Writing Tips ........................... week ending: 19 February 1999

Very often, when writing, you'll need to indicate that the words have been spoken or written by another person, and the way we do this, is to use quotation marks.

It sounds straightforward enough, but you'd be surprised at the mess some people can find themselves in when trying to use quotation marks in the middle of a sentence.

One small point - quotation marks indicate that something is being quoted. You use these marks around quotations (not around quotes).

Quote is a verb e.g. I will quote a passage from the play.

Quotation is the noun e.g. The quotation she used in her audition was too long.

So, without further ado, let's get quoting ...

Quotation Marks

These are used to indicate speech and are quite straightforward; the problems arise when writers are not sure where to place all the other punctuation marks used with the quotation marks.

e.g. The short man said to the doctor, "Doctor, I refuse to wait any longer!"

The doctor replied, "You'll have to learn to be a little patient."

Notice:

• the quotation marks enclose everything each speaker says - including their punctuation The quotation marks go around the exclamation mark and the final full stop

• each quotation is preceded by a comma

• each quotation begins with a capital letter, even though it is in the middle of a sentence. This is because it is the beginning of the quoted sentence.

But note the following:

e.g. "Let's stay home tonight," said Mum, "and play a game of cards."

• this time the second part of the quotation begins with a lower case letter, because it is part of a single sentence being quoted

• where the quotation is broken, you use a comma inside the quotation marks (..tonight,")

• the final full stop marks the end of the quoted sentence, so is inside the quotation marks.

e.g. "Do you want to go for a walk?" asked Dad. "It's stopped raining."

• this time there is a full stop after Dad and a capital letter to start the next part of the quotation. This is because Dad has spoken TWO separate sentences, each one dealing with a separate, completed thought.

Note also the use of capital letters for Mum and Dad - when these words are used as a person's name, you use a capital letter. When you are using the words as common nouns, you use a lower case letter.

e.g. My mum and dad have gone to Sydney for the day.

Where you have more than one person being quoted, you start a NEW LINE for each speaker.

e.g. "It's too cold to go walking," said Mum.

"We need the exercise," Dad replied.

"I'd rather go to the pictures," Marmaduke complained.

If you are quoting a long speech by a single character, (or a long passage from a single writer) and it continues over several paragraphs, you only use the quotation marks at:

• the beginning of each paragraph

• the end of the LAST paragraph.

By leaving the quotation marks open at the end of all but the last paragraph, you are indicating to your reader that the same person is being quoted.

Other uses for quotation mark are around the titles of:

• poems

• magazine articles

• short stories

• songs

Note that these days, the titles of books and films are usually underlined or written in a different type to distinguish them from the rest of a piece of writing.

It's just a matter of thinking about who is doing the talking really - keep each individual's words enclosed in separate sets of quotation marks, and you won't have any trouble.

OXYMORON OF THE WEEK: act naturally

A multi-purpose Latin phrase this week - I'm sure we'll all find occasion to use it many times:

Modo vincis, modo vinceris.

(You win some, you lose some.)

Regards,

Jennifer

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