Grades 6, 7 and 8 - English Language - Middle School - Knowledge of Language - Quotation Marks — Flashcards

Quotation marks are also used when the writer wants to highlight a particular word or phrase in order to bring the reader’s attention to it. They always come in pairs - open quotation marks and close quotation marks.

When using quotation marks there are certain rules that apply to the placement of punctuation marks.

• Periods (.) go inside quotation marks. Example: I always watch “CSI Las Vegas.”
• Commas (,) go inside quotation marks. Example: I always watch “CSI Las Vegas,” and any other detective shows.
• Question marks (?) go outside quotation marks unless they are part of the quotation itself. Example: Do you watch “CSI Las Vegas”? After seeing the last episode I bought a book called “Can You Solve Crimes?”

What do you do when you have a quote within a quote? In American written English, when you have a quote within a quote, the inner quote has single quotation marks while the outer, main quote has double quotation marks. In other countries such as the U.K., this is reversed with the single quotation marks on the outside and the double quotation marks on the inside. We will be using the American rule for this quiz.

Example of quote within a quote: John said, “My most favorite book is ‘Treasure Island’.”