Treating it separately, ensure the phrase inside quotation marks contain its own accurate punctuation. When a dialogue contains a declarative statement, place the period before the closing quotation mark. When writing dialogues, it can get confusing when trying to place other punctuations near quotation marks. It is important to remember that this article addresses the rules for using quotation marks as per American English. Another distinction is that in American English, other punctuations, like periods and commas, are placed before the closing quotation marks.Īgain, in British English, it is the opposite: other punctuations are placed after the closing quotation marks. In British English, this rule is exactly the opposite. Always written in pairs, the first set starts the quote and the second set ends it.ĭiffering in the rules on the usage of quotation marks, American English reserve double quotation marks (“ ”) for quotes and single quotation marks for quotes within quotes. When writing formal or academic papers, it is used to identify someone else’s material or content.

In newspapers or nonfiction writing, it is used to identify direct quotes. In fiction or creative writing, it is used to identify dialogues.

Used to recognize words that were said by someone else, quotation marks mean different things in different types of writing.

Dialogue tags in first person