When writing fiction, the use of dialogue is necessary for character speech. To help us signify that a person is talking, we use quotation marks. Dialogue can get complicated, however. Characters can quote other characters, speak longer than a paragraph, or convey physical information while speaking. There are a whole set of rules for how to use quotation marks and here they are.

Double vs Single Quotations

• Double quotations ( "..." ) are used often to convey spoken language, as in a quote.
  • Example: "I don't know what you're talking about," I replied quickly.
• Double quotations ( "..." ) are also used to convey the title of a book, poem, articles, movie titles, etc.
  • Example: "The Key" is my first published work.
  • Note: Sometimes single quotes can be used for this too. It all comes down to style choices. Most people (in the US, anyway) use double quotes.
• Single quotations ( '...' ) are used to convey the title of a book, poem, articles, movie titles, etc. or other quoted material within other quoted material.
  • Example: She said, "'The Key' is my first published work."
  • Example: "Didn't Sally say, 'Figure it out yourself?'" he asked.
  • Note: The punctuation above is from the United States grammar rules (see section below).

Punctuation and Quotations (and the Two Schools of Thought)

• In the United States, punctuation for the end of a sentence, or to continue the sentence, always goes inside the quotation marks. It does not matter if the punctuation is part of the quote. This is true for both double and single quotations.
  • Example: She cried, "What are you talking about?"
  • Example: What do you think about Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken?"
• In United Kingdom and places with British influence the teaching of the English Language, the use of punctuation follows a more logical pattern. It the punctuation is not part of the quote or title, put it outside the quotation marks. This is true for both double and single quotations.
  • Example: What do you think about Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken"?
• In United Kingdom single quotations are often swapped with double quotations for newspaper titles or for things that need to be set apart (In the US, italics may be used for this second case).
  • Example: Congress Cries 'Shame!'
  • Example: Sartre's treatment of 'being', as opposed to his treatment of 'non-being', has been thoroughly described in Kaufmann's book.
  • NOTE: With mass communication, like the internet, we see these two different schools start to blend. The UK rules are often accepted globaly, but it may depend on your teacher if you are still in school. I heard rumor that the AP Style Guide follows the UK rules of quotes, but I have not found evidence to confirm this. Here is the basic AP style guide. If anyone can find a better guide on the internet, please feel free to post it in the comments. Thanks.

Other Rules About Quotations

• Sometimes in books, characters will speak longer than a paragraph. The rule of thumb for this is to end one paragraph without quotation marks and then start the next paragraph with quotations. The last paragraph should end with quotation marks if it ends with the quote.
  • Example:
    "When quoting multiple paragraphs be sure to follow this rule:
    "Begin each subsequent paragraph with quotation marks.
    "Don't end your paragraph with quotation marks unless it is your final paragraph and you don't want to add a 'he said' or something."
• When adding content after quotes with punctuation (other than a comma or semi-colon), you don't capitalize the content, unless it's a name or "I."
  • Example: "Why would you do that?" he demanded.

I believe that is it, for more clarification you can visit the wiki page on quotations or the Capital Community College quotations page. If I've forgotten anything, let me know in the comments.

Edit: I don't have comments anymore. But wanted to keep the original line just striked out for archival purposes.