My childhood cat loved to
hide under the sofa and lie in wait for passing ankles. An unsuspecting victim
would cross the living room, minding her own business, until aaackk! Jaws shot
out like a moray eel and sank her fangs into another tender tootsie.
As a copy editor for the
Wild Rose Press, Inc., I relive this experience in the manuscripts I review.
There I go, reading along serenely, until aaackk! a typo jumps out and bites
me. Or a punctuation glitch or, too often, a dangling participle.
Everyone has seen warnings
and wagging fingers about common errors, but that doesn’t stop typos showing up
every day in fresh submissions. Among the ones I see most often are errant
single and double quotation marks.
Single
quotation marks are a shy and nervous critter. In almost all
cases, they’ll only show up when hugged by double quote marks. If your
character’s dialogue repeats someone else’s words, put the other person’s words
in single quote marks. The only other appropriate places for single quotes are
around names of horticultural cultivars or in specialized linguistic writing.
For submitting to the Wild
Rose Press, Inc., single quote marks belong inside a double quote mark hug
(American style). Without the shelter of the double quote marks, the single
quotes aren’t happy! (And nor will your editor be.) Don’t Use Them Alone. EVER.
I’m begging you.
WRONG: Mrs. Blake heard
someone say ‘Boo!’
RIGHT: Mrs. Blake raised
an eyebrow at the class. “Who said, ‘Boo!’?”
WRONG: In her essay,
Janice described Mrs. Blake as the ‘best’ teacher in the school.
RIGHT: In her essay,
Janice described Mrs. Blake as the best teacher in the school.
Or for emphasis, Janice
could use italics, thus: the best teacher...
Double
quotation marks are best saved for dialogue. It’s correct to
use them as scare quotes to set off
a word or phrase in a sentence, but that often puts people’s teeth on edge.
Scare quotes are not recommended, not if you’re sending a story to me, at
least. (Other TWRP editors may have no problem with them. Perhaps they’ll offer
opinions in the comments section below.) Proverbs and common phrases don’t need
quote marks, unless they’re spoken in dialogue.
WRONG: Justin was the
proverbial “rolling stone,” tooling around the country on his motorbike.
Notice the comma inside
the final quote mark (American style).
RIGHT: Justin was the
proverbial rolling stone, tooling around the country on his motorbike.
By putting quote marks
around a word or phrase outside of dialogue, you’re telling the reader Don’t
believe me! Scare quotes are meant to signal an ironic or nonstandard usage
of a word; they do not signal emphasis. Scare quotes examples:
Celia picked up her
daughter for some “quality time.” (Correct only if she plonked the kid in front
of the television.)
Our company provides
“health care.” (Correct only if it makes you sick.)
“Farm fresh eggs” for
sale. (Correct only if they’re a year old, from factory chickens, and not
actually eggs.)
For more useful and
entertaining tips on quote marks, dangling participles, and many other writing
topics, you can visit some of my favorite blogs.
Edittorrent
Two professional editors discuss writing problems and how to fix them. Check
out their series of rants on dangling participles. http://edittorrent.blogspot.ca/
Flogging
the Quill A professional editor offers online critiques of
first pages sent in by brave volunteers. His explanation of show vs. tell is
brilliant. http://www.floggingthequill.com/flogging_the_quill/
Romance
University Experienced authors and editors contribute articles
on all aspects of writing and publishing. Cherry Adair’s recent post describes
her process for creating three-dimensional characters. http://romanceuniversity.org/
Savvy
Authors Writers helping writers.
Eilidh MacKenzie - Editor
