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In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes, talking marks, [1] [2] speech marks, [3] quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed on either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name.
Where possible, link from text outside of the quotation instead – either before it or soon after. (If quoting hypertext , add an editorial note, [link in original] or [link added] , as appropriate, to avoid ambiguity as to whether the link was made by the original author.)
For example, "Stop!" has the punctuation inside the quotation marks because the word "stop" is said with emphasis. However, when using "scare quotes", the comma goes outside. Other examples: Arthur said the situation was "deplorable". (The full stop (period) is not part of the quotation.)
The semicolon is the comma's first cousin, but it works a little bit harder; it also makes you look smarter. The post Here’s When You Should Use a Semicolon appeared first on Reader's Digest.
Quotation marks [A] are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to identify direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark, which may or may not be the same glyph. [3] Quotation marks have a variety of forms in different languages and in different media.
Johnson's "rules" (and consequently those of Chicago and other US style guides) are worse than inconsistent, but blatantly self-contradictory: They assert that colons and semicolons go outside the quotations because they are not part of the quotation, but reverse this reasoning with regard to commas and terminal punctuation.
Here the quotation is not a complete sentence (thus requiring no period), so the style above is the one demanded by pedantic logic. Since this style is not ugly, we can use it in ordinary writing, and the British do; the Americans, however, move the period inside the quotation marks, because ... I dunno why, they just do.
Place a full stop (a period) or a comma before a closing quotation mark if it belongs as part of the quoted material (She said, "I'm feeling carefree. "); otherwise, put it after (The word carefree means "happy".). Please do so irrespective of any rules associated with the variety of English in use.