Using quotation marks

If we are using the exact words of someone else in a shorter quote (usually 40 words or less), we must place them between opening and closing quotation marks.

1) Pierre Elliot Trudeau once stated: "The government has no business in the bedrooms of the nation."

2) "The government," said Pierre Elliot Trudeau, "has no business in the bedrooms of the nation."

Note in the above two examples the placing of commas and periods. In both examples, the period at the end of each sentence is placed immediately before the closing quotations marks.

In the second example, the first comma that interrupts the quotation after "government" is placed inside the first set of closing quotation marks and then the second comma after "Trudeau" that ends the pause before the quotation continues is placed just after "Trudeau" and the second set of opening quotation marks.

Now pay attention to a third example of punctuation.

3) When once asked by a journalist how far he would go to prevent the spreading of terrorism at the time of political kidnappings and an assassination in Quebec, Trudeau replied, "Just watch me!"

Observe in this third example that the exclamation mark was part of Trudeau's original statement to the journalist and is consequently placed inside the closing quotation marks. However, if the exclamation mark (or any other punctuation mark other than a period or a comma) is not part of the original statement being quoted, the punctuation mark must be placed after the closing quotation marks. Note the following example.

4) Did Trudeau really say, "Just watch me!"?

In this fourth example, you will notice that the question mark at the end of the sentence is part of a question being asked about Trudeau's statement. It is not a part of Trudeau's original statement to the journalist. Therefore, the question mark is placed outside the closing quotation marks.

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Maintained by:K.Kells, © Seneca College, Updated: 8/15/02