Sometimes, we are so clever we invent grammar rules that don’t actually exit. Then wonderful **insert sarcasm here** sites like YahooAnswers allow readers to vote on correct answers where the winner isn’t necessarily correct just popular. When uninformed Wikipedia writers also jump on the popular-but-not-actually-correct bandwagon, we’re in trouble.
This week, I was asked about the use of single vs. double quotation marks, a question that comes up fairly often and a rule that is often confused. But you know what? This answer is easy—so easy in fact that I can write it in nine words:
Always use double quotes unless inside of another quote.
How simple and straight-forward is that?
Yes, this means that single words or short phrases need double quotes. Yes, this means you should use double quotes for titles of songs, articles, poems, and short stories.
The only time we Americans should see the single quotation mark is like this:
“The posters on YahooAnswers might say, ‘No way! I don’t believe it,’ but it’s true,” the grammarista explained.
Other English-speaking countries have variations on this rule, but for most of my readers here, let’s keep it simple. Follow the above, and you’ll always be correct.
To give Wikipedia credit, they corrected their English language post where this rule was incorrectly taught, but effects of the bad post still linger on other pages.
But you won’t get this one wrong anymore, will you?