How to Use Quotation Marks With Other Punctuations
By Mary Simmers

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Quotation marks are among the most confusing punctuations to
use, as so much writing out there don’t follow proper
convention. It is one of the most common punctuation marks that
are being confused by a lot of people. Seriously, randomly pull
out any ten essays submitted in class and you’ll find how badly
the uses of quotations with other punctuations vary.

A quotation mark is always use together with its pair. Some
would often call it as double quote and other would call it as
an inverted comma. However, the uses of quotation marks are not
being practiced by a lot of people, usually students. Common
mistakes that this punctuation mark is often use is when someone
is going to write an essay. Since essay is a free writing,
quotation marks are always present in this piece.

Quotation marks can be single or double but the pair should
always be with its corresponding pair. Like for example, you
cannot use an opening quotation mark with single quotation mark
and ends with double or vice versa. Open double is always paired
to a close double quotation mark, same as with single quotation
mark.

What’s funny is, the rules for this are quite simple. It’s just
that most people don’t pay that much attention to it, treating
it like its secondary in importance to other facets of good
writing. Basically, the following are the prescribed rules on
using quotes with other punctuation marks.

o With commas, always put them inside quotation marks, as in:
“This,” according to the governor….

o With periods, always put them inside quotation marks, as in:
The story, publisher Harper claims, is “the author’s most
poignant piece of work.”

o With semicolons, always put them outside the quotation marks,
as in: They called him “Butch”; as such…

o With colons, always put them outside the quotation marks.

o With question marks and exclamation points, put them inside
if they is part of the text being quoted; otherwise, keep them
outside.

We only use double quotation marks to enclose a quote, titles
and to words or phrases that are slang and irony. There are
times that within a quote that was enclose with double quotation
marks, single quotation marks are also present. It is like you
are using words or phrases inside a quote. Just bear in mind
that within a quote, you can use either double in a single quote
or single in a double quote.

There is no need to confuse yourself more on which quotation
mark would you rather use, either a single (‘ ‘) or a double (“
“), as long as you had use it in the proper way as mention a
while ago as to when we are going to use quotation marks.

Just bear in mind that within a quote, you can use either
double in a single quote or single in a double quote.

The above five rules are the only guidelines you need to
remember for using quotation marks with other punctuations.
Sure, there may be some exceptions, but they will be rare. Of
course, you can always just use a grammar checking software to
identify punctuation transgressions, saving yourself plenty of
time in the process.

About the Author: Find out how to write perfect English
letters, reports and emails by writing less. See Grammar
Checking Software in action! http://www.grammarsoftware.com

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