks, we don’t throw in single quotation marks for a few words and phrases – and vice versa .

The first time I went to France, I had this dish called “Bœuf bourguignon”. In English, we call it ‘beef Burgundy’. [Wrong]

I was reading ‘Don Quixote’. Sorry to say, but I hardly ‘enjoyed’ it. [Correct]

When unsure about using single or double quotation marks , stick to either and use them consistently.

Quotation marks inside quotation marks

Consider the following example:

• My teacher said, “Focus on ‘verbs’, ‘adjectives’, and ‘pronouns’ for the upcoming test.”
• My teacher said, ‘Focus on “verbs”, “adjectives”, and “pronouns” for the upcoming test.’

Both the above sentences are examples of correctly using quotation marks inside quotation marks. Choose either double or single quotation marks for the main sentence within quotes. As long as the main sentence is in single quotation marks, use double quotation marks for the words and phrases within it – and vice versa.

Be consistent with the use of quotation marks within quotation marks in a piece of writing. When following the [double quotes] (single quotes) [double quotes] template, use it consistently across the writing. Don’t switch to the [single quotes] (double quotes) [single quotes] template in the middle of the writing.

Block quotes

When quoting multiple lines from a person, book, article, or report, the convention is to use block quotes instead of quotation marks. Writing styles like Harvard, APA, MLA, and Chicago APSA have specific rules on using block quotes. Typically, block quotes are indented to the right and follow a colon (:). Here’s an example of using block quotes in writing:

The world is going through a climate crisis , according to experts from around the world. According to the latest Climate Change Report, we have serious issues to tackle in the near future:

There has been a rapid growth in carbon emission rates over the last decade. If governments and industrialists from developed countries don’t take active initiatives in combatting this phenomenon, we can expect serious catastrophes by the year 2050.

By changing the alignment of the text, it becomes clear that this section of article is taken from another source, which is the Climate Change Report in this case. Block quotes are common in books, long-form articles, research papers, and even news reports.

In digital mediums, extracts from other writing/articles would often be italicized. But it’s not mandatory, especially when following the guidelines of a writing style like APA, MLA, or Harvard. Consistency is crucial for block quotes as well.

Using quotation marks as literary tools

Apart from serving as a utility in writing, quotation marks are also literary tools for writers. They are frequently used to highlight ironic remarks.

• My friend took a 2-hour masterclass on making money. Now he’s a “financial expert”.
• Apparently, what we said caused a lot of “pain” and “discomfort”.
• I saw a movie last night and thought it was really “creative”.

In the above sentences, the words and phrases inside the quotation marks express the opposite of what they mean. Irony is a figure of speech where we mean the opposite of what we say.

It’s possible to use irony without quotation marks, but highlighting the ironic words makes it easier for the reader to understand the irony.

Quotation marks also highlight puns. For the uninitiated, a pun is a play on the different possible meanings of the same word.

Here are a few examples of using quotation marks for puns:

• You should trust a person who sells glue. They generally “stick” to their words.
• Though they are both musicians, they fail to strike a “chord”.
• The days in a calendar are “numbered”.

The above three sentences play on the different meanings of the same words – stick, chord, and numbered. We can use quotation marks to highlight the wordplay and grab the readers’ attention.

However, many writers choose to not put their puns and wordplay into quotation marks for the sake of subtlety and flow.

As always, when using quotation marks to highlight puns, use single or double quotation marks consistently throughout the reference (don’t mix and match quotation marks).

Quotation marks for titles of works

We use quotation marks for titles of literary works like poems, short stories, novels, movies, documentaries, etc. There are some conventions regarding how to use quotation marks for literary works. Let’s learn more about it.

Shorter works like poems, short stories, episodes

We generally put shorter literary works inside quotation marks.

• I was reading Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” yesterday.
• “The Last Leaf” is an amazing short story by O Henry.
• “The Last One” is the final episode of Friends .

In both of the above examples, we have put smaller pieces of literary works inside quotation marks. “The Last Leaf” is a short story while “Ode to a Nightingale” is a poem. Since these literary works are shorter in length than a novel or movie, the convention is to put these names inside quotation marks.

Longer works like novels, movies, books, documentaries

The convention for mentioning longer literary works is to italicize them. Most modern writing guides like MLA, APA, and Harvard ask writers to italicize longer works.

Here are some examples:

• My favorite movie is Nolan’s Inception.
• Lyrical Ballads is widely considered the most significant collection of romantic poems.
• “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a poem from the Lyrical Ballads .
• I have only read “The Fellowship of the Ring” from Lord of the Rings

Handwritten text

What will you do when you don’t have the option of italicizing the name of a book or movie? For example, how do we write the name of a longer work when writing an exam on a sheet of paper?

In these situations, here are a few things we can do:

• Underline the name of the work. For example, write “Lyrical Ballads is widely considered the most significant collection of romantic poems”.
• Underline the name and also put it inside quotation marks – “Lyrical Ballads” is widely considered the most significant collection of romantic poems.

What if we have to write about both shorter and longer literary works in a handwritten text?

In these cases, use a combination of quotation marks and underline, for example:

• “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a poem from the Lyrical Ballads.
• ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is a poem from the “Lyrical Ballads”.

As always, be consistent with the adopted method. When underlining the names of major works, keep underlining all the names and don’t put them inside quotation marks in some cases. When we are putting the names inside quotation marks and also underlining them, we do the same for every name in a particular text.

Since these guidelines vary from one writing style to another, the best option is to refer to the official writing guide and style that is supposed to be followed.

Punctuation and quotation marks

There’s a lot of confusion regarding how to use punctuation inside quotation marks, particularly regarding where to put the full stop.

When quoting two or more sentences, the full stops will obviously be inside quotation marks.

Here are a few examples:

“My friend is a soldier. He is now serving in Afghanistan.”

“Look! What a beautiful sight!”

The main confusion here is where to put the final full stop – inside our outside quotation marks.

In American English, the full stops are generally inside quotation marks. For example:

“I am going to study.”

“Mary was wearing a beautiful dress.”

In British English, the final full stops are always outside quotation marks.

For example:

“I am going to study”.

“Mary was wearing a beautiful dress”.

When it comes to question and exclamation marks, the position of the punctuation marks depends on the phrase inside the quotation marks.

• She asked, “Do you want to have a cup of coffee?”
• Have you seen “The Wolf of Wall Street”?
• Mary exclaimed, “This can’t be true!”
• John was surprised that she had never heard of “Once upon a Time in Hollywood”!

Remember these basic rules on punctuation marks and quotation marks to never get their usage wrong.

Straight quotes vs. curly quotes

Both straight quotes and curly (smart) quotes are correct. 

Straight quotes look like this: “straight quotes”

Curly quotes look like this: “curly quotes”

Curly/smart quotes are automatically added in all modern word processing software. It’s more of an aesthetic element than a grammatical nuance. The important thing here is to be consistent with the type of quotes used in an article. Use either curly or straight quotes throughout the article/writing.

Quotation marks while speaking

Until now, we only discussed the use of quotation marks in writing. But what about speaking — be it a casual conversation or a narration? The answer is simple.

We say one of these two things:

• Quote-unquote
• And I quote
• He is a quote-unquote hardworking person, but in reality, he exploits the vulnerabilities of other people.
• John said, and I quote, the world can only be a better place if we start helping each other.

Sometimes the speaker would say “end of quote” to signify where the quote ends, and sometimes it’s implied.

Other punctuation marks

Here are the other punctuation marks to be aware of:

The main types of quotation marks are:

• Single quotes: ‘single quotes’
• Double quotes: “double quotes”
• Straight quotes: “straight quotes”
• Curly/smart quotes: “double quotes”

Either say:

• Quote-unquote, for example, John is a quote-unquote cruel person but he has a heart of gold .
• And I quote, for example, John said, and I quote, the world is going through an unprecedented crisis right now.

When typing in a word processor, always italicize the names of books, movies, and other longer literary texts. When writing on a sheet of paper, underline the titles of longer literary works. These conventions also depend on specific citation guides like MLA, APA, and Harvard.

Th double quotes and single quotes ” ” or ‘ ‘ are used at beginning and the end of a direction quotation. For direct quotations, we would typically use double quotes. Use one of the two, according to which type of sentence you have. Although, use the same type throughout your writing.

A closing quotation mark (or final quotation mark) is identified as ”, it has a slight lean to the right side (visually).

• Quotation Marks: When to Use Single or Double Quotes | Scribendi
• Curly quotes and straight quotes: a quick guide – Writer
• Quotation marks in English – Wikipedia
• Quotation Marks “” | Writing | EnglishClub
• Quotation Marks: How To Use Them Correctly (With Examples) | Grammarly
• How to Block Quote | Length, Format and Examples (scribbr.com)
• Examples of Puns: Exploring What They Are and Different Types (yourdictionary.com)

Inside this article

Fact checked: Content is rigorously reviewed by a team of qualified and experienced fact checkers. Fact checkers review articles for factual accuracy, relevance, and timeliness. Learn more.

About the author

Dalia Y.: Dalia is an English Major and linguistics expert with an additional degree in Psychology. Dalia has featured articles on Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Grammarly, and many more. She covers English, ESL, and all things grammar on GrammarBrain.

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Quotation Marks

• Semicolons and Colons
• Apostrophes
• End Punctuation
• Single Quotation Marks
• Long Quotes for MLA
• Other Marks
• Sentence Structure

Test Yourself

• Quotation Marks Quiz

How to Use Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are used to quote someone’s exact words. They are also used for the titles of short works.

A quote presents someone’s exact words.

• Example: The cartoon character Bugs Bunny is known for his catchphrase, “What’s up, Doc?”

Signal phrases often give quotes context. A signal phrase shows who is speaking when a quote is included in a sentence. Signal phrases can be placed at the beginning of a sentence, the middle of a sentence, or the end of a sentence.

• Example: Gilbert said, “No matter what it takes, I’ll finish clown school.”
• Example: “No matter what it takes,” Gilbert said, “I’ll finish clown school.”
• Example: “No matter what it takes, I’ll finish clown school,” Gilbert said.

Full Sentence Quotes

A full-sentence quote presents an entire quoted sentence.

• Example: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

When using a full-sentence quote in an essay, avoid placing the quote in the middle of a paragraph without any context.

• Incorrect: Many Americans sign up for the armed forces. "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." For those driven by patriotism, serving is the highest honor.
• Correct:  Many Americans sign up for the armed forces. John F. Kennedy stirred Americans to service when he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." For those driven by patriotism, serving is the highest honor.

Partial Quotes

A partial quote presents a segment of a quoted sentence. With a partial sentence quote, do not use a comma, and do not capitalize the first word inside the quotation marks. 

• Original quote: “No matter what it takes, I’ll finish clown school.”
• Partial quote: Gilbert said that he would finish clown school “no matter what it takes.”

Quotes and punctuation

Periods and commas that are part of a quote should be placed inside the quotation marks.

• Example: He said, "It will rain today."
• Example: “It will rain today,” he said.

If a quote itself is a question or an exclamation, place the punctuation inside the quotation marks.

• Example: She asked, “Will it rain today?”
• Example: The student shouted, “I’m graduating!”

If the sentence as a whole is a question or an exclamation, place the punctuation outside the quotation marks.

• Example: Do you really think you’ll find your legendary “City of Gold”?
• Example: She said that I’m “cute as a button”!
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Punctuation of Quotations

Shorthand: “pq”.

In all academic writing, Quotations must have appropriate punctuation. In order to determine how to punctuate the phrase that comes before a quotation, you need to know whether the phase is an independent clause.  Here, you have three options:

1. When the quotation is merged into a clause, no punctuation is necessary to divide them.

Roosevelt spoke of December 7, 1941, as “a day that will live in infamy.”

2. If the quotation is preceded by a form of a word like say, reply, or answer, that word is followed by a comma.

She knows she is no longer safe, saying, “I feared for my Safety in this wicked House” (28).

3. If a complete sentence or independent clause precedes the quotation, a colon is the appropriate mark of punctuation.

She knows she is no longer safe: “I feared for my Safety in this wicked House” (28). Also make sure that you place quotation marks correctly with respect to other punctuation marks and with citations.

1.  The final period or comma goes inside the quotation marks, even if it is not a part of the quoted material, unless the quotation is followed by a citation.  If a citation in parentheses follows the quotation, the period follows the citation.  If a superscript footnote number is used, it follows the period and the quotation marks.  

a) The Portland vase is “blue porcelain,” according to Compson (435).

Comma is within the quotation marks; the period follows the citation.

b) Macbeth says, “Life's but a walking shadow” (5.5.24).

Citation follows the quotation marks; period follows the citation. Note: The MLA Handbook recommends the use of Arabic numerals rather than Roman numerals for designating acts and scenes in plays. However, some instructors still prefer Roman numerals. Check with your instructor if you are uncertain which to use.

c) As E. H. Carr has written, “The serious historian is the one who recognizes the historically conditioned character of all values, not the one who claims for his own values an objectivity beyond history.” 1

2. A colon or semicolon is placed outside the quotation marks (regardless of whether or not it exists in the quoted material).

a) Correct:

Roberts (137) mentions “the divine right of kings”; the phrase did not become current in English until the late seventeenth century.

b) Incorrect:

Mr. B says that Pamela “may be thawed by kindness;” (180).

Even though the semicolon is present in the sentence quoted, it should not be in the quotation.

Correct: Mr. B says that Pamela “may be thawed by kindness” (180).

3. A question mark, exclamation point, or dash is placed within the quotation marks when it is part of the quoted material. Otherwise it is placed outside the quotation marks.

a) “How do I love thee?” asks the sonnet. “Let me count the ways.”

The first quotation is a question; the question mark is part of it.

b) What is the meaning of the expression “eschew obfuscation”?

The quotation is not a question; the question mark goes outside the quotation to indicate that the whole sentence is the question.

c) There is great pathos in King Lear’s cry, “O reason not the need!” (2.4.259).

An exclamation point within the quotation is followed by quotation marks, then by a parenthetical citation. The period after the citation ends the sentence.

4. Do not place any mark of punctuation inside the quotation marks at the beginning of a quoted phrase, and do not use an ellipsis(...) at the beginning of the quotation.

a) Incorrect:

King Lear refers to his daughter Goneril as a “detested kite” and as “...wolvish” (1.4.253, 259).

b) Correct:

King Lear refers to his daughter Goneril as a “detested kite” and as “wolvish” (1.4.253, 259).

For more information on quotations, refer to Using Sources  and Quotations .

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Quotation Marks

We use quotation marks to show (or mark) the beginning and end of a word or phrase that is somehow special or comes from outside the text that we are writing. Quotation marks can be double ("...") or single ('...') - that is really a matter of style (but see below for more about this).

Quotation marks are also called "quotes" or "inverted commas".

1. Use quotation marks around the title or name of a book, film, ship etc:

• The third most popular book of all time, "Harry Potter", has sold over 400,000,000 copies.
• 'Titanic' is a 1997 movie directed by James Cameron about the sinking of the ship 'Titanic'.

Note that in the above case, we may use "italics" instead of quotation marks. So the above examples would then appear as:

• The third most popular book of all time, Harry Potter , has sold over 400,000,000 copies.
• Titanic is a 1997 movie directed by James Cameron about the sinking of the ship Titanic .

Obviously, the use of italics is not possible in handwriting or with old-style typewriters.

2. We use quotation marks around a piece of text that we are quoting or citing, usually from another source:

• In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language , David Crystal argues that punctuation "plays a critical role in the modern writing system".

3. Use quotation marks around dialogue or direct speech:

• It was a moonlit night. James opened the door and stepped onto the balcony, followed by Mary. They stood in silence for a few moments, looking at the moon. Then Mary turned to him and said: "Do you love me, James?"

4. Use quotation marks around a word or phrase that we see as slang or jargon:

• The police were called to a "disturbance" - which in reality was a pretty big fight.

5. Use quotation marks around a word or phrase that we want to make "special" in some way:

• Note that sometimes we use "italics" instead of quotation marks.

Double or single quotation marks?

Quotation marks can be double ("-") or single ('-'). If we want to use quotation marks inside quotation marks, then we use single inside double, or double inside single.

• He said to her: "I thought 'Titanic' was a good film."
• He said to her: 'I thought "Titanic" was a good film.'

Punctuation inside or outside final quotation mark?

If the quoted words end with a full stop, then the full stop goes inside the quotation marks. If the quoted words do not end with a full stop, then the full stop goes outside the quotation marks:

• He said: "I love you."
• She has read "War and Peace".

Note that in US English, the full stop usually goes inside the quotation marks in all cases:

• She has read "War and Peace."

However, US English adopts the British style for question marks and exclamation marks:

• He said: "Do you love me?"
• Have you read "War and Peace"?
• Can you imagine? He has never read "War and Peace"!

How do we indicate quotation marks when speaking?

People may say "quote, unquote" or "open quotes, close quotes" when reading aloud texts containing quotation marks:

• On page two it says, quote, Now is the time to invest, unquote.
• On page two it says, open quotes, Now is the time to invest, close quotes.

"Quote, unquote" may also be said informally in front of rather than around the quoted words:

• The brochure describes the car as, quote, unquote, total luxury.

"Quote, unquote" is sometimes used to mock or show disapproval or disbelief:

• Then he arrived with his quote, unquote new girlfriend.

People sometimes say "in quotes" (often putting up their two hands with two fingers extended on each hand, like quotation marks), indicating that the words came from another source, or in a mocking way, or suggesting that they don't quite believe what they have just said:

• Then he arrived with his new girlfriend, in quotes.
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Guidelines for Using Quotation Marks Correctly

American English Edition

• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Quotation marks, sometimes referred to as quotes or inverted commas , are punctuation marks  ( “ curly ”  or  " straight " ) most often used in pairs to identify the beginning and end of a passage attributed to another and repeated word for word.

In  British English , quotation marks are often called  inverted commas . Also known as  quote marks, quotes , and  speech marks .

In the U.S.,  periods  and  commas  always go  inside  the quotation marks. In the U.K., periods and commas go inside the quotation marks only for a complete quoted  sentence ; otherwise, they go outside.

In all varieties of English,  semicolons  and  colons  go  outside  the quotation marks.

Most American  style guides  recommend using single marks to enclose a quotation that appears within another quotation. But note that the British customarily reverse this order: first using single quotation marks—or 'inverted commas'—and then turning to double quotation marks to enclose quotations within quotations.

Here are some basic guidelines for using quotation marks correctly in American English .

Direct Quotations

Use double quotation marks (" ") to enclose a direct quotation :

• After telling an audience that young people today " think work is a four-letter word, " Hillary Rodham Clinton said she apologized to her daughter.
• " If a man does not keep pace with his companions, " wrote Henry David Thoreau, " perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. "

Keep in mind that direct quotations repeat a speaker's exact words. In contrast, indirect quotations are summaries or paraphrases of someone else's words. Don't  use quotation marks around indirect quotations:

• Direct quotation: Elsa said, "I'm too tired to go to choir practice. I'm heading to bed."
• Indirect quotation : Elsa said that she was skipping choir practice because she was tired.

Use double quotation marks to enclose the titles of songs, short stories, essays, poems, and articles:

• Softly, almost tenderly, Legree recited the lyrics to the song "She Made Toothpicks out of the Timber of My Heart."
• After reading Poe's story "The Tell-Tale Heart," I couldn't sleep for a week.
• The first draft of my favorite E. B. White essay, "Once More to the Lake," was a letter that White wrote to his brother a week after their mother's death.
• When everyone finally stopped talking, Boomer recited the poem "Remember" by Christina Rossetti.

As a general rule, don't put quotation marks around the titles of books, newspapers, films, or magazines; instead, put those titles in italics . 

Quotations Within Quotations

Use a pair of single quotation marks (' ') to enclose a title, direct quotation, or piece of dialogue that appears within another quotation:

• Josie once said, "I don't read much poetry, but I love the sonnet 'Be-Bop-a-Lula.'"

Notice that two separate quotation marks appear at the end of the sentence: a single mark to close the title and a double mark to close the direct quotation.

Commas and Periods Inside Quotation Marks

When a comma or a period appears at the end of a quotation, put it inside the quotation mark:

• "Gluttony is an emotional disease," Peter DeVries once wrote, "a sign that something is eating us."

Note: In the U.K., periods and commas go inside the quotation marks only for a complete quoted sentence; otherwise, they go outside.

Other Marks of Punctuation With Quotation Marks

When a semicolon or a colon appears at the end of a quotation, put it outside the quotation mark:

• John Wayne never said, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do"; however, he did say, "A man ought to do what's right."

When a question mark or an exclamation point appears at the end of a quotation, put it inside the quotation mark if it belongs to the quotation:

• Gus sang, "How Can I Miss You If You Don't Go Away?"

But if the question mark or exclamation point does not belong to the quotation but instead to the sentence as a whole, put it outside the quotation mark:

• Did Jenny really sing the Spinal Tap song "Break Like the Wind"?

Double vs. Single Quotation Marks

In The Oxford Companion to the English Language , Robert Allen notes that double marks are "traditionally associated with American printing practice (as in the Chicago style) and single marks with British practice (as in the Oxford and Cambridge styles), but there is much variation in practice; double marks are more often found in British texts before the 1950s, and are usual in handwriting." 

Scare Quotes

Scare quotes (also called  shudder quotes ) are quotation marks used around a word or phrase not to indicate a  direct quotation  but to suggest that the expression is somehow inappropriate or misleading—the equivalent of writing "supposed" or "so-called" in front of the word or phrase. 

Scare quotes are often used to express skepticism, disapproval, or derision. Writers are generally advised to use them sparingly.

• Check Your Knowledge: Punctuation Practice
• An Introduction to Punctuation
• What are Ellipsis Points?
• Definition and Examples of Colons
• Definition and Examples of Periods: Full Stop
• How to Use Block Quotations in Writing
• How to Use Indirect Quotations in Writing for Complete Clarity
• Definition and Examples of Direct Quotations
• How to Use a Dash
• Punctuating With Semicolons
• A Guide to Using Apostrophes Correctly
• Question Mark Definition and Examples
• Examples of Diacritical Marks
• Multiple Exclamation Points
• The Comma in Punctuation
• Quotation and Quote

How to Quote a Quote and Use Single Quotation Marks

Home » How to Quote a Quote and Use Single Quotation Marks

A few different readers have written in to me asking how to quote a quote within a quote. Sounds like a mouthful, doesn’t it?

This is a topic that has almost certainly confused each and every one of us in our reading and writing at some point or another. When do we use single quotes? Where does the punctuation go in single quotes?

The different uses of single vs. double quotes are actually quite easy and intuitive once you understand the rules involved.

Let’s get started on how to use quotation marks.

Putting a Quote Within a Quote

When you have a quotation that is inside of another quotation it is called a nested quotation . Nested quotes follow a hierarchical structure of alternating between double quotation marks and single quotation marks.

In marking such quotations, American and English writers and editors have developed different conventions, and, therefore, have different rules for when to use single quotes.

I’ll start by outlining how quotation rules as followed by American writers.

Quotes In American English

• Double quotation marks are used for the first quotation.
• Single quotation marks are used for a quotation within a quotation.
• Double marks are used for a further quotation inside that, etc.
• “John shouted at Steve, ‘You’re doing it all wrong.’ ”
• “The governor has prior obligations and said he ‘wishes he could be in attendance today.’ “
• “The weatherman said, ‘This weekend should be filled with blue skies.’ “

Notice that the secondary quote in each example is placed within single quotation marks. Also, notice that the periods are placed inside the single quotes. The American rule is that periods always go inside the quotation marks (more on that below).

If you find yourself writing a quote within a quote within a quote, i.e., three layers deep, it’s probably best to rework your sentence. Three levels of quotations are a bit much for the reader to make sense of.

If, however, a sentence rework is impossible, just add another level of hierarchy. Your sentence would look like this, Double>Single>Double.

• “Joan emphatically said, ‘We won’t sing “God Save the Queen.” ’ ”

It is, of course, a very rare occasion to see a sentence this complicated.

Quotes in British English

• Single quotation marks are used for the first quotation.
• Double quotation marks are used for a quotation within a quotation.
• Single marks are used for a further quotation inside that, etc.
• ‘John shouted at Steve, “You’re doing it all wrong”. ’
• ‘The governor has prior obligations and said he “wishes he could be in attendance today”. ’
• ‘The weatherman said, “This weekend should be filled with blue skies”. ’

As you can see, everything in British English is flipped. The secondary quotes now have double quotations around them. Also, the periods are outside of the closing quotation mark.

Does Punctuation Go Inside Quotation Marks?

In a quotation, is the period before or after quotes?

As with the use of single and double quotation marks, the punctuation practices vary across American and British English.

Punctuation in American English

• The governor met with “hundreds of protesters today.”
• He said that he “refuses to go to the movies,” but I think he will come around.

The dash, semicolon, question mark, and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted material only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

• The speaker asked the audience, “Are you having a good time?”
• Did he really say, “We’re breaking up”?

Punctuation in British English

In British English, periods and commas are placed outside of the closing quotation mark , unless these marks form part of the quotation itself.

• The governor met with ‘hundreds of protesters today’.
• He said that he ‘refuses to go to the movies’, but I think he will come around.

With respect to the dash, semicolon, question mark, and exclamation point, the American English and British English practice is the same. These marks go inside the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted material only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

• The speaker asked the audience, ‘Are you having a good time?’
• Did he really say, ‘We’re breaking up’?

I hope this helps anyone wondering how to quote a quote and when to use single quotes. If you are an American writer, you can ignore the British English sections of this post. Similarly, if you are a British writer, you can ignore the American English sections on punctuation and style.

In this post, we covered using quotation marks: quotation marks and periods, commas and quotation marks, question marks inside quotes, and other quotation mark rules.

Here are the three takeaway points.

• When you put a quote inside a quote, you alternate between double and single quotation marks.
• In American English, you start with double quotation marks, and then single quotation marks.
• In British English, you start with single quotation marks, and then double quotation marks.

Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Writing > How to Use Quotation Marks: Rules with Commas, Periods, and More

How to Use Quotation Marks: Rules with Commas, Periods, and More

As you’ve probably noticed, quotation marks are an extremely common set of punctuation marks. Continue your journey to grammatical excellence , and follow along with this guide to brush up on the rules of using quotation marks.

Rules for Using Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are most often used to mark something that is spoken or, in other words, to designate a direct quote. That is, they display something that’s been said, word for word.

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• Example: He said, “I’m going to be a couple minutes late to class today.”

When a sentence merely summarizes another’s speech, or uses what’s called an indirect quote, quotation marks are not necessary.

• Example: He said that he was going to be a couple minutes late to class today.

Quotation Marks with Commas, Periods, and Other Punctuation

As in the example above, a comma is used before quotation marks to introduce a direct quote. If the description of the quote’s speaker is placed after the quotation, a comma is always placed within the quotation marks.

• Example: “I’m going to be a couple minutes late to class today,” he said.

In American English, commas and periods should be placed within the quotation marks as long as they do not change the meaning of the quotation. In instances where punctuation would change the meaning of the quotation—that is, when the punctuation, such as a question mark or exclamation point, does not belong to the quotation—it should be placed outside of the quotation marks.

• Example: He asked, “Is it okay if I’m a couple of minutes late to class today?”
• Example: Does he always say “I’m going to be late to class today”?

Capitalization

It can sometimes be tricky to remember when to capitalize words within quotation marks. To keep it straight, follow these two simple rules: First, when quoting a full, complete sentence, the first word of that quote should always be capitalized. Alternatively, when a quote only references a fragment of a quote, a phrase, or part of a sentence, the first word of the quote does not need to be capitalized. This includes cases when a quote is interrupted by a description.

• Example: He said, “I’m running behind and I’m going to be late to class.”
• Example: “I’m running behind,” he said, “and I’m going to be late to class.”
• Example: He’s always saying he’s “running behind” and so will be late.

Other Uses for Quotation Marks

Quotation marks aren’t only used to capture spoken words. You might also run into, or want to use, these other uses of quotation marks:

• Example: Calvin thought that Purple Rain was Prince’s best album. However, “1999” was his favorite song.
• Example: Calvin claims that only “real” Prince fans understand the brilliance of his earlier, less acclaimed work.
• Example: “‘1999’ is my favorite song,” Calvin said.

All these uses and rules of quotation marks can be a lot to keep in your head while you’re writing. However, with practice you will be able to master this commonly confused aspect of grammar over time.

As you’re getting up to speed on these and other grammar basics , a virtual writing assistant like Microsoft Editor can help you catch all your mistakes, and help ensure that your writing is clean, clear, and communicates your very best ideas.

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• How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago

How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago

Published on April 15, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Jack Caulfield. Revised on May 31, 2023.

Quoting means copying a passage of someone else’s words and crediting the source. To quote a source, you must ensure:

• The quoted text is enclosed in quotation marks or formatted as a block quote
• The original author is correctly cited
• The text is identical to the original

The exact format of a quote depends on its length and on which citation style you are using. Quoting and citing correctly is essential to avoid plagiarism which is easy to detect with a good plagiarism checker .

Table of contents

How to cite a quote in apa, mla and chicago, introducing quotes, quotes within quotes, shortening or altering a quote, block quotes, when should i use quotes, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about quoting sources.

Every time you quote, you must cite the source correctly . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style you’re using. Three of the most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

Citing a quote in APA Style

To cite a direct quote in APA , you must include the author’s last name, the year, and a page number, all separated by commas . If the quote appears on a single page, use “p.”; if it spans a page range, use “pp.”

An APA in-text citation can be parenthetical or narrative. In a parenthetical citation , you place all the information in parentheses after the quote. In a narrative citation , you name the author in your sentence (followed by the year), and place the page number after the quote.

Punctuation marks such as periods and commas are placed after the citation, not within the quotation marks .

• Evolution is a gradual process that “can act only by very short and slow steps” (Darwin, 1859, p. 510) .
• Darwin (1859) explains that evolution “can act only by very short and slow steps” (p. 510) .

Complete guide to APA

Citing a quote in mla style.

An MLA in-text citation includes only the author’s last name and a page number. As in APA, it can be parenthetical or narrative, and a period (or other punctuation mark) appears after the citation.

• Evolution is a gradual process that “can act only by very short and slow steps” (Darwin 510) .
• Darwin explains that evolution “can act only by very short and slow steps” (510) .

Complete guide to MLA

Citing a quote in chicago style.

Chicago style uses Chicago footnotes to cite sources. A note, indicated by a superscript number placed directly after the quote, specifies the author, title, and page number—or sometimes fuller information .

Unlike with parenthetical citations, in this style, the period or other punctuation mark should appear within the quotation marks, followed by the footnote number.

Complete guide to Chicago style

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Make sure you integrate quotes properly into your text by introducing them in your own words, showing the reader why you’re including the quote and providing any context necessary to understand it.  Don’t  present quotations as stand-alone sentences.

There are three main strategies you can use to introduce quotes in a grammatically correct way:

• Add an introductory sentence
• Use an introductory signal phrase
• Integrate the quote into your own sentence

The following examples use APA Style citations, but these strategies can be used in all styles.

Introductory sentence

Introduce the quote with a full sentence ending in a colon . Don’t use a colon if the text before the quote isn’t a full sentence.

If you name the author in your sentence, you may use present-tense verbs , such as “states,” “argues,” “explains,” “writes,” or “reports,” to describe the content of the quote.

• In Denmark, a recent poll shows that: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• In Denmark, a recent poll shows that support for the EU has grown since the Brexit vote: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• Levring (2018) reports that support for the EU has grown since the Brexit vote: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (p. 3).

Introductory signal phrase

You can also use a signal phrase that mentions the author or source, but doesn’t form a full sentence. In this case, you follow the phrase with a comma instead of a colon.

• According to a recent poll, “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• As Levring (2018) explains, “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (p. 3).

Integrated into your own sentence

To quote a phrase that doesn’t form a full sentence, you can also integrate it as part of your sentence, without any extra punctuation .

• A recent poll suggests that EU membership “would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” in a referendum (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• Levring (2018) reports that EU membership “would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” in a referendum (p. 3).

When you quote text that itself contains another quote, this is called a nested quotation or a quote within a quote. It may occur, for example, when quoting dialogue from a novel.

To distinguish this quote from the surrounding quote, you enclose it in single (instead of double) quotation marks (even if this involves changing the punctuation from the original text). Make sure to close both sets of quotation marks at the appropriate moments.

Note that if you only quote the nested quotation itself, and not the surrounding text, you can just use double quotation marks.

• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “ “ Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, ” he told me, “ just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had ” ” (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had ” (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’” (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway begins by quoting his father’s invocation to “remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1).

Note:  When the quoted text in the source comes from another source, it’s best to just find that original source in order to quote it directly. If you can’t find the original source, you can instead cite it indirectly .

Often, incorporating a quote smoothly into your text requires you to make some changes to the original text. It’s fine to do this, as long as you clearly mark the changes you’ve made to the quote.

Shortening a quote

If some parts of a passage are redundant or irrelevant, you can shorten the quote by removing words, phrases, or sentences and replacing them with an ellipsis (…). Put a space before and after the ellipsis.

Be careful that removing the words doesn’t change the meaning. The ellipsis indicates that some text has been removed, but the shortened quote should still accurately represent the author’s point.

Altering a quote

You can add or replace words in a quote when necessary. This might be because the original text doesn’t fit grammatically with your sentence (e.g., it’s in a different verb tense), or because extra information is needed to clarify the quote’s meaning.

Use brackets to distinguish words that you have added from words that were present in the original text.

The Latin term “ sic ” is used to indicate a (factual or grammatical) mistake in a quotation. It shows the reader that the mistake is from the quoted material, not a typo of your own.

In some cases, it can be useful to italicize part of a quotation to add emphasis, showing the reader that this is the key part to pay attention to. Use the phrase “emphasis added” to show that the italics were not part of the original text.

You usually don’t need to use brackets to indicate minor changes to punctuation or capitalization made to ensure the quote fits the style of your text.

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If you quote more than a few lines from a source, you must format it as a block quote . Instead of using quotation marks, you set the quote on a new line and indent it so that it forms a separate block of text.

Block quotes are cited just like regular quotes, except that if the quote ends with a period, the citation appears after the period.

To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, a walking-stick or any money, or anything that he usually took when he went out; leaving his second breakfast half-finished and quite unwashed-up, pushing his keys into Gandalf’s hands, and running as fast as his furry feet could carry him down the lane, past the great Mill, across The Water, and then on for a mile or more. (16)

Avoid relying too heavily on quotes in academic writing . To integrate a source , it’s often best to paraphrase , which means putting the passage in your own words. This helps you integrate information smoothly and keeps your own voice dominant.

However, there are some situations in which quoting is more appropriate.

When focusing on language

If you want to comment on how the author uses language (for example, in literary analysis ), it’s necessary to quote so that the reader can see the exact passage you are referring to.

When giving evidence

To convince the reader of your argument, interpretation or position on a topic, it’s often helpful to include quotes that support your point. Quotes from primary sources (for example, interview transcripts or historical documents) are especially credible as evidence.

When presenting an author’s position or definition

When you’re referring to secondary sources such as scholarly books and journal articles, try to put others’ ideas in your own words when possible.

But if a passage does a great job at expressing, explaining, or defining something, and it would be very difficult to paraphrase without changing the meaning or losing the weakening the idea’s impact, it’s worth quoting directly.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
• ChatGPT citations
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Using ChatGPT for your studies
• What is ChatGPT?
• Chicago style
• Paraphrasing
• Critical thinking

 Plagiarism

• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Consequences of plagiarism
• Common knowledge

A quote is an exact copy of someone else’s words, usually enclosed in quotation marks and credited to the original author or speaker.

In academic writing , there are three main situations where quoting is the best choice:

• To analyze the author’s language (e.g., in a literary analysis essay )
• To give evidence from primary sources
• To accurately present a precise definition or argument

Don’t overuse quotes; your own voice should be dominant. If you just want to provide information from a source, it’s usually better to paraphrase or summarize .

Every time you quote a source , you must include a correctly formatted in-text citation . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style .

For example, a direct quote in APA is cited like this: “This is a quote” (Streefkerk, 2020, p. 5).

Every in-text citation should also correspond to a full reference at the end of your paper.

A block quote is a long quote formatted as a separate “block” of text. Instead of using quotation marks , you place the quote on a new line, and indent the entire quote to mark it apart from your own words.

The rules for when to apply block quote formatting depend on the citation style:

• APA block quotes are 40 words or longer.
• MLA block quotes are more than 4 lines of prose or 3 lines of poetry.
• Chicago block quotes are longer than 100 words.

If you’re quoting from a text that paraphrases or summarizes other sources and cites them in parentheses , APA and Chicago both recommend retaining the citations as part of the quote. However, MLA recommends omitting citations within a quote:

• APA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic (Jones, 2015; Sill, 2019; Paulson, 2020) shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).
• MLA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).

Footnote or endnote numbers that appear within quoted text should be omitted in all styles.

If you want to cite an indirect source (one you’ve only seen quoted in another source), either locate the original source or use the phrase “as cited in” in your citation.

In scientific subjects, the information itself is more important than how it was expressed, so quoting should generally be kept to a minimum. In the arts and humanities, however, well-chosen quotes are often essential to a good paper.

In social sciences, it varies. If your research is mainly quantitative , you won’t include many quotes, but if it’s more qualitative , you may need to quote from the data you collected .

As a general guideline, quotes should take up no more than 5–10% of your paper. If in doubt, check with your instructor or supervisor how much quoting is appropriate in your field.

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Encyclopedia

Writing with artificial intelligence, inserting or altering words in a direct quotation.

• CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Nancy Lewis

What punctuation should be used when words are inserted or altered in a direct quotation?

When writers insert or alter words in a direct quotation, square brackets—[ ]—are placed around the change. The brackets, always used in pairs, enclose words intended to clarify meaning, provide a brief explanation, or to help integrate the quote into the writer’s sentence.  A common error writers make is to use parentheses in place of brackets.

How are square brackets used around clarifying or explanatory words?

Let’s look at an example:

Quotation with brackets used correctly around a clarifying word:

“It [driving] imposes a heavy procedural workload on cognition that . . . leaves little processing capacity available for other tasks” (Salvucci and Taatgen 107). [1]

Note : Brackets are placed around the inserted word in this example to let the reader know that ‘driving’ clarifies the meaning of the pronoun ‘it.’

Quotation with parentheses incorrectly used in place of brackets:

“It (driving) imposes a heavy procedural workload on cognition that . . . leaves little processing capacity available for other tasks” (Salvucci and Taatgen 107).

Note : Parentheses are used incorrectly in place of brackets in this example, making the inserted word look like it could be part of the original text.

Let’s look at another example:

Quotation with brackets used correctly around an explanatory insert:

“[D]riving is not as automatic as one might think; in fact, it imposes a heavy procedural workload [visual and motor demands] on cognition that . . . leaves little processing capacity available for other tasks” (Salvucci and Taatgen 107).

Note : Brackets are placed around the inserted words in this example to provide further explanation of the “procedural workload” discussed in the original text.

“[D]riving is not as automatic as one might think; in fact, it imposes a heavy procedural workload (visual and motor demands) on cognition that . . . leaves little processing capacity available for other tasks” (Salvucci and Taatgen 107).

Note : Parentheses are used incorrectly in place of brackets in this example, making the inserted words look like they are part of the original text.

How are square brackets used to help integrate a quote properly?

Original direct quotation beginning with an upper case letter:

“The heavy cognitive workload of driving suggests that any secondary task has the potential to affect driver behavior” (Salvucci and Taatgen 108).

Integrated quotation with brackets used correctly to indicate a change in letter case:

Salvucci and Taatgen propose that “[t]he heavy cognitive workload of driving suggests that any secondary task has the potential to affect driver behavior” (108).

Note : Brackets are placed around the lower-case letter ‘t’ to indicate that the letter case has been changed. The quotation is introduced by a signal phrase, which makes the quote an integral part of the writer’s sentence; as a result of this syntactical change, the upper case ‘T’ in the original is changed to a lower case letter.

Original direct quotation written in the past tense:

“Not coincidentally, drivers have been increasingly engaging in secondary tasks while driving” (Salvucci and Taatgen 68).

Note : The authors’ words appear in the past tense in the original text.

Quotation with brackets used correctly to indicate a change in verb tense:

“Not coincidentally, drivers [are] increasingly engaging in secondary tasks while driving” (Salvucci and Taatgen 68).

Note : Brackets are placed around the word ‘are’ to indicate that the verb has been changed to the present tense, which is the preferred tense for most writing in MLA style. The past tense is preferred for APA style writing. 

A word of caution : Bracketed insertions may not be used to alter or add to the quotation in a way that inaccurately or unfairly represents the original text. Quite simply, do not use bracketed material in a way that twists the author’s meaning.

Bracket Use: Quick Summary

[1] Salvucci, Dario D., and Niels A. Taatgen. Multitasking Minds . Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) . Web. 20 Feb. 2012.

Brevity – Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence – How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow – How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity – Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style – The DNA of Powerful Writing

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How to Punctuate Dialogue – Rules & Examples

| Danielle McLeod

| Punctuation

Danielle McLeod

Danielle McLeod is a highly qualified secondary English Language Arts Instructor who brings a diverse educational background to her classroom. With degrees in science, English, and literacy, she has worked to create cross-curricular materials to bridge learning gaps and help students focus on effective writing and speech techniques. Currently working as a dual credit technical writing instructor at a Career and Technical Education Center, her curriculum development surrounds student focus on effective communication for future career choices.

I’m an avid reader, and I never think twice about the punctuation that makes dialog so easy to read, allowing you to flow from one conversation to the next. With so much exposure to the technique, you’d think it would be easy to reproduce – but nothing could be further from the truth.

Punctuating dialogue properly eludes even the most voracious reader. And, it’s truly no surprise since you must remember more than one rule concerning quotations, terminal marks, and comma use when all mashed together.

Knowing how to punctuate dialogue correctly is important to help develop your characters and make them more interesting to your reader. Take a look at our dialog writing tips to help you develop your storyline for a more exciting read.

The Importance of Well-Written Dialog

Writers depend upon dialog to help bring their characters to life and allow readers to form relationships with the story they are immersed in. Good dialog punctuation helps create flow and clarity, lends tone to the sentences being spoken, and creates connections between characters and the overall storyline.

Poorly constructed sentences that feel wooden and stiff are common mistakes writers make when new to the technique. But, with practice and knowledge of strong dialog sentence structure, it doesn’t take long for them to become more confident writers.

The Rules of Dialog Writing

To avoid errors in dialogue punctuation, you must keep some precise rules in mind.

A good story uses direct and indirect dialogue between characters and dialogue with narration to enhance the storyline. This creates lines of text that can quickly become confusing when punctuation or grammar is ignored or, worse yet – used incorrectly.

Review these ten rules for punctuating dialogue to help create captivating dialogue that draws your reader into an original storyline.

Rule #1: Direct Speech Requires Double Quotation Marks

If you are in the US, you use the double closing quotation marks to indicate spoken, direct dialogue. This is the first step in punctuating dialogue correctly.

For example:

• “Mom, Sanna and I only went to the store, and we came right back!” exclaimed Sarah.
• Maxine wasn’t so sure, asking, “If I spoke to Mr. Hooper, would he tell me he saw you there?”

British or Commonwealth English uses a single quotation mark, but both styles indicate the same thing.

This article focuses on the American English standard widely accepted by the Chicago Style Manual to avoid confusion.

Rule #2: Periods (and Other End Marks) Belong Inside Quotation Mark

Misplaced periods and other end marks are common mistakes when writing dialogue. Complete spoken sentences should always end with the end mark inside the quotation marks.

• She reviewed the essay, stating, “You’ll need to proofread for corrections.”
• She watched the light turn green and, glancing sideways, said, “What if we kept driving and just didn’t stop?”

Rule #3: Comma Placement is Dictated by Speaker Attribution

The majority of written dialogue is attributed to a speaker using dialogue tags. This helps a reader keep track of who is speaking, especially when back-and-forth dialog is used between two or more characters.

An attribute is a simple way to give credit to a speaker. These can be as simple as she said or he replied . They can also be more detailed, providing tone or behavioral hints, such as she rolled her eyes, leaned forward, and whispered .

When the attribute comes before the dialogue, place the comma outside the quotation marks.

• She exclaimed, “There is no way I will be involved with that plan.”
• He wasn’t impressed, looked her in the eyes, and stated, “You promised to take part in this all.”

When the attribute comes after dialogue, you place the comma inside the quotation marks.

• “I’m heading to the store,” Sarah told her mother.
• “Go straight there and back,” was the reply.

Rule #4: Always Begin New Sentences with a Capitalization

Dialogue dictates that new sentences always begin with capitalization, even when following an attribute. This may be slightly different than other rules of quotation use, but it is important to help highlight the speech of your characters.

• She turned to him smiling and spoke her thoughts aloud, “If I were to leave, what would you do?”

Do not capitalize dialog that follows an interrupting attribute.

• He smiled back, “I’d follow you,” he replied, “anywhere you go.”

Rule #5: Start a New Paragraph Each Time the Speaker Changes

One of the most important rules of organizing dialogue is to begin a new paragraph each time the speaker changes. This provides a visual of who is speaking and is especially important to avoid the overuse of attributes during back-and-forth dialogue.

To indicate a new paragraph, leave a space between each line.

“Why are you here so early?” asked the teacher, looking down on the little blond head riddled with cowlicks.

The student looked up at her, blinking, “I need to study for my test today, and our power was out at the house.”

“Oh no! Of course, you can study here. I was just going to make some coffee. Would you like some cocoa to help get focused?”

“Yes. Thank you!”

“No problem. You can study early anytime you need to. I’m almost always here by this time.” She walked into the lounge, shaking her head, knowing he wasn’t the only student that needed a warm, lighted place to start the day in.

Rule #6: Use Action Beats to Replace Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags can become very monotonous in their use and take away from the tone of what is being said when overused. Consider using action beats that describe what the character is doing while they are speaking to help add detail and action to your dialogue.

Dialogue punctuation rules stay the same with action beats.

“Hmmmmm.” He rubbed his chin and glanced at the clock. “I’m just as confused as you are, but at the moment, I don’t have time to think about it.” He stood up, ushering the children towards the door. “Come back tomorrow when we can discuss this further.”

“But, tomorrow will be too late!” The children turned away from the door. “By then, she could be gone altogether!”

Rule #7: Avoid Closing Quotations Between Paragraphs of Speech

When a character speaks more than a few sentences in a row, you can split their extended speech up into multiple individual paragraphs. When you do this, you indicate to the reader the speech is not over by omitting the closing punctuation marks.

Still provide open quotation marks at the start of the new paragraph.

“It wasn’t difficult for me to find out what you all had been up to last night.” His mother looked them over, “I had the porch camera on, and it triggered the garage light. When I saw that come on, I knew somebody had to be coming in through the back to avoid waking me up. What you didn’t know was I was already awake.

“Although I didn’t say anything at the time, I checked with Mark’s mother this morning, and she let me know he had told her he was staying over here.” She wasn’t happy, and he knew he was in for it.

She continued on, “You told me you were staying at Mark’s house. So, of course, I wanted to know what you both were hiding from us.

“When I saw that you had the cellar door cracked open, I knew where you had to be keeping her.” She paused, “James, I told you we couldn’t afford to feed another dog, and now she’s down there with her puppies. What did you do that night? Go out to the tracks and carry them all back here thinking I would never notice?”

He nodded, “But, mom…” and looked up at her, “they would have died if we left them out there.”

Rule #8: Use Em-Dashes and Ellipses to Interrupt Speech

If you need to indicate an interruption in dialogue due to being cut off or a pause in speech, then you will use an em-dash or ellipses within the quotation marks.

“I know you care a lot about him, but — “

She interrupted, “You don’t understand that he’s just a friend!”

“— you aren’t going to camp with him this summer.” Her father finished.

“Listen, I just need to know what is going on…” she looked at her beseechingly.

Jen sighed, “I’ll explain it all one day. I just can’t right now.”

Rule #9: Use Single Quotes When Your Character is Quoting Someone or Something

If you are wondering how to use quotation marks within the dialogue to indicate a character directly quoting another, you need to use single quotation marks. A dialogue with quotes within it specifically highlights the thoughts or words of another person. 

“Tell me what the professor said was going to be on the test again.”

“He said the test would last 2 hours and to ‘read through the first two chapters, review all the vocabulary, and be able to explain the photosynthesis process.’”

Rule #10: Use Italics for Thoughts and Internal Monologues

Avoid using quotations for internal dialogue and monologues. Although, as an author, you can take artistic license and choose to use quotations, it is generally accepted to use italics in this manner if your text also includes spoken dialogue to avoid confusing the two. Just be sure to be consistent with their use.

The kitten sat at the window, eyes big and begging to be let inside.

Kimberly knew her mother would be mad, but, What she doesn’t find out won’t kill her , she thought as she opened the window.

Let’s Review

Writing dialog punctuation isn’t as tricky as it may seem at first as long as you follow these dialogue example rules. End marks, commas, and quotation marks in a dialog should be kept consistent in their use to provide clarity and flow to written conversation.

Always enclose dialog in double quotation marks, using single quotation marks to indicate a quote spoken by a character. End parks belong inside the quotations, while comma placement is determined by speaker attribution.

Grammarist is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. When you buy via the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you.

2024 © Grammarist, a Found First Marketing company. All rights reserved.

That news article on Google? Its headline may have been written by a political campaign

That news headline about presidential candidate Kamala Harris on your Google search results? It may have been written by her campaign. 

Harris' team has been launching sponsored posts on Google that link to real news content from various publishers but feature customized headlines and descriptions crafted by her campaign, a practice experts and Google called "common." One sponsored ad that links to NPR’s website features the headline “Harris will Lower Health Costs.” Another that links to the Associated Press reads “VP Harris’s Economic Vision - Lower Costs and Higher Wages.” The advertisements were first reported by Axios . 

While these sponsored posts have been used by other campaigns and comply with Google’s policies, some marketing experts worry they could fuel misinformation and distrust in the media.

“The doctored headlines risk coming across as misleading at best and misinformation at worst,” said Andy Rohm , a marketing professor at Loyola Marymount University in California. “This approach can damage a brand such as the Harris-Walz campaign in that it seems to be incongruous with the campaign’s stated values.”

Google's ad transparency center shows a number of other publishers featured in Harris ads, including Reuters, Time, CNN, AP, the Independent, the Guardian and USA TODAY.

"We were not aware the Harris campaign was using our content in this manner,” said Lark-Marie Anton, spokesperson for USA TODAY parent company Gannett. “As a news organization, we are committed to ensuring that our stories are shared appropriately, adhering to the highest standards of integrity and accuracy." 

AP spokesperson Patrick Maks said the news organization "was neither aware of this practice nor would we allow these to run on our website."

The Harris campaign declined to comment for this story. Donald Trump's campaign did not return a request for comment, but Google's ad transparency center did not show these types of ads from the former president's campaign.

A statement from Google said it’s “fairly common” for advertisers to link out or cite external websites in ads. To differentiate these ads from results, the search engine labels the ads as sponsored and includes a “paid for by” disclosure.

But even with a sponsored tag, the ads present a “significant ethical concern,” according to Colin Campbell , associate professor of marketing at the University of San Diego.

He said this is especially true when consumers fail to differentiate online ads.

“Many consumers might form opinions based solely on the altered headlines, without ever reading the actual articles,” Campbell said. “Even those who click through and read the articles may feel misled when they notice the discrepancy between the headline and the content, further eroding trust in the media.”

Gallup’s latest poll on media trust in 2023 shows just 32% of Americans trust the mass media “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to report the news in a full, fair and accurate way, a tie with Gallup’s previous lowest historical reading in 2016. 

Campbell said Google may hesitate to ban these ads, but “news organizations should advocate to end it to protect journalistic integrity.” 

These ads have received backlash before. Facebook stopped allowing ads with altered headlines in 2017 as part of a crackdown on misinformation, calling it “a channel that has been abused to post false news .”

Harris-Walz camo hat is having a moment. Could it be bigger than MAGA red?

But it’s not unusual for advertisements to cite to publishers, according to Pinar Yildirim , an associate professor of marketing and economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Movie trailers, for instance, often include snippets of critics’ reviews.

Yildirim said that as long as an ad doesn't misrepresent the contents of a news article, act as clickbait or try to earn undeserved credit by using the publisher's name, then linking back to a news outlet "should not be objectionable."

"From a commercial advertising perspective, I believe these practices would be fair," she said.

75+ Happy Independence Day Messages, Greetings, Wishes and Quotes for 2024

Independence Day Wishes, Messages, Greetings

By Dodai Stewart and Talya Minsberg

Reporting from Paris

Breaking made its debut as an Olympic sport Friday, and among the competitors was Dr. Rachael Gunn, also known as B-girl Raygun, a 36-year-old professor from Sydney, Australia, who stood out in just about every way.

By day, her research interests include “dance, gender politics, and the dynamics between theoretical and practical methodologies.” But on the world’s stage in Paris, wearing green track pants and a green polo shirt instead of the street-style outfits of her much younger fellow breakers, she competed against the 21-year-old Logan Edra of the United States, known as Logistx.

During the round robin, as Raygun and Logistx faced off, Raygun laid on her side, reached for her toes, spun around, and threw in a kangaroo hop — a nod to her homeland. She performed a move that looked something like swimming and another that could best be described as duckwalking. The high-speed back and head spins that other breakers would demonstrate were mostly absent.

The crowd cheered Raygun politely. The judges weren’t as kind. All nine voted for Logistx in both rounds of the competition; Logistx won, 18-0.

Online, Raygun’s performance quickly became a sensation, not necessarily in a flattering way.

“The more I watch the videos of Raygun, the Aussie breaker, the more I get annoyed,” one viewer posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “There’s 27.7 million Australians in the world and that’s who they send to the Olympics for this inaugural event??? C’mon now!”

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Rambling Trump, Musk interview marred by tech issues

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• Musk blames cyberattack for technical problems
• Interview attracts more than 1.3 million listeners
• Musk opens with questions about assassination attempt
• Trump says Harris "looks like the most beautiful actress"

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Six killed in Israeli strike in Lebanon, health ministry says

At least six people were killed and three wounded by an Israeli strike on a residential building in Nabatieh city in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said early on Saturday.