Quotations

Coordinating quotation marks, commas, and other punctuation can be difficult. Study these models of the different circumstances under which we use quotation marks.

I. Direct Quotation

A. If the quotation begins the sentence:
"Please sit down," she ordered. [Though the quotation is a main clause, it is followed by a comma because the sentence does not end until after she ordered.]

B. If the quotation ends the sentence:
"The young boy screamed, "I don't want my *&$#!! Maypo!" [Note that the quotation is introduced by a comma that signals the end of the sentence's main clause. This is the most commonly forgotten rule.]

C. If the quotation is interrupted by a main clause:
"This coat is an awful color," he said, "when you look at it in natural light." "I have pineapples," she said. "They make me break out in a rash." [The first quotation is a single sentence, so a comma follows he said. However, the second quotation is two sentences. Note the period after she said and the capital T that begins the second sentence.]

D. Other Rules:
semicolons and colons go outside quotation marks. Questions marks go within the quotation marks if the quotation is a question, but outside if the sentence is a question: He asked, "Do you like Ike?" Did he say, "I like Ike"?

II. Quotations within Essays

In essays there are three ways that direct quotations might appear. The first is exactly like those explained above. If your quote is shorter than three lines, then you attach it to a sentence: Anchises' speech is about the entire world: "First of all, heaven and earth and the liquid fields..." Note a colon introduces the quotation. Though one ought to reserve the introductory comma for sentences with "say" or said," You can get away with either a comma or a colon. Just don't forget one of them!!

The second way is to make the quotation fit the grammar of your sentence. If you do that, then make the punctuation fit the grammar of the sentence: Fred hears the "still, sad music of humanity" as well as anyone. Note that no comma introduces that quotation.

The third way is reserved for longer quotations, three lines or more. This sort of quotation is introduced by a colon, is indented all around, and does not have quotation marks:

First of all heaven and earth and the liquid fields, the shining orb of the moon and the Titanian star does a spirit sustain inly. And a soul shed abroad among them sways their members and mingles in the mighty frame.

Quiz