A Conversation for English Usage in the Edited Guide

Quotations

Post 1

quizzical

When we're writing a quotation (inside the tag), should we:
* Italicise the person's words?
* Put the person's words inside single quotes?
* both?

Example:

'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indestinguishable from magic.' - Arthur C. Clarke


quizzical smiley - huh


Quotations

Post 2

Mort - a middle aged Girl Interrupted

Hi Quizzical,

the words are italiscised but don't have any single quotes smiley - ok

<./>SubEditors-GuideML#BLOCKQUOTE</.>


Quotations

Post 3

Mort - a middle aged Girl Interrupted

oops posted too soon!

Use a tag after the quote and italics, so the name is on a new line in non-italics but still within the blockquote. The link gives an example to show what I mean. smiley - smiley


Quotations

Post 4

quizzical

Doh! Helps to look in the right place...smiley - erm


Quotations

Post 5

Mort - a middle aged Girl Interrupted

smiley - laugh Nevermind, here are so many places to look things up! This is the list of the ones I refer to, just in case you don't have them all smiley - ok

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1285328 - BBCi links

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/SubEditors-GuideML

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1098876 - special character codes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A299496 - subs guideML by Bruce

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A597143 - quick guide to puntuation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/SubEditors-Style

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1342090 - Joe C's Subbing guide

http://www.askoxford.com/


Quotations

Post 6

.

What about a quotation without a blockquote tag? Just a short thing eg

She doesn't want to eat fish, however, as she says 'eating fish is not one of my favourite things!'

If it's just a short quote like that, should it be italicised or apostrophed or both?


Quotations

Post 7

.

Jimster just clarified it in another thread...phew....


Quotations

Post 8

Smij - Formerly Jimster

Anotehr chance to see:

The use of quote marks and italics is a matter that many experienced Researchers still have trouble with. Here's the basics, in potted form:

If you are quoting, and the quote is a sentence or less, use single inverted commas. Do not use italics.

If you are quoting and the quote is more than a sentence, use ... . Do not use additional inverted commas, unless the quote includes a quote inside of it. For example:

That was the year when we were told to 'Turn on, tune in and drop out'..


If your quote is more than a paragraph, you need to wrap each paragraph with ... tags. You do not use additional tags.


Quotations

Post 9

.

smiley - laugh Yay smiley - cheers

*props up a neon sign so that everybody else can see the useful information*


Quotations

Post 10

Mort - a middle aged Girl Interrupted

That is helpful to know!

I always find the single sentence a little tricky. I think I have just gone with what I think looks right - Heaven only knows if it was right or not smiley - winkeye

smiley - cheers Jimster!


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