In academic writing, the use of quotation marks is common. When you use  others’ words, which happens in nearly every discipline of academic writing, you must use quotation marks.

Not using quotation marks is a serious error and can be considered a violation of academic integrity (or plagiarism), so you want to be sure you know how to use quotation marks!

When to use quotation marks in academic writing?

You must use quotation marks any time you quote directly (use the exact words) from another source.

“Quotation marks serve primarily to tell the reader the exact words someone used” (Hope, 2010, p. 21).

Here, we know that someone named Hope (last name) wrote (in 2010) this sentence (on page 21) describing what quotation marks tell the reader.

If you paraphrase a source, you put the information in your own words, and you don’t need to use quotation marks. You must still cite with an in-text citation.

Quotation marks indicate to the reader the specific words originally written by someone else (Hope, 2010, p. 21).

Here, we have put Hope’s words into our own, but we are still using her idea, so we omit quotation marks but include a parenthetical citation.

The key to using information from sources is to remember that any words and ideas that come from someone else need to be acknowledged. If you use someone’s exact words, indicate that use with quotation marks. If you use someone’s ideas but put those ideas into your own words, indicate that use without quotation marks but with a parenthetical citation.

Other Uses of Quotation Marks

Figure 1. Quotation marks.

There are three other ways quotation marks are often used.

1. The first is pretty self-explanatory: you use quotation marks when you’re making a direct quote.

• He said, “I’ll never forget you.” It was the best moment of my life.
• Yogi Berra famously said, “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

If you’re just writing an approximation of something a person said, you would not use quotation marks:

• She told me about Pizza, the three-toed sloth, yesterday.
• He said that he would be late today.

2. The second is when you’re calling attention to a word. For example:

• I can never say “Worcestershire” correctly.
• How do you spell “definitely”?

Note: It is this course’s preference to use italics in these instances:

• I can never say Worcestershire correctly.
• How do you spell definitely?

However, using quotes is also an accepted practice.

3. The third use is to identify the title of relatively short creative work or a part of a larger body of work, such as a newspaper article, poem, or chapter. Larger bodies of work, such as books, magazines, or newspapers are usually italicized.

• Did you read The New Yorker article, “How to Make Yourself Useful to Our New Robot Overlords”? (Notice that the journal, The New Yorker, gets italics because it is the title of a larger body of work, but the title of the article published in the journal, gets quotation marks.)

Where Do Quotation Marks Go?

Despite what you may see practiced, the period and comma always go inside the quotation marks. (The rules in British English are different, which may be where some of the confusion arises.)

• Correct: The people of the pine barrens are often called “pineys.”
• Incorrect: The people of the pine barrens are often called “pineys”.

The semicolon, colon, dash, question mark, and exclamation point can fall inside or outside of the quotation marks, depending on whether the punctuation is a part of the original quote:

• This measurement is commonly known as “dip angle”; dip angle is the angle formed between a normal plane and a vertical. (The semi-colon is part of the sentence, not the quotation.)
• Built only 50 years ago, Shakhtinsk—“minetown”—is already seedy. (The dashes are part of the sentence, not the quote.)
• When she was asked the question “Are rainbows possible in winter?” she answered by examining whether raindrops freeze at temperatures below 0 °C. (The question mark is part of the quoted sentence, so it goes inside the quotation mark.) .
• Did he really say “Dogs are the devil’s henchmen”? (The quote is a statement, but the full sentence is a question.)

3. The third use is scare quotes, quotation marks that a writer places around a word or phrase to signal that they are using it in a non-standard, ironic, or otherwise special sense. This is the most misused type of quotation marks. People often think that quotation marks mean emphasis.

• Buy some “fresh” chicken today!
• We’ll give it our “best” effort.
• Employees “must” wash their hands before returning to work.

However, when used this way, the quotation marks insert a silent “so-called” into the sentence, which is often the opposite of the intended meaning.

4. The fourth use is to highlight the title of relatively short creative work or a part of a larger body of work, such as a newspaper article, poem, or chapter. Larger bodies of work, such as books, magazines, or newspapers are usually italicized.

• Did you read the New Yorker article, “How to Make Yourself Useful to Our New Robot Overlords”?

Single Quotation Marks

Now that you know what quotation marks are used for, you may wonder about the single quotation marks—the one that look like ‘this.’

Single quotation marks are used for quotes within quotes, as illustrated in the following example:

• The article read, “When the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers was interviewed, he said he was ‘upset’ about the call that affected the game.”

You may even encounter situations where you’ll close single quotation marks and double quotation marks at the same time, leaving you with “something like ‘this.’” Don’t worry if this happens. It is correct. It just means the quote within the quote ended at the same time the main quote ended. And remember, the punctuation goes inside. Note the placement of the period in the three examples below:

• Correct: this.’”
• Incorrect: this’.”
• Incorrect: this’”.