This document provides guidelines for using quotation marks and citations in academic writing, including: - Quotation marks should be used to enclose direct quotations. Commas and periods go inside the quotation marks while question marks, exclamation points, colons and semicolons go outside unless they are part of the original quotation. - Shorter works like essays, poems, articles and television episodes should have their titles in quotation marks. Longer works are italicized. - Quotations should be introduced and explained, and kept to a maximum of two lines. Citations should include the author's name and page number in MLA format.

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.