Single Quotation Marks
I have a question for the college students here, mostly because I see this all the time and I have no idea where it's coming from.
Here it is:
When you use single quotation marks in a sentence, why do you do it? Here's an example:
Many people have written about the 'natural' world.
So. I ask. Why? Why, when you use single quotation marks, are you doing it? Is there some rule you were taught?
Here it is:
When you use single quotation marks in a sentence, why do you do it? Here's an example:
Many people have written about the 'natural' world.
So. I ask. Why? Why, when you use single quotation marks, are you doing it? Is there some rule you were taught?
Comments
...didn't want to risk irking my former professors and diverting their attention from the elegant quality of my prose.
Example:
A man once said that "Every once in a while, a brown chipmunk should rise above his 'lesser' relatives and rape other chipmunks."
Single quotation marks are normally used as quotation marks within a quotation, as the previous poster said.
Example:
A man once said that "Every once in a while, a brown chipmunk should rise above his 'lesser' relatives and rape other chipmunks."
Yes, I believe that's the example cited in Elements of Style: Insane Edition.
Yes, I believe that's the example cited in Elements of Style: Insane Edition.
Thank you.
Single quotation marks are normally used as quotation marks within a quotation, as the previous poster said.
Example:
A man once said that "Every once in a while, a brown chipmunk should rise above his 'lesser' relatives and rape other chipmunks."
Hey, if that "being a genius" career doesn't work out for you, you could always work for the MLA!
He's referring to when it's used by itself, not within quotation marks. I'm sure he knows what it's supposed to be used for.
Fucking Shawn.
I don't think either of you have answered midwinter's question.
He's referring to when it's used by itself, not within quotation marks. I'm sure he knows what it's supposed to be used for.
Fucking Shawn.
Yes, he wants to know what "weird-ass" rules other people have for using single quotation marks by itself.
Padding your post count much?
I don't think either of you have answered midwinter's question.
He's referring to when it's used by itself, not within quotation marks. I'm sure he knows what it's supposed to be used for.
Fucking Shawn.
Yeah. He's wondering if the Youth of Today have been so enervated by their "24/7" "texting" and "facebook" "relationships" that they have taken to using listless, single finger "air quotes", the debased physical gesture having then dragged its formerly robust typographic progenitor down with it.
Or, maybe, they just got through high school without knowing shit.
Or, worse, and his actual concern, they think they know shit but it's wrong, and who's telling them these things? Is it you, Guybrush? Is it your sister?
Shawn, I expect. But this one cuts deep...
Yes, I believe that's the example cited in Elements of Style: Insane Edition.
In his defense, that was White's revision, not one of Strunk's original 1918 examples. Should you doubt White's potential for jaw-dropping irascibility, if you who have the little book in its print form, go pull it off the shelf, turn to White's entry for "flammable" in the "commonly misused words and expressions" section, and wonder silently to yourself whether he'd had an extra bourbon the night he wrote that one.
In his defense, that was White's revision, not one of Strunk's original 1918 examples. Should you doubt White's potential for jaw-dropping irascibility, if you who have the little book in its print form, go pull it off the shelf, turn to White's entry for "flammable" in the "commonly misused words and expressions" section, and wonder silently to yourself whether he'd had an extra bourbon the night he wrote that one.
Holy cow. I imagine him gritting his teeth every time a gas truck passes and secretly wishing some illiterates might be blowed up good.
Even from adda?
Shawn, I expect. But this one cuts deep...
Your day will come. No one doubts that the unleashing of your full fury will burn the snark from our lips.
Good lord that sounds unpleasant.
I just tivo'd Colbert Report, The O’Reilly Factor, and Anderson Cooper.
Will that be enough to learn me?
Will that be enough to learn me?
Let's just put it this way:
Remember Kimbo v. Ray Mercer?
Yeah...
I use quotation marks when I'm quoting someone, if I have to, and perverted commas for irony.
In the UK we can use singletons ('perverted commas') as much as we like.
'
'
'
'
'
la de da
'Oh I say!'