Punctuating Quotations

There are three different ways to introduce (or punctuate) quotations: with the comma, the colon, or nothing at all. Longer quotations (exceeding for complete typed lines) are set off from the text without quotation marks and are usually introduced by a colon or comma, while shorter quotations (four or fewer complete typed lines) are incorporated into the text and can be introduced by any one of the three methods of punctuation.

It is important to introduce every quotation – don’t just drop a quotation in from nowhere so that it floats between your own text. In general, the lead-in for a direct quotation should identify both the person who is about to speak in the quotation and how the following quotation pertains to what you are writing or what you are about to write.

The Comma:

• Use a comma when it fits into the natural flow of the sentence, even if you are not quoting someone. It is used commonly after such words as asks, remarks, asserts, states and concludes.

            According to Forster, “the greatest writer ever was Dickens.”

            Forster states, “the greatest writer ever was Dickens.”

As Stone asserts in The American Short Story, “it has been regarded as essentially trivial, a diversion.

The Colon:

• When a long quotation is formally introduced, it is usually preceded by a colon. Remember that in this situation the colon is like a period: it must have a complete sentence, or an independent clause, on both sides of it.

In his biography on Dickens’ life and works, G.K. Chesterton has the following to say about Dickens’ character:

For the essence of Dickens’ character was that it was at once tremulous and yet hard and sharp, just as the bright blade of a sword is tremulous and yet hard and sharp. He vibrated at every touch and yet he was indestructible; you could bend him, but you could not break him (132).

• Quotations of verse are also usually preceded by a colon.

Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner concludes thus: “A sadder but wiser man,/He rose the morrow morn.”

Nothing:

• If a quotation is woven into your sentence and the syntax of your sentence matches that of the quotation, then neither a comma nor a colon is needed. Note that your voice makes little or no pause before reading these quotations.

During its early years, St. John’s gave its approbation to such student clubs as The Sodality of the Blessed Virgin because they promoted “practical piety” among the students.

Wilson countered the charge by saying that “there is never any reason for supposing that anybody but the governess sees the ghosts.”