Punctuation Part 3 

 Inverted Commas or Quotation Marks.

Inverted commas are pretty straightforward on the whole.  They go around speeches and can be single: 'Yes' or double: "Yes", especially with regard to what is called the hierarchy of it.  This is another of those things publishers have preferences about.

For example, in Britain a quote within a speech would often be punctuated so:
'You said, "yesterday"?'

In the US, it would be probably be written so:
"You said, 'yesterday'?"

Note (below) how the closing quote marks come after the other punctuation except when a speech is being quoted. See below for this.

If there is a reporting clause (he said, she asked, etc) before the speech, a comma is used before it; if it comes after the speech, a period is replaced by a comma, but question marks and exclamation marks are not. Eg:

Peter smiled and said, "The weather is lovely."
"Yes. Are we going to the park?" his sister asked.
"We may," he replied.
"Great!"

Where the reporting clause comes in the middle of the speech, the first section will end with the comma and closing speech marks, even if the sentence would not normally have a comma there. Eg:
"How long," he asked, "will it take to get there?"

Note that the second section does not start with a capital letter as it is a continuation of the first part. If there were two separate sentences it would look something like this:

"I think about half an hour," she murmured. "Is that ok?"

"How long?" he gasped. "Are you sure?"

A period/full stop and a capital letter shows the end of one sentence (including the reporting clause) and the start of another.

Quotations

This is another place where American Englsih and British English differ, so you are likely to come across both ways.

In American English a final period follows the closing inverted commas of a speech:

One writer suggested that the women "go back to their traditional role of making tea at meetings.".


In British English quotes have punctuation marks outside of the speech marks. It is usual to omit a comma or period inside the inverted commas, where there is a period immediately afterwards:

One firm's motto is "Let the buyer beware".

Sometimes there may be punctuation both inside and outside the speech marks:

One question often seen is "Why does it cost so much?".

In this case, the question mark belongs to the quote, and the period belongs to the whole sentence.

If a speech continues over more than one paragraph, it is customary to put opening speech marks at the beginning of each paragraph, but only use closing speech marks when the speech actually ends.

A very long quote often has no quotation marks at all, but is shown by being indented or perhaps in a smaller or different font.

Minor uses of quotation marks:

1) for a cited word or expression:

What is the difference between a 'grant' and an 'award'?
What do you mean by 'lately'?
The phrase 'to sock it to someone' means putting it bluntly and was used as such by Mark Twain.

Italics can be used instead of "quotation marks" for this.

2) translations, paraphrases and euphemisms:
Literally 'water of life', aqua vitae must be one of the most amusing euphemisms ever invented for hard liquor.



3) 'So-called' expressions:






These are the ones trendy people have taken to making in the air with their fingers when speaking, as a kind of shorthand for actually saying "so-called",  and they work in the same way:

This slogan which originated in the 'permissive' sixties...

In the 'good old days' when my great-grandma walked miles to get to school....

It appears to be acceptable to beg if you are a 'deserving person'.

I should hate to "offend" such "victims" of course.

This use generally indicates sarcasm.


The Inverted Comma as a symbol.
The single and double inverted comma are also used singly to indicate feet and inches: 
I am 5' 1".  I know. Sad isn't it.

In American English feet aren't used of course, just inches.