A few years ago while copy editing an article, I was shocked to see something like this: “I lecture my sales staff about what I call ‘me syndrome,’” Jones said. What shocked me was the punctuation.

Quotation marks are used to set off a person's words, whether spoken or written. They are placed at both the beginning and end of the quote. Ex: Sue remarked, "I'll meet you at the movies," A comma is ...

This is the Grammar Guy column, a weekly feature written by Curtis Honeycutt. I can think of a few things off the top of my head that I hope never to use: math, a fire extinguisher, Pepto Bismol and ...

Andrew Heisel’s Lexicon Valley article last year on single versus double quotation marks piqued the interest of Keith Houston, author of Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and ...

Someone says something brilliant. It’s so clever that it gets shared and many people come to hear about it. When it’s shared, this is how it’s done. Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, And all ...

Quotation of the Day for Monday, February 9, 2026. Quotation of the Day for Sunday, February 8, 2026. Quotation of the Day for Friday, January 6, 2025. Quotation of the Day for Saturday, February 7, ...

Use double quotation marks (" ") to enclose phrases or entire sentences that were taken word for word from someone else. Quotation marks are not needed for paraphrasing. Example: The dog he brings on ...