I hope you find my writing and business tips and observations useful. My business and blog are dedicated to helping businesses communicate clearly and reach their potential.
Read, subscribe to my newsletter, enjoy!Tash
Do you remember learning about talking marks at school? I remember thinking of them as commas up in the sky:)
Over time, I learnt they are called quotation marks and that there are a few simple rules associated with their use. One of the rules about quotation marks is that you don’t close them until the person finishes speaking.
It isn’t often I come across examples of this in business writing – it’s generally more relevant for fiction or story writing. However, I did come across a media release recently which completely ignored this rule (and a few others but that’s a different story altogether!)
How do we use this rule? I’m glad you asked!
John said ‘It is hot today.’
John has finished speaking so we close off the quotation marks – easy.
John said ‘It is hot today and I would like to go the pool for a swim. The pool is just around the corner.
‘I wonder if Mary and Susan would like to come too? I will call them before I leave.’
In this example, John’s speech is divided into two paragraphs but he hadn’t finished speaking so I didn’t close the quotation marks. For clarity, however, I opened them again to show he is still talking (and I hadn’t just forgotten to close them!)
However, if John’s talking was interupted by text, we would close the quotation marks:
‘It is hot today and I would like to go the pool for a swim. The pool is just around the corner,’ said John.
‘I wonder if Mary and Susan would like to come too? I will call them before I leave.’
Leave a Reply