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The American standard is to use double quotation marks ("example") and the British standard is to use single quotation marks ('example'). Style guides insist that you should be consistent regarding...
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T05:51:15Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/25736 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
Typoglyphic
·
2019-12-08T05:51:15Z (almost 5 years ago)
The American standard is to use double quotation marks ("example") and the British standard is to use single quotation marks ('example'). Style guides insist that you should be consistent regarding which mark you use, regardless of circumstance.
My question is whether or not it is acceptable to use the alternate quotation mark to denote something that _is_ a quote, but is _not_ dialogue.
For example, as a kind of joke, I wrote:
> 'Of course I know,' he probably would have said.
The "he" is an animal, incapable of speech. I know that readers sometimes jump from quotation to quotation, ignoring attributions, so I used single quotation marks to make it more obvious that he wasn't _actually_ saying those words. Is this acceptable?
Thanks, everyone.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2016-12-30T06:19:42Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 6