quotation marks<\/a> and that there are a few simple rules associated with their use. One of the rules about quotation marks is that you don’t close them until the person finishes speaking.<\/p>\nIt isn’t often I come across examples of this in business writing – it’s generally more relevant for fiction or story writing. However, I did come across a media release recently which completely ignored this rule (and a few others but that’s a different story altogether!)<\/p>\n
How do we use this rule? I’m glad you asked!<\/p>\n
John said ‘It is hot today.’<\/em><\/p>\nJohn has finished speaking so we close off the quotation marks – easy.<\/p>\n
John said ‘It is hot today and I would like to go the pool for a swim. The pool is just around the corner.<\/em><\/p>\n‘I wonder if Mary and Susan would like to come too? I will call them before I leave.’<\/em><\/p>\nIn this example, John’s speech is divided into two paragraphs but he hadn’t finished speaking so I didn’t close the quotation marks. For clarity, however, I opened them again to show he is still talking (and I hadn’t just forgotten to close them!)<\/p>\n
However, if John’s talking was interupted\u00a0 by text, we would close the quotation marks:<\/p>\n
\u00a0‘It is hot today and I would like to go the pool for a swim. The pool is just around the corner,’ said John.<\/em><\/p>\n‘I wonder if Mary and Susan would like to come too? I will call them before I leave.’<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do you remember learning about talking marks at school? I remember thinking of them as commas up in the sky:) Over time, I learnt they are called quotation marks and that there are a few simple rules associated with their use. One of the rules about quotation marks is that you don’t close them until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,60],"tags":[1156,1085,188,192],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar-details-2","category-writing","tag-close","tag-paragraph","tag-quotation-marks","tag-speech"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t