\n My teacher told me I would do well if I tried harder.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIf I had wished to use quotation marks, I would also have to use direct speech, which would make my sentence look something like this:<\/p>\n
\n My teacher told me, ‘Carmel, you would do well if you tried harder!’<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nYou may notice that, in some instances, you will see double quotations within an element of direct speech (or single quotations, if you are using the US style). This is how a character can quote another’s speech within their own quoted dialogue.<\/p>\n
\n ‘You can’t say “mine” on the soccer field,’ the coach explained to his team.<\/em><\/p>\n ‘Joe, can you stop saying “I’m the best!” every time you win, please?’<\/em><\/p>\n ‘I loved the bit where Batman screamed, “Where are they?” and smacked the Joker’s head on the table,’ Chris said.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nQuite often, sentences that begin with a statement end in a section of direct speech.<\/p>\n
\n Camilla was too embarrassed to admit the truth, so she said, ‘It wasn’t me.’<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nShould that section of direct speech end with a question, the overall sentence also ends at that question mark. The quotations then neatly surround the speech. For example:<\/p>\n
\n Natalie ran up to me, hit me across the face and asked, ‘Where the hell have you been?’<\/em><\/p>\n Luke scratched his head and wondered aloud to himself, ‘Where am I this time?’<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nHowever, sometimes, a question ends with a quoted statement. In that circumstance, the set of quotations should surround the statement, then be finished off with the question mark, like so:<\/p>\n
\n What would happen if I wrote into my English essay: ‘I hate English’?<\/em><\/p>\n ‘Who was it who said, “I came, I saw, I conquered”?’<\/em><\/p>\n ‘How come it’s me who gets in trouble whenever Simon yells, “Hey, loser”?’ Paul complained.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nEarlier, I mentioned that quotation marks come in pairs and, in the above examples, you can see how well this is demonstrated. Whether you use single or double quotation marks, they should always have a beginning and an end. There is one exception to this rule, however. (When is there not?!) When a long section of dialogue must be broken up into paragraphs, instead of closing off the first paragraph and then opening the next one on the following line, it has become the norm to neglect closing the paragraph. In an extended run of paragraphs, only the last one should be closed off with a quotation mark. For example:<\/p>\n
\n ‘Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<\/em><\/p>\n ‘Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.<\/em><\/p>\n ‘Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo.<\/em><\/p>\n ‘Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt.’<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis way, the entire speech\u2014all four paragraphs of it\u2014run smoothly together without the confusion of possible multiple speakers or the need to label each paragraph with the speaker’s name.<\/p>\n
So there we have it\u2014the quotation marks explained, to some extent. If you have any further questions about their use, don’t hesitate to drop me an email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When, where and how many?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}