Quotes open and close a direct remark: “Friends, Romans, countrymen!”
Quotes are used for short story titles (“The Ethics of Pig”) and song titles (“Use What You’ve Got.”)
Quotes show dialogue between parties and often have an indent to show one from another:
• “Oh, goodness, look at those diamonds!”
• “Goodness had nothing to do with it, dear.”
Commas, period marks, exclamation points, and question marks USUALLY go before an end quote.
Follow the alphabet from “…L, M, N, O, P-for-punctuate, Q-for-quote.”
• “Halt! Who goes there?”
• “Run for your lives, here it comes again!”
• “But of course I saved them for you,” he said.
• She then said, “I know you found the best for me.”
Semi-colons and colons go IN BACK of a quote
• Tommy said, “I’d rather swim with crocodiles than take that test”; on the other hand, he was eager to pass it.
• “This land or my life”: these words were carved on the swords of the Scottish brigades in 1833.
