Love a Happy Ending Lifestyle Magazine August 2013 | Page 53

THE WRITE PATH

Help! Do I Use Single or Double Quotes?
Without doubt, the single most perplexing problem for
many writers and authors is with regard to punctuation and
capitalization, particularly concerning dialogue. As with
many things in writing, there are differences between what
is deemed acceptable in the USA, Canada, and
elsewhere, and how it is done in the UK.
The publishing industry in Britain has long followed that
editors’ bible New Hart’s Rules: the Handbook of Style for
Writers and Editors, published by the OUP, a goldmine of
information on standard conventions for the written word. Of
course, some things have changed and evolved over time, but the basics have not.
First, to answer that constant chestnut: “Should I use double or single quotes in my writing?”
The answer is simple – you use whichever you prefer.
The USA prefers the double quotation mark. This is, in fact, how millions of children in the
UK were taught to write dialogue in school – with the good old double inverted commas. UK
English (and as in Hart’s Rules) favours the single mark, but there is no rule that says you
cannot use double if that is your preference.
In fact, using double quotes has its advantages in that it saves a lot of time and hassle if you
are considering publishing in the USA. Converting single to double is never as
straightforward as it sounds, even when using the Search and Replace function.
What is important is consistency in style throughout your document. Whichever you
choose, ALL quotes, including single words or phrases, as well as direct speech/dialogue
should be in that choice, i.e. either all double or all single. The only exception would be a
quote within a quote/dialogue (see New Hart’s Rules p.85).
There is a school of thought that direct speech is set within double and anything else within
single. Not so in UK English. Take a look at any professionally published novel by the major
publishing houses, and you will see this is the case. It’s one or the other. The extracts below
show how this should be done.
Example 1 Single within double quotation marks
“I was telling Elaine about it and she said, ‘I don’t believe you.’ It took me ages to
convince her.”
Example
2
All
quotes
words/phrases/statements

in

single

quotation

marks,

even

single