Quotation Marks

Marking DialogueMark dialogue with quotation marks:

“Kitty has no discretion in her coughs,” said her father; “she times them ill.”

“I do not cough for my own amusement,” replied Kitty fretfully.

Indent paragraphs for new speakers, or paragraphs that begin with dialogue.

Other “Dialogue Labels”Put a comma after dialogue labels:

“If the world were a logical place,”Rita Mae Brown notes, “men would ride sidesaddle.”

• Said• Remarked• Observed• Noted• Exclaimed

Quote, InterruptedUse a comma when a quote is interrupted, too:

“If the world were a logical place,”Rita Mae Brown notes, “men would ride sidesaddle.”

Punctuation PlacementUse quotation marks correctly with other punctuation:

“There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book,” says Oscar Wilde. “Books are well-written, or badly written. That is all.”

Riley claimed to be a “human calculator” : he did quadratic equations in his head.

Commas and periods go inside quotation marks; colons and semi-colons go outside quotation marks.

? and !Question marks and exclamation marks can go either inside or outside, depending on the context:

When Mrs. Rattle saw her hotel room, she muttered, “Good grief!”

She turned to her husband and asked, “Do you really expect me to stay here?”

Who was it who said, “Truth is always the strongest argument”?