Quotation Marks and Italics

Quotation Marks and Italics

v  Use quotation marks before and after direct quotations, or a person’s exact words.

Ø  “I want to collect recipes,” said Samantha.

v  Use quotation marks with both parts of a divided quotation.

Ø  “Looking through my mother’s recipes,” she said, “I can only find a few that I like.”

v  Place periods inside the quotation marks.

Ø  “My grandmother,” said Samantha, “really loved using fresh ingredients.”

Ø  “I guess it helped that she had a farm.” 

v  Use commas to separate a phrase such as she said from the quotation.  Commas are placed inside the quotation marks.

Ø  “Looking through my grandmother’s recipes,” she said, “I found many more.”

v  Question marks and exclamation points are place inside the quotation marks when they are a part of the quotation.  When question marks and exclamation points are a part of the entire sentence, they are not placed inside the quotation marks.

Ø  “Where will I find one using fresh lemons?” asked Laura.

Ø  “What a wonderful recipe for cream cheese icing.  This is delicious!” exclaimed Peggy.

Ø  Should Laura and Peggy be skeptical where Grandmother wrote “Use six eggs instead of four”?

v  Use quotation marks for the title of a short story, book chapter, magazine article, essay, song, newspaper article, or short poem.

Ø  “The Tell-Tale Heart”

Ø  “The Ransom of Red Chief”

Ø  “Mother to Son”

Ø  “The First Noel”

Ø  “Using Punctuation Correctly”

Ø  “Fly Me to the Moon”

v  Use italics (underlining) for the title and subtitle of a play, film, television series, long poem, book, newspaper, long musical compositions and recordings, magazine, or work of art. When using a typewriter or handwriting a title/subtitle, underlining is used.  Italics are a print used in publication and in word processing programs.

Ø  Gilmore Girls

Ø  The Wizard of Oz

Ø  The Wiz

Ø  The Mona Lisa

Ø  Martha Stewart Living

Ø  Illiad

Ø  Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

v  Use italics (underlining) for the names of trains, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft.

Ø  Titanic

v  Use italics (underlining) for words, letter, and numerals that are being referenced.

Ø  Don’t forget to drop the silent –e when adding –ing to verbs like bake, make, take, place, share, and give.

Punctuation - Periods and End Marks

Periods and End Marks

v  Use a period at the end of a declarative sentence.  A declarative sentence makes a statement.

Ø  This time of year, I love to see the leaves changing colors.

v  Use a period at the end of an imperative sentence that does not express strong feeling.  An imperative sentence gives a command or makes a request.

Ø  Please gather some apples for baking.

v  Use a question mark at the end of an interrogative sentence.  An interrogative sentence asks a question.

Ø  Don’t you enjoy the crisp cool feel of autumn air?

v  Use an exclamation point at the end of an exclamatory sentence or a strong imperative sentence.  An exclamatory sentence expresses strong feelings and an imperative sentence gives a command or makes a request.

Ø  I love autumn!

v  Use an exclamation point after an interjection.  Interjections are words or groups of words that express strong emotions and feelings.

Ø  Yeah!  I even get to watch the Steelers play!

v  Use a period after an abbreviation.  Abbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases.

Ø  Mr. Washington enjoys home-made apple pies, but Mrs. Washington enjoys hot spiced apple cider.

Ø  The orchard doesn’t open until 7:00 A.M.