Underlining and Quotation Marks

Underlining (Italics)

• Rule• Underline (italicize)

titles of books, plays, periodicals, films, television programs, works of art, long musical works, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft.

• Example• Maniac Magee, Guys

and Dolls, Spongebob Square Pants, The Mona Lisa, The DaVinci Code

Quotation Marks

• Rule• Use quotation marks

to enclose a direct quotation – a person’s exact words.

• A direct quotation begins with a capital letter.

• Example• Bill said, “The bus is

late.” (direct quotation)• Bill said that the bus is

late. (indirect quotation)

• Bill said, “The bus is late.”

• When a quoted sentence is divided into two parts by an expression that identifies the speaker, the second part of the quotation starts with a small letter.

• A direct quotation is set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma, a question mark, or an exclamation point, but not a period.

• “Yes,” Bill said, “the bus is late.”

• “The bus is late,” Bill said. “It will be here later.”

• Bill said, “The bus is late.”

• “The bus is late,” Bill said.

• A period or comma should always be placed inside the closing quotation marks.

• A question mark or an exclamation point should be placed inside closing quotation marks when the quotation itself is a question or an exclamation. Otherwise, it should be placed outside.

• Bill said, “The bus is late.”

• “The bus is late,” Bill said.

• “When will you be home, Mom?” asked Bill.

• Who said “Give me liberty or give me death”?

• When you write dialogue (conversation), begin a new paragraph every time the speaker changes.

• When a quotation is made up of several sentences, put quotation marks only at the beginning and end of the whole quotation.

• Use single quotation marks to enclose a quotation within a quotation.

• Use quotation marks to enclose the titles of short stories, poems, newspaper or magazine articles, songs, episodes of T.V. programs, and chapter and other parts of books.

• “Andrew Jackson’s nickname was ‘Old Hickory,’” said Mr. Jones.