Quotation Marks
Quotation marks are majorly used to indicate that some words are being reproduced as it is. It is to avoid using the written or spoken words of others in our own writing so that does not look like we have copied theirs words for our own benefit. It is also thus used to give full credit to the person who has used these words originally.
Rule 1
Use double quotation marks to set off a direct (word-for-word) quotation.
Correct: “I wonder if you will stay,” he said.
Incorrect: He said that he “wondered if I would stay.” (Here, the quotation marks are wrong because it does not quote the exact words that the speaker actually said)
Rule 2
Always use a capital letter when a sentence begins within quotes. It does not matter even if it is mid-sentence. Let us take a look at the example to understand better.
Example: Martin said, “It is still very cold out there”
Do not use capital letters if the sentence continues
Example: Martin said that it was “still very cold” and that “nothing has changed.”
Rule 3
Commas have to be used to interrupt direct quotations
Examples:
He said, “I really don’t want to know anything about it.”
“Why,” I asked, “are you not concerned?”
The rule is not compulsory with one-word quotations.
Example: He said, “Enough.”
If the quotation comes before he asked, she said, they wrote, John insisted, or a similar attribution, end the quoted material with a comma, even if it is only one word.
Examples:
“I am so hungry,” he said.
“Enough,” he said.
If the subject or the object comes within the quotation marks, then a comma is not needed.
Examples:
Is “I forgot” all you can come up with?
Saying “Enough is enough” was not a right thing to do
