You should not insert additional punctuation marks into the sentence merely to warn the reader that a quotation is coming up: that's what the quotation marks are for. Remember, a colon can never be followed by a hyphen or a dash. Here is the sentence with proper punctuation: President Nixon declared "I am not a crook. No punctuation mark should be used if it is not necessary. On the other hand, the presence of quotation marks does not remove the necessity of using other punctuation which is required for independent reasons.
Look again at these examples: According to Thomas Edison, "Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Here is another example: Mae West had one golden rule for handling men: "Tell the pretty ones they're smart, and tell the smart ones they're pretty. Instead, it is doing what colons always do: it is introducing an explanation of what comes before the colon.
It is merely a coincidence that what follows the colon happens to be a quotation. This last example illustrates another point about quotations: the quotation inside the quote marks begins with a capital letter if it is a complete sentence, but not otherwise. Look once more at two versions of the Edison sentence: According to Thomas Edison, "Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
The first quotation is a complete sentence and therefore gets an initial capital letter ; the second is not a complete sentence and hence receives no capital. There is one situation in which the use of single quotes instead of double quotes can be rather a nuisance. This is one reason why I personally prefer to use double quotes: Stalin announced defiantly "Hitler's invasion of Russia will be no more successful than Napoleon's was.
Things can get a little complicated when you cite a quotation that has another quotation inside it. In this rare circumstance, the rule is to set off the internal quotation with the other type of quotation marks.
My answer: you should rewrite the sentence. Otherwise, you will simply lose your reader in a labyrinth of quotation marks. If you have a long quotation which you want to display indented in the middle of the page, you do not need to place quotes around it, though you should make sure that you identify it explicitly as a quotation in your main text.
Here is an example cited from G. Carey's famous book on punctuation, Mind the Stop Carey : I should define punctuation as being governed two-thirds by rule and one-third by personal taste.
The first phrase states that nothing is inherently good or bad; the second phrase suggests that our perspective causes things to become good or bad. As you decide whether or not you want to break up a quote, you should consider the shift in emphasis that the division might create. As few words as possible. Remember, your paper should primarily contain your own words, so quote only the most pithy and memorable parts of sources. Here are guidelines for selecting quoted material judiciously:.
Sometimes, you should quote short fragments, rather than whole sentences. Suppose you interviewed Jane Doe about her reaction to John F.
She commented:. It was just unreal and so sad. It was just unbelievable. I had never experienced such denial. Perhaps it was because JFK was more to me than a president.
He represented the hopes of young people everywhere. You might instead want to quote Jane when she arrives at the ultimate reason for her strong emotions:. Jane Doe grappled with grief and disbelief. Quoting the words of others carries a big responsibility.
Misquoting misrepresents the ideas of others. John Adams did, in fact, write the above words. But if you see those words in context, the meaning changes entirely. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in public company—I mean hell.
This example is from Paul F. Boller, Jr. There may be times when you need to quote long passages. However, you should use block quotations only when you fear that omitting any words will destroy the integrity of the passage.
If that passage exceeds four lines some sources say five , then set it off as a block quotation. Be sure you are handling block quotes correctly in papers for different academic disciplines—check the index of the citation style guide you are using. Here are a few general tips for setting off your block quotations:. After reading several doctrinally rigid tracts, John Adams recalled the zealous ranting of his former teacher, Joseph Cleverly, and minister, Lemuel Bryant.
He expressed his ambivalence toward religion in an letter to Thomas Jefferson:. It can be confusing when you start combining quotation marks with other punctuation marks. Many writers struggle with when to use direct quotations versus indirect quotations. Use the following tips to guide you in your choice.
Use direct quotations when the source material uses language that is particularly striking or notable. Do not rob such language of its power by altering it.
Use an indirect quotation or paraphrase when you merely need to summarize key incidents or details of the text. Use direct quotations when the author you are quoting has coined a term unique to her or his research and relevant within your own paper. When to use direct quotes versus indirect quotes is ultimately a choice you'll learn a feeling for with experience. However, always try to have a sense for why you've chosen your quote. Would you do it like this?
You might even manage to confuse your word processing program. But if you do it like this, everything will look much better:. Titles of books, albums, magazines, newspapers, and other standalone and bigger bodies of work are usually italicized. Poems, chapters, articles—smaller bodies of work, or bodies of work which form a larger body of work—are emphasized by using quotation marks. You can also use quotation marks to signify words used as words.
Some writers put quotes around words they want to distance themselves from. Quotation marks used this way are commonly called scare quotes or shudder quotes. Scare quotes are sort of like air quotes, and if you know anything about air quotes, you know that they should be used in moderation.
The same applies to scare quotes. You might see quotation marks used instead of parentheses for translations.
0コメント