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Daithy Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Quoation marks after a colon?
I am reading The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, and it advocates not using quotation marks after a colon.
"Rule 5. Use the colon to introduce a direct quotation that is more than
three lines in length. In this situation, leave a blank line above and below
the quoted material. Single space the long quotation. Some style manuals
say to indent one-half inch on both the left and right margins; others say
to indent only on the left margin. Quotation marks are not used.
Example:
The author of Touched, Jane Straus, wrote in the first chapter:
Georgia went back to her bed and stared at the intricate
patterns of burned moth wings in the translucent glass of
the overhead light. Her father was in ‘‘hyper mode’’ again
where nothing could calm him down.
He’d been talking nonstop for a week about remodeling
projects, following her around the house as she tried to
escape his chatter. He was just about to crash, she knew."
Conversely, I did some search and came across this blog which advocates using them.
http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/quotation_%28speech%29_marks_colon_or_comma.htm
Seriously, this is getting weird. I am starting to think that even grammar savvy people cannot agree anymore.
"Rule 5. Use the colon to introduce a direct quotation that is more than
three lines in length. In this situation, leave a blank line above and below
the quoted material. Single space the long quotation. Some style manuals
say to indent one-half inch on both the left and right margins; others say
to indent only on the left margin. Quotation marks are not used.
Example:
The author of Touched, Jane Straus, wrote in the first chapter:
Georgia went back to her bed and stared at the intricate
patterns of burned moth wings in the translucent glass of
the overhead light. Her father was in ‘‘hyper mode’’ again
where nothing could calm him down.
He’d been talking nonstop for a week about remodeling
projects, following her around the house as she tried to
escape his chatter. He was just about to crash, she knew."
Conversely, I did some search and came across this blog which advocates using them.
http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/quotation_%28speech%29_marks_colon_or_comma.htm
Seriously, this is getting weird. I am starting to think that even grammar savvy people cannot agree anymore.
Top answer
There are several different issues here. " versus quoting an author for analysing what they are saying or for some scientific purpose. Charles Dickens wrote : (lots of text here) However if your quote goes on for several pages you may need to use quotes " to cover for the fact that someone might open the book and start reading in the middle and not know it is a quote.
- There are several different issues here.
- " versus quoting an author for analysing what they are saying or for some scientific purpose.
- Charles Dickens wrote : (lots of text here) However if your quote goes on for several pages you may need to use quotes " to cover for the fact that someone might open the book and start reading in the middle and not know it is a quote.
- You can put a quote mark at the start of each paragraph.
- d
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2 Answers
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There are several different issues here.
* Introducing a quotation that is on a new line versus keeping in the same line
He wrote : "And Caesar crossed the River" (same line - your link used this example and has quotes)
He wrote :
(...indent...) And Caesar crossed the river (different line - your blue grammar book is referrin
* Introducing a quotation that is on a new line versus keeping in the same line
He wrote : "And Caesar crossed the River" (same line - your link used this example and has quotes)
He wrote :
(...indent...) And Caesar crossed the river (different line - your blue grammar book is referrin
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Thank you, thank you very much. Such important information about colons and quotations, and they left it out of the book 
. So e
. So e0
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