Quoting Queries….When to Play Doubles, When Singles

Quite some time ago, a fellow blogger named Kiwi.Writer posed an interesting question in one of her posts; she was perplexed about the use of single and double quotation marks. It seems that Kiwi submitted a paper for review, and her instructor marked out all the double quotes surrounding dialogue and marked them to be changed to singles. When Kiwi inquired about this strange suggestion, the instructor said that it was actually a matter of personal preference.

Well, I hate to disagree with a credentialed instructor, but I have never, but never, in any of my meanderings through grammatical tomes of wisdom, come across any indication that the use of quotes is not set in stone. Now, it would not have surprised me to learn that in Britain (and, therefore, also in Oz and NZ) they do the opposite of what we do in the States, but extensive online searching has not revealed that to be the case.

Now, the set-in-stone rule that all of my grammatical references (and I have two six-foot shelves of the things) give is as follows:

A direct quote or dialogue in a piece of writing is set off with a double quotation mark. If there is a quote inside a quote, then inner quote takes single quotation marks.

Examples:
Bob said, “Hey, Mary, let’s go surfing at the Sahara.”
Mary replied, “Bob, what do you mean, ‘Let’s go surfing at the Sahara’? The Sahara is a desert!”
Bob retorted, “Shows what you know! They just opened a water park off the bay, and it’s called ‘The Sahara.’ ”

I suggest that Kiwi, and anyone else who has a teacher with this kind of idiosyncrasy (see my August 6 post for more on weird editorial prejudices), go to the library, get a few good grammar references* off the shelves, and photocopy the pertinent pages. Then take those pages to your instructor and ask if he will discuss this situation with you, because you are confused that his advice conflicts with recognized grammatical authorities. If he gets nasty, find another teacher. You don’t want to be paying someone to help you if they are going to give you bad advice.

* some good references include Fowler’s Modern English Usage, The Chicago Manual of Style, the AP Style Guide, the Gregg Reference Manual, the Harbrace College Handbook, and the MLA Style Manual. All of these are in use by reputable and successful publishing houses and universities throughout North America, and are frequently updated.

Tags: editing, punctuation, quotation marks