Some of you are old enough to remember the Victor Borge routine called “Phonetic Punctuation,” in which the comedian used sounds to emulate quote marks, commas, question marks, colons, exclamation points, etc. (For a brief sample of this hilarious routine, click here. Or obtain the CD entitled Live.) Borge’s sound effects would have greatly enriched this article, which concerns quotation marks. But I’m afraid the written word will have to suffice.
The simplest and most common usage of quotation marks is – surprise – when quoting someone. For example: “If you haven’t ever heard Borge’s routine,” Audrey said, “buy the CD Live.” Please note especially the placement of the commas and the fact that the word “buy” is lower case. In American usage, unless the entire sentence is a question, the punctuation marks go inside the quotation marks (the Brits do it differently). Don’t use quotation marks at all if it is an indirect quotation (for example: Audrey said to obtain the Borge recording).
If I were to quote someone within a quotation, it would look like this: “Audrey recommends Victor Borge’s humorous routine, ‘Punctuation.’” When using this formula, don’t forget the end quotes.
Quotation marks are used for short stories, poems, titles of songs, titles of articles, album tracks, and titles of chapters. Oddly, TV shows, plays, operas, movies, oratorios, and the names of ships are italicized without quotation marks.
Another usage of quotation marks is to indicate irony (or, as a friend of mine says, to imply “wink wink”). For example, Victor Borge “punctuates” his dialogue. (In such instances, people often make quotation marks in the air with their hands.) In a similar vein, quotation marks sometimes designate a sense that the word is not being used in its (currently) accepted sense. Example: The Chicago Manual of Style is my “Bible.” (By the way, this is a great resource that provides all you need to know about quotation marks and all other matters of style. Be sure to get the latest edition.)
If you are British, it would be okay to write, “Do you like Victor Borge?” he asked, “I do!”. But in the U.S., it’s a no-no to use more than one punctuation mark at the end of a sentence.
Most computers today use what are called “smart quotes,” which are also called “book quotes” or “curly quotes.” A quote followed by a letter automatically becomes an opening quote, and a quote with a letter or period preceding it and a space after it becomes a closing quote. But watch out! Sometimes your computer will defy this logic and reverse the quotation marks.
Once you get the hang of them (no pun intended), quotation marks are easy
to manage. And you can quote me on that!