Quotation Marks (Presentation Notes)

1. Professor Colin Shanafelt
QuotationMarks
Punctuation
Rules & Examples

2. Quotations&QuotationMarks
• The word quote is a verb. The word quotation is a noun.
• Never refer to a quotation in the following manner:
• “In this quote . . .” or “This quote proves . . .”
• Use italics to quote words as words.
• The word quote is a verb. The word quotation is a noun.
• In an academic essay, never start a sentence or a paragraph with a quotation mark.
(All quotations must be introduced and explained.)
• Do not include long quotations. Quotations should run a maximum of two lines.
• Commas and periods go inside the quotation marks.
• “Air travel,” she remarked, “is the safest form of transportation.”
• Weave smaller chunks of longer quotations into the natural flow of your own language.
• Next, the poet goes on to explain that until one achieves the object of his lust, he is “murderous,”
“bloody,” “full of blame,” “rude,” “cruel,” and “savage” (Shakespeare 3-4).
• In academic essays, always cite quotations with a proper MLA in-text citation.
• Huckleberry Finn says, “All right then, I'll go to hell” (Twain 534).
• “Life,” Thomas Hobbes writes, “is nasty, brutish, and short” (234).
General Rules

3. DirectQuotations
• She said, “I love you, but I’m not in love with you.”
• “I love you, but I’m not in love with you,” she said.
• Jeffery whimpered softly, “I am afraid of spiders.”
• Shakespeare ends “Sonnet 130” with the line, “As any she belied with false compare.”
• “Exactly what time,” Billy wheezed as he tried to catch his breath, “does swim practice end?”
• The title of my short story is “Valhalla,” which is available online.
• He said, “Go!”; his tone was intense.
• “Air travel,” she remarked, “is the safest form of transportation.”
• “Life,” Thomas Hobbes writes, “is nasty, brutish, and short.”
• MLA: “Life,” Thomas Hobbes writes, “is nasty, brutish, and short” (234).
Use quotation marks to enclose direct quotations.

4. Commas&Periods
• She said, “I love you, but I’m not in love with you.”
• “I love you, but I’m not in love with you,” she said.
• Jeffery whimpered softly, “I am afraid of spiders.”
• Shakespeare ends “Sonnet 130” with the line, “As any she belied with false compare.”
• “Exactly what time,” Billy wheezed as he tried to catch his breath, “does swim practice end?”
• The title of my short story is “Valhalla,” which is available online.
• “Air travel,” she remarked, “is the safest form of transportation.”
• “Life,” Thomas Hobbes writes, “is nasty, brutish, and short.”
• MLA: Huckleberry Finn says, “All right then, I'll go to hell” (Twain 534).
Commas & Periods go INSIDE the quotation marks.

5. QuestionMarks
• “If you don’t like Senator Smith, why did you vote for him in the last election?” she asked.
• The name of my short story is “What Gods Would Be Theirs?”
• Have you heard the old Chinese proverb “a journey of a million miles starts with a single step”?
• Lt. Colonel Gabriel’s last question was “How will we know when we have won?”
• MLA: The poet asks, “When will the madness end?” (Williams 234).
Question marks go OUTSIDE the quotation marks unless they are part of the original quotation.

6. ExclamationMarks
• He said, “Go!”; his tone was intense.
• In the name of Thor’s hammer, he said “no”!
• MLA: In the peer-reviewed journal article “Life during Covid-19,” author William Smith remarks,
“This too shall pass!” (34).
Exclamation marks go OUTSIDE the quotation marks unless they are part of the original quotation.

7. Colons&Semicolons
• He said, “Go!”; his tone was intense.
• Jimmy yelled, “This is not how I thought it would be”; his expression, however, did not seem to fit
the urgency of his tone.
• Martin Luther wrote what he called the “The 95 Theses”: “1. When our Lord . . .”
Colons and semicolons marks go OUTSIDE the quotation marks.

8. TitlesofShorterWorks
• Shakespeare ends “Sonnet 130” with the line “As any she belied with false compare.”
• The title of Colin Shanafelt’s short story is “Valhalla,” and it is available online.
• Martin Luther wrote what he called the “The 95 Theses”: “1. When our Lord . . .”
• The 116th episode of the television series Seinfeld is called “The Soup Nazi.”
• MLA: In the peer-reviewed journal article “Life during Covid-19,” author
William Smith remarks, “This too shall pass!” (34).
MLA: Enclose the titles of shorter works in quotation marks. (Parts of a container)
Articles, Essays, Short Stories, Songs, Chapters, Sermons, TV & Radio Series Episodes.
(Pieces that can be read in one sitting)

9. Dialogue
"Maybe there's a bunny slope or something,” Dylan narrowed his
eyes at the giant waves crashing on the distant reef.
“Nonsense," she pushed a surfboard into his hands.
"I mean . . . I think I can work up to it, but I just--"
"You sailed a forty-foot yacht around the world alone,”she said. “You
can do this!”
Begin a new paragraph to indicate each new speaker.