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How to correctly use “Double” or ‘Single’ Quotation Marks when writing English

July 22, 2006

First, note that American style of English has certain subtle differences with British English. According to Wikipedia - In many ways, compared to British English, American English is conservative in its phonology. Dialect in North America is most distinctive on the East Coast of the continent; this is largely because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of British English at a time when those varieties were undergoing changes. The interior of the country was settled by people who were no longer closely connected to England, as they had no access to the ocean during a time when journeys to Britain were always by sea. As such, the inland speech is much more homogeneous than the East Coast speech and did not imitate the changes in speech from England.

In American style English use:

DOUBLE QUOTATION MARKS

- To enclose direct quotes: For example - “The double-digit increase in online search activity marks a significant milestone in the evolution of Internet consumer behavior,” says Ken Cassar, senior director of analytics at Nielsen/NetRatings.

- To enclose article titles: For example - “The importance of sound website design & search spiders to Internet Marketers,” is the latest article by James Opiko

- To enclose slang, words of irony or words that may be unfamiliar to the reader: For example - Respect brings in traffic which translates into the all important dollars, “kwacha,” Euro or whatever you wish to call money.

SINGLE QUOTATION MARKS

- To enclose a quotation within a quotation: For example - “I love the article submission guideline that says ‘A Minimum of 500 Words Required’ (AfroArticles.com, 2006)”

In British style English the whole setup is reversed.

References: Quotation Mark | Articles on Writing & Speaking |

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under Authoring 

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