Term of Art Goes in Single Quote or Double Quote

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Today'due south topic is unmarried quotation marks versus double quotation marks.

How to Utilise Double Quotation Marks

Most people remember of double quotation marks as being for quotations, which they are, but they too have other legitimate uses. For instance, double quotation marks are often used effectually the championship of a short piece of work such as a magazine article or an episode of a TV show.

The "Darmok" episode of "Star Expedition: The Side by side Generation" is 1 of my favorites.

The rules for longer works, such every bit books, are tricky. The Associated Press uses quotation marks, but the Chicago Manual of Style and the MLA Handbook recommend italics.

Here are some of the more than common situations where people use double quotation marks:

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1. Utilize double quotation marks for scare quotes
2. Use double quotation marks for words used as examples

Let'due south talk more about these examples below.

Utilise Double Quotation Marks for Scare Quotes

People also sometimes use double quotation marks to indicate that a word is special in some fashion. I bet yous've all seen quotation marks used equally something called scare quotes, which are quotation marks put around a word to show that the writer doesn't buy into the significant. For case, I could write the judgement:

Women achieved "equality" when they were granted the right to vote in 1920.

That would point that although women getting the right to vote was heralded as equality at the fourth dimension, I don't call back information technology was enough of a gain to merit the word "equality." More than oft though, scare quotes (which are likewise sometimes chosen sneer quotes) are used to impart a sense of irony or disdain. They're especially common in nasty political commentary, as inPoliticians "intendance" about their constituents.*

Use Double Quotation Marks for Words Used as Examples

Double quotation marks can also be used when y'all are writing a sentence and you want to refer to a word rather than apply its significant. Since I talk about words a lot, this comes up in almost every Grammar Girl episode. It'south a manner option. You tin apply italics or double quotation marks to highlight words, just we use quotation marks on the Grammar Girl site.

Be Careful of Unnecessary Quotation Marks

A common fault, though, is to use quotation marks to simply highlight a word in a sentence. The pop "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks (remainder in peace) did nothing but mock signs that misuse quotation marks in this way. For instance, if you are promoting your gluten-free cookies, and you lot put "gluten-gratuitous" in quotation marks, that really means they take gluten. Stick with underlining or italics, or bold to highlight words.

Why Use Single Quotation Marks?

Here are some of the virtually common reasons people use unmarried quotation marks:

1. Apply single quotation marks for a quotation inside a quotation
2. Utilise unmarried quotation marks in headlines
3. Use single quotation marks for words not existence used for their significant

Let'due south talk more nearly each of these situations.

Apply Single Quotation Marks for a Quotation Within a Quotation

The about common reason to use single quotation marks is to quote someone who is quoting someone else. The rules are unlike in British English, simply in American English language, y'all enclose the main speaker's comments in double quotation marks, then you enclose the matter they are quoting in single quotation marks. You lot nest them, with the double quotation marks on the outside and the single quotation marks on the within.

For instance, imagine yous've interviewed Aardvark for a magazine article virtually his harrowing ordeal with an arrow, and he said, "Squiggly saved my life when he yelled, 'Watch out, Aardvark.'   "

If you're ever in the extremely rare position of having to nest some other quotation inside a sentence similar that, you would utilise double quotation marks once more for the third nested quotation.

You lot can find many articles that say British English language uses single quotation marks around a directly quotation instead of double quotation marks, and although doing so is more common in British English language than in American English, information technology doesn't seem to exist a hard-and-fast rule. I found many British news sites that used double quotation marks just similar an American site would, including The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Sun, and the BBC. Information technology seems like using single quotation marks is more of an option in British English than a prevailing style. And in Great britain, they also sometimes telephone call them inverted commas.

Use a Thin Infinite Between a Single Quotation Mark and a Double Quotation Mark

Information technology tin be hard to encounter a single quotation marking that'southward followed by a double quotation marker when they fall right next to each other like they did in the final example, so typesetters sometimes insert something called a thin space betwixt the ii quotation marks. A thin space is simply what information technology sounds like: a space that's thinner than a regular space.

@GrammarGirl Very useful post. Re: Thin Space; its Unicode codepoint is U+2009. Example; with " ', and without "'. — Shervin Afshar (@shervinafshar) June 19, 2013

Use Unmarried Quotation Marks in Headlines

Some other place y'all'll encounter unmarried quotation marks a lot is in headlines in newspapers and on websites because the Associated Press uses single quotation marks for quotations in headlines.

Utilize Unmarried Quotation Marks to Highlight Words Non Being Used for Their Meaning

Finally, it's the convention in certain disciplines such as philosophy, theology, and linguistics to highlight words with special significant by using single quotation marks instead of double quotation marks.

'Quote' Versus 'Quotation'

Likewise, a frequent point of defoliation is the difference between the words "quote" and "quotation." "Quote" is a verb that means to repeat what someone else has said or written. For case, "Aardvark quoted Squiggly." "Quotation" is a noun used to depict what yous are quoting, equally in "Squiggly's quotation was inspiring."

Information technology'south common to hear people employ the noun "quote" as a shortened form of "quotation," as in "I filled my notebook with quotes from 'The Daily Bear witness,'" but that is technically incorrect. It should exist, "I filled my notebook with quotations from 'The Daily Show.'"

I concord the right way sounds a bit pretentious, and given that a lot of reference sources have actress entries discussing how the misuse is widespread, you aren't going to sound illiterate if y'all utilise "quote" incorrectly, but it is still good to know the departure.

Summary

In American English, apply double quotation marks to surround a quotation. In British English language, you lot can utilise unmarried or double quotation marks for that. If y'all write for a company or publication, cheque your style guide. If you demand to put a quotation within your kickoff quotation, use the opposite type of quotation marks to surround it. That's single quotation marks in American English.

Double quotation marks can also be used to prove sarcasm or to identify words used as words instead of for their meaning. Unmarried quotation marks are often used in headlines and in some disciplines to highlight words with special meanings.

*Normally I would put this judgement in quotation marks, but I wanted to reserve them to make the indicate that the word is meant to exist facetious, so I chose to emphasize the sentence with italics.

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Source: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/single-quotation-marks-versus-double-quotation-marks

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