Writing
Quotation Marks: The Rules, With Examples
Quotation marks are the punctuation used to enclose someone else's exact words, the titles of short works, and words being discussed as words. Most of the confusion around them comes from one thing: American and British conventions disagree about where other punctuation goes, and both are correct in their own context. This guide sets out both, with examples, and covers the cases people actually get wrong.
By Arshad Hossain · Published
The short version
- American style puts commas and periods inside the closing mark; British style places them by sense.
- Question and exclamation marks go inside only when they belong to the quoted words.
- Colons and semicolons go outside the closing quotation mark in both styles.
- A quotation in the pricing sense is a different thing entirely — no quotation marks involved.
First, a disambiguation
The word "quotation" carries two unrelated meanings, and search results for it mix them freely.
In writing, a quotation is a passage of someone else's words reproduced exactly, and quotation marks are the punctuation that encloses it. That is what this page is about.
In business, a quotation is a formal offer of a price for goods or services, sent before work begins. It has nothing to do with punctuation, and it is not written inside quotation marks. If that is what you were looking for, how to write a quotation covers it, and invoice vs quotation explains where it sits relative to an invoice.
What quotation marks are for
There are four established uses, and they are worth separating because the rules differ slightly.
Direct quotation: reproducing someone's exact words. She said, "The delivery arrives Thursday." If you paraphrase rather than reproduce, no quotation marks are used — she said the delivery arrives Thursday.
Titles of short works: articles, chapters, songs, poems and episodes take quotation marks, while longer standalone works — books, albums, films, journals — are italicised instead.
Words as words: when discussing a term rather than using it. The word "invoice" derives from the French envoi.
Scare quotes: signalling doubt, irony or distance from a term. The software's "free" plan expires after 14 days. Use these sparingly; in professional writing they read as sarcastic quickly, and in a business document they can imply an accusation you did not intend.
Single or double?
American English uses double quotation marks for a first-level quotation and single marks for a quotation inside it. British English traditionally reverses this, using single marks first and double marks for the nested quotation — though many British publishers now use doubles, so consistency within a document matters more than picking a side.
American: "He told me the client said 'send it Friday,' so I did," she explained.
British: 'He told me the client said "send it Friday", so I did,' she explained.
The practical rule for business writing: pick the convention of the country you are writing for, apply it to every document, and never mix the two in one piece. Inconsistency is far more noticeable to a reader than either convention.
Where the other punctuation goes
This is the part that causes most of the errors, and it is where the two conventions genuinely diverge.
Commas and periods. In American style they go inside the closing quotation mark, whether or not they belong to the quoted material. In British style they go inside only if they were part of the original quotation, and outside if they belong to the surrounding sentence. This British approach is sometimes called logical punctuation, and it is also the convention used in most technical writing regardless of country, because placing a stray period inside quoted code or a quoted filename changes its meaning.
Question marks and exclamation marks. Both conventions agree here. They go inside if they belong to the quoted words, and outside if they belong to your sentence. Compare: She asked, "Has the invoice been paid?" against Did she really say "the invoice has been paid"?
Colons and semicolons. Both conventions place these outside the closing quotation mark. He described it as "provisional"; the client read it as final.
| Punctuation | American style | British style |
|---|---|---|
| Comma | Inside: "yes," he said | By sense: 'yes', he said |
| Period / full stop | Inside: called it "final." | By sense: called it 'final'. |
| Question mark | By sense | By sense |
| Exclamation mark | By sense | By sense |
| Colon | Outside | Outside |
| Semicolon | Outside | Outside |
| First-level marks | Double "…" | Single '…' traditionally |
| Nested quotation | Single '…' | Double "…" traditionally |
Capitalisation and attribution
Capitalise the first word of a complete quoted sentence, even when it appears mid-sentence: The supplier replied, "We can deliver on Tuesday."
Do not capitalise when you are quoting a fragment that flows into your own sentence: The supplier described the delay as "entirely outside our control."
When the attribution interrupts a single quoted sentence, the second part does not take a capital: "We can deliver," he said, "but not before Tuesday."
When the attribution separates two complete quoted sentences, the second does: "We can deliver," he said. "Tuesday is the earliest."
Longer quotations and multiple paragraphs
A quotation running to more than about forty words is usually set as a block quotation instead: indented, on its own lines, and without quotation marks at all. The indentation does the work the marks would have done, so adding both is redundant.
When quoted material runs across several paragraphs and you are not using a block quotation, open each new paragraph with quotation marks but close only at the very end of the final paragraph. The unclosed marks signal to the reader that the same speaker is continuing.
If you alter a quotation, show it. Square brackets mark your insertions or changes — "[the client] approved it" — and an ellipsis marks an omission. Altering a quotation silently is a serious error in any context where the quotation matters, which in business correspondence is most of them.
Quotation marks in business documents
A few practical points where this intersects with commercial writing.
Avoid scare quotes in contracts, proposals and invoices. Writing that the client requested "urgent" delivery reads as though you are disputing that it was urgent, which may not be what you meant and is exactly what it will look like if the document is later scrutinised.
When quoting a specification or a client's instruction into a proposal or a quotation, reproduce it exactly and mark any alteration with brackets. Paraphrasing a requirement while presenting it as a quotation is how scope disputes begin.
Straight marks versus curly ones matter less than consistency, but be careful with automatic conversion. Word processors convert straight quotes to curly ones, which is fine in prose and breaks things in code, filenames and some accounting import formats.
In an invoice or quotation line item, quotation marks are almost never needed. If you find yourself using them to signal that a description is approximate, the description needs rewriting instead — vague line items are the most common cause of queried invoices, as covered in how to create an invoice.
Quotation mark questions, answered
What are quotation marks used for?
Four things: enclosing someone's exact words, marking the titles of short works such as articles and songs, discussing a word as a word, and signalling irony or doubt about a term. Paraphrased speech takes no quotation marks.
When do you use single quotation marks?
In American English, for a quotation nested inside another quotation. In traditional British English, for the first-level quotation, with doubles for the nested one. Many British publishers now use doubles first, so consistency within a document matters more than the convention you pick.
Do periods go inside quotation marks?
In American English, yes, always, whether or not the period belonged to the quoted material. In British English it goes inside only if it was part of the original quotation and outside if it belongs to your sentence — an approach sometimes called logical punctuation.
Where do question marks go with quotation marks?
Inside if the question belongs to the quoted words, outside if the question is yours. Both American and British conventions agree here. She asked, "Has it shipped?" against Did he really call it "final"? The same rule governs exclamation marks.
Do you use quotation marks for book titles?
No. Longer standalone works — books, films, albums, newspapers, journals — take italics. Quotation marks are for shorter pieces contained within them: articles, chapters, songs, poems and episodes. The distinction is whole work versus part of a work.
How do you quote within a quote?
Alternate the mark types. In American style the outer quotation takes doubles and the inner takes singles; in traditional British style the reverse. If a third level is somehow needed, alternate again, though at that point rewriting the sentence is usually better.
What are scare quotes?
Quotation marks used to signal irony, doubt or distance from a word rather than to quote anyone — a "free" plan that costs money after a trial. They are legitimate but easily overused, and in contracts or proposals they can imply an accusation you did not intend.
Do you capitalise the first word after a quotation mark?
Capitalise it when the quotation is a complete sentence, even mid-sentence. Do not capitalise a fragment that flows into your own sentence. When an attribution interrupts one quoted sentence, the continuation stays lowercase: "We can deliver," he said, "but not before Tuesday."
How do you punctuate a quotation longer than one paragraph?
Open each new paragraph with quotation marks but close only at the end of the final one, which signals the same speaker is continuing. Beyond about forty words, set it as an indented block quotation instead and drop the marks entirely.
What is the difference between quotation marks and a business quotation?
They share only the word. Quotation marks are punctuation enclosing quoted words. A business quotation is a priced offer for goods or services sent before work begins, written as an ordinary document with no punctuation marks involved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do commas go inside or outside quotation marks?
Should I use single or double quotation marks?
Do question marks go inside quotation marks?
When should I use italics instead of quotation marks for a title?
Is a business quotation written in quotation marks?
Sources
- Quotation marks: general guidelines — Purdue Online Writing Lab
- Quotation marks and direct quotations — Purdue Online Writing Lab
- Quotation marks — Wikipedia
More on writing
- Quotations About Change, With the Attributions Checked
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- Random Quote Generators: How They Work, and Their Attribution Problem
What random quote generators and quote meme makers do, the attribution and licensing problems they create, and how to build one yourself.
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