Quotation marks

Quotation marks (also known as inverted commas, speech marks, or simply quotes) are principally used to indicate direct speech. In other words, they are used round the actual words that someone has said or written, as in the following example:

In passing sentence the judge said to the defendant: ‘You are a thoroughly evil man’.

On the other hand, they are never used to indicate indirect (or reported) speech. Assuming that the previous example is a true account of what the judge said, it would be incorrect to write:

In passing sentence, the judge said that ‘the defendant was a thoroughly evil man’.

If this form of expression is preferred, no quotation marks are used, and you would simply write:

In passing sentence, the judge said that the defendant was a thoroughly evil man.

As well as being used in relation to direct speech, quotation marks are sometimes used round well-known phrases, almost as if the writer is apologising for the cliche. For example:

He was a ‘Sunday afternoon’ motorist.

It was an ‘eleventh hour’ plea for clemency.

In all the examples given here, the quotation marks are single, but they could just as well have been double. It is simply a matter of taste. However, it is important that you are consistent in your use of whichever form you choose, and that where you have a quote within a quote, you use the other form. Pursuing the second point, both the following are, therefore, correct:

She said, “Whenever I hear ‘to be or not to be’ I think of my school days”.

She said, ‘Whenever I hear “to be or not to be” I think of my school days’.

If you wish to use a quote within a quote within a quote (and so on), you should simply keep alternating between the two types of quotation marks. However, there is a danger that readers may soon lose track of your meaning. Therefore, once you are tempted to go beyond a quote within a quote, it will usually be a good idea to recall the mongoose principle and rewrite what you are trying to say.

Finally, as we will see in Chapter 10, it cannot be emphasised too strongly that scrupulous use of quotation marks, in conjunction with proper referencing, is the key to avoiding allegations of that form of cheating which is called plagiarism.