One of the best ways to spice up any writing is to throw in some quotes. When readers see those two little tick marks, they breathe a little sigh of relief. In fact, readers commonly skim a page, looking for quotation marks and start reading there.

Quotes are an easy way to increase your writing’s effectiveness. Open up any copywriting book and the author will sing the praises of testimonials, which are, after all, simply quotes.

But dealing with quotes can be tricky. There are several different ways to format them, depending on their length and form.

Simple quotes

Simple quotes are the basic format: a quotation and an attribution.

“I’m very hungry,” she said.

Here, the quotation’s punctuation is replaced with a comma. However, if the quote is a question, leave the question mark.

“When do we eat?” she asked.

If the attribution comes before the quote, place a comma before the opening quotation mark.

She said, “I am very hungry.”

Don’t try to be too clever with your attribution. It’s best to stick with a simple “said” or “asked” rather than “murmured,” “purred,” or other such verbs.

Longer quotes

It is often necessary to use quotes that span two or more sentences. In these instances, one sentence gets the attribution, and the rest do not.

“I’m very hungry,” she said. “I think I’ll eat a cat.”

Otherwise, the format is the same as simple quotes.

A note on style: If your quote spans an entire paragraph, place the attribution in the middle rather than the end. Don’t force your readers to wade through several sentences before they find out who’s speaking.

Indirect quotes

There are times when you want to use a quote, but the specific wording isn’t quite up to snuff. In these cases, paraphrase the quote — Be sure to maintain the meaning! — and attribute it, but leave off the quotation marks.

The bed was awkward, she said.

Some styles may dictate the use of “according to” rather than “said” for indirect quotes.

Longer quotes

If you have a quote that spans multiple paragraphs, but not long enough to set out in a block, no paragraph, save the last, gets a final quotation mark.

Jones said, “I don’t care what the neighbors think. That car is staying on the cinder blocks.
“If they don’t like it, they can buy me some new tires.”

This is true even if the first paragraph is not entirely a quote.

Block quotes

Finally, if you have a quotation that is too long to keep in the text (styles differ as to how long is too long), the quote is indented, and quotation marks are not used.

However, the neighbors had a different idea.

You take that car off those blocks and out of sight! I certainly am not paying a mortgage this high to look at your piece of junk every day. And if you don’t want to do it, I’m sure the sheriff will be more than glad to help.

Wrapping up

Now you understand the basic formats of quotations. Next time, we’ll discuss some techniques for using quotations effectively, as well as some pitfalls to avoid.

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