Part I: Quotation Marks

1. Part I: Quotation Marks Uses and Examples as explained in Saddler-Oxford’s Grammar for Writing

2. 1. Titles of Short Works • Poems • Short Stories • Articles • Songs • Single TV/Radio Programs • Parts of Books

3. 2. Beginning and End of aDirect Quotation • A French proverb says, “Nothing is so burdensome as a secret.” • A French proverb calls secrets “burdensome.”

4. 3. Single Quotation MarksQuotation within Quoted Material • The defense attorney said, “We all heard the witness say, ‘I’m not sure.’” • The children begged, “Please play ‘This Old Man’ again!”

5. 4. Splitting a Quotation • When a dialogue tag interrupts a quoted sentence, begin the second part of the quotation with a lowercase letter. • “Did you know that the first computer game,” asked Sean, “was created in 1962?”

6. 4. Splitting a Quotation • If the second part of a divided quotation is a complete sentence, it should begin with a capital letter. • “Students at Harvard created it,” he said. “They played it on the room-size computers of that time.”

7. 5. Question Marks & Exclamation Points • Keep the question mark or exclamation point INSIDE the quotation marks. Put a period after the dialogue tag. • “Do you remember a company called Atari?” Barbara asked. • “What a lot of money that company made!” she exclaimed.

8. 6. Starting in the Middle • If you start in the middle of a quotation, skip some of the words, or end the sentence early, use ellipses (the three dots) … • “Ralph parted the screen…and then the two sides of the island came almost together…” (104).

9. Part II: Parenthetical Citations Using parentheses to cite quotations and information

10. MLA on Short Quotations • To indicate short quotations (fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and specific page citation (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the text, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page. • Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text. • For example, when quoting short passages of prose, use the following examples: • According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree. • According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (184). • Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)?

11. Examples • “Something deep in Ralph spoke for him” (Golding 104). • If Ralph met the beast, he “…didn’t know what he would do about it if he did” (105).

12. Citation with ? or ! • YOU STILL NEED A PERIOD AT THE END OF YOUR CITATION! • Jack persisted, “What about the castle then?” (104). • Jack mocked Ralph shouting, “Conch! Conch!” (101).