Quotation Marks
- For direct quotations
Surround the exact words of a speaker or writer when reported in a story: “I have no idea what he’s thinking,” she exclaimed. “I do not object,” he said, “to the motion made.” The teacher said the class was “advanced for their age.” - Placement with other punctuation
Follow long-established printers’ rules:- The period and the comma always go within the quotation marks.
- The dash, the semicolon, the question mark, and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.
- Titles of short works
Use quotation marks for short work titles, such as short stories, magazine and newspaper articles, and compositions, especially when one piece of a larger publication.
Exception: Books of the Bible are listed without quotation marks. Also, see Capitalization, composition titles.