Use quotation marks, also called inverted commas, to indicate direct quotations and definitions.
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Before bestowing the award the Rector said, “Dr Robinson’s efforts to oppose discrimination place him among the few who actually deserve such an honour.” |
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According to this dictionary, a methodology is “a body of methods, rules and postulates employed by a discipline”. |
Always use double marks for a quotation and single marks for a quotation within a quotation.
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“His office door is very unusual; it has ‘Welcome’ written all over it in over thirty different languages.” |
Punctuation should be placed according to the meaning: if it belongs to the quotation, it is quoted; otherwise, it is not.
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According to the Dean, “The need for structural change is paramount.” |
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The Dean declared that the need for structural change was “paramount”. |
Quotations of over four lines in length should be set off from the text as a block quotation, not enclosed in quotation marks, and single-spaced. Quoted matter within the block quotation is set off with double quotation marks; quotations within these quotations, with single quotation marks, and so on.
Single quotation marks can also help show the reader that a word or term is used in an unusual, colloquial or ironic way.
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Nature somehow ‘knows’ the best environmental course to take. |
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The students felt ‘ripped off’ by the lecturer’s decision to hold the exam a week earlier than scheduled. |
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That lecturer is famous for sharing her ‘wisdom’ with her students. |
However, if you overuse quotation marks in these ways, they lose their effect.