• 3-minute read
• 16th November 2015

Who Said What? – How to Use Quote Marks

Knowing how to quote sources is vital in academic writing, allowing you to engage critically with existing research. Failing to show when you’re quoting a source, on the other hand, could be interpreted as plagiarism.

The main purpose of quote marks (or inverted commas) is to mark quoted text as someone else’s words. The correct approach for you will depend on your university, so don’t forget to check your style guide. But here are a few factors to keep in mind.

Single and Double Quotations Marks

There are two main kinds of quotation mark: ‘single quotation marks’ and “double quotation marks” (as demonstrated by this sentence).

Traditionally, British writers have favoured ‘single quotation marks’ over double, but “double quotation marks” are now increasingly popular. The important thing is to use a consistent style for all quoted text in your essay.

When quoting text that already contains a quotation, you should use switch to different quotation marks that those used for the main quotation. For example, if you were using double quotation marks, secondary quotations would appear in single quotation marks:

According to the Guardian, Donnarumma had been “described by his former Italy Under-17 coach Bruno Tedino as a ‘predestinato’ and ‘the national team goalkeeper of the future’”.

In the above, ‘predestinato’ and ‘the national team goalkeeper of the future’ are within single quotation marks to indicate they are Tedino’s words, rather than those of the article’s writer.

Punctuation

Formal British English has specific guidelines for punctuating quotations (differing from US conventions). The rule is that punctuation should only be included inside quotation marks if it appears in the original text. For example:

Correct: Hamlet’s soliloquy begins ‘To be or not to be’.

Incorrect: Hamlet’s soliloquy begins ‘To be or not to be.’

Since the original passage from Hamlet ends with a colon, the full stop here is an addition made by the writer. As such, it falls outside of the quotation marks.

Block Quotations

As a final note, longer passages of quoted text – usually anything more than four lines – should be formatted as a block quotation. This means insetting the quoted text on a new line (usually after a colon). Some also recommend changing the line spacing for the quoted text.

However, although block quotes should be cited clearly, the quote does not require quotation marks. This is already indicated by insetting the text.