Say Whaaat? — A Guide to Using Quotes

Quotation marks are only concerned with what people are saying. And some people are saying things about them that just aren’t true! This guide will help dispel some of those awful rumors about quotes and attribution.

But why stop there? We’ll also talk about the keyboard shortcuts, punctuation and capitalization used with quotes. And then — since they’re kind of related and we’ve already got your attention — we’ll talk briefly about apostrophes. So listen up!

Keyboard Shortcuts:

• Open double quotes (“): option/alt+left bracket
• Closed double quotes (”): shift+option/alt+left bracket
• Open single quote (‘): option/alt+right bracket
• Closed single quote/apostrophe (’): shift+option/alt+right bracket

Double Quotes vs. Single

• For direct quotes, use double quotes (“I love quotes,” he said)
• For quotes within quotes, use single quotes (“I love double quotes, but she says I’m ‘annoying for being so nitpicky,’” he said)
• When introducing a term that might be unfamiliar to your reader, use double quotes — but use single quotes if that word is used within already quoted material (This post is about using “quotes” vs. “His blog post is about using ‘quotes,’” she told the class)

Quote Capitalization

• When beginning a sentence within quotes, even if it’s preceded by a dialogue tag, such as “he said,” start with a capital letter (He said, “That cat has a poofy tail!”)
• When a quotation ends in a full stop (e.g., a period, question mark or exclamation point) before the dialogue tag, begin the tag with a lowercase letter (“Was the tail really ‘poofy,’ or was it actually just puffy?” said Clair)

Punctuation with quotes

• Commas always go inside the quotation marks (“Commas are dumb,” said nobody cool, ever.)
• Question marks and exclamation points can go outside quotes, but only if they’re about the quote, not part of it (“I love pizza!” she said vs. If you love pizza so much, maybe you should get a shirt that says “I love pizza”!)
• Colons go on the outside of quotes, unless they’re part of the quoted material (He had three shirts that said “I love pizza”: a red one, a blue one and a gold one vs. She said, “I’ve got three favorite pizza places: Sy’s New York Pizza, Sy’s New York Pizza and Sy’s New York Pizza”)
• Periods always go inside the quotes (The little pig said, “That’s all, folks.”)

Missing Text in Condensed Quotes

• Show the deletion of one or more words using an ellipsis with a space on either end (“He wore a … beret”)
• Show the deletion of words or sentences, following a complete sentence, with a period or other full stop punctuation, followed by an ellipsis with a space on either end (“This is the true story of seven strangers! … This is the Real World.”)
• Show an incomplete thought using an ellipsis with a space on either end (“I, like, really love hot dogs, beer and … ooh, look, a nickel!”)
• When ellipsis are already being used to show missing words, use an em dash to indicate the incomplete thought (“I … love hot dogs, beer and — ooh, look, a nickel”)

The A’s & Z’s of Apostrophes

Like quotes, there are right and wrong ways to use apostrophes. Modern word processing software can create a major issue as the software often automatically creates an open single quote instead of an apostrophe. Make sure your apostrophes are always closed single quotes, and use them when:

• Info is removed from a number or a word (’94 or you’re or it’s)
• You’re showing a possessive (Marcia’s gargoyle mask is at the cleaners and, anyway, those are the Lincolns’ logs)

And that’s all we’ve got to say about quotes and quote-related punctuation! If you’re curious about our take on other hot punctuation and grammar topics, check out our other posts: The Dirt on Dashes and A Quick-and-Dirty Guide to Hyphens.