Rules for Quotation Marks in Direct Dialogue (Mechanics)
(1) Do not use quotation marks if you are not using a person’s exact words:
She told us all about the soccer match.
“The soccer match was absolutely incredible!” she exclaimed.
(2) Quotation marks should touch the quoted words and punctuation; that means no spaces. If you
add spaces, your computer will probably turn the quotation marks the wrong way:
YES: He said, “I want to get my way.” The teacher disagreed, though.
NO: He said, ” I want to get my way. “ The teacher disagreed, though.
(3) If a person’s words make a command, present a statement, or ask a question, place the
appropriate punctuation inside the second quotation mark (also called the “close quote”):
The student asked, “Why am I here?”
“I can’t believe this is happening to me!” he shouted.
“Please bring me that book,” the teacher said.
(4) If a statement ends before the dialogue tag (he remarked,she said), place a comma and
close-quote mark after the statement, and then a period after the tag:
“You are a good person,” she said. “You should become a teacher someday.”
(5) If a dialogue tag interrupts the middle of a sentence, place acomma and quotation mark before
and after the tag;in addition, do not capitalize the first word of thesecond half of the sentence:
“If you keep this up,” he threatened, “then I will be forced to tell your mother.”
(6) Use single quotation marks for a quote inside another quotation:
Mr. Oakley explained, “She looked straight at me and said, ‘This is completely unfair.’”
(7) If the entire sentence is a question, but the quotation is not a question, place the question mark
outside the quotation marks:
Why did the convicted murderer say, “Forget about it”?
(8) If using a colon or semicolon that is not part of the quote, place it outside the quotation marks:
The quarterback boasted, “We’ll definitely win this game”; unfortunately, his team lost 17-3.
She claims that these are “the world’s best books”: Fahrenheit 451, Ulysses, Joy Luck Club …
(9) If one person is quoted for two or more paragraphs in a row, use open-quotation marks at the
start of each paragraph, but do not use a close-quote mark until the end of the last paragraph,
when the person has stopped speaking.
(10) An ellipsis (…) is used to show that words have been removed from the middle of a quote. The
words usually are deleted because they bog down the reader and add nothing to the quotation.
The ellipsis should be treated asif itwere a separate word (one space on each side):
OK: “This new musical is the most exciting production to hit Broadway in 10 years and you’ll
probably want to buy tickets to get in, so don’t miss it!” exclaimed the theater critic.
BETTER: “This new musical is the most exciting production to hit Broadway in 10 years … so don’t miss it!” exclaimed the theater critic.