1. Direct Quotes:
* Speech: To enclose the exact words someone said:
* "I'm going to the store," she said.
* Written Material: To quote directly from a book, article, or other source:
* The author wrote, "The world is a beautiful place."
2. Titles:
* Short Works: Use double quotes for the titles of shorter works like:
* Songs: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
* Poems: "The Raven"
* Short Stories: "The Gift of the Magi"
* Articles: "The Impact of Climate Change"
* Chapters in Books: "The Rise of the Roman Empire"
* Episodes of TV Shows: "The One Where Ross and Rachel… "
* Longer Works: You typically use italics for the titles of longer works such as:
* Books: *The Lord of the Rings*
* Plays: *Hamlet*
* Movies: *Star Wars*
* Albums: *Abbey Road*
3. Technical Terms and Slang:
* Emphasis: To highlight a word or phrase, especially if it has a special meaning or is used in a non-standard way:
* He used the term "paradigm shift" to describe the changes.
* The teenager was "totally bummed" about missing the party.
4. Internal Dialogue:
* To indicate a character's thoughts:
* "Why did I say that?" she thought to herself.
5. Special Effects:
* To represent sound effects in writing:
* The car zoomed past, "Vroom! Vroom!"
6. Words as Words:
* To distinguish a word from its meaning:
* The word "love" has many different meanings.
General Rules:
* Periods and commas always go inside the closing quotation mark.
* Colons and semicolons always go outside the closing quotation mark.
* Question marks and exclamation points go inside the closing quotation mark if they belong to the quoted material.
Important Note:
* Some style guides (like the Chicago Manual of Style) prefer single quotation marks (' ') for quotes within quotes.
* It's crucial to follow the specific style guide for your writing project.