quotation marks. punctuation Archives - Wylie Communications, Inc. https://www.wyliecomm.com/tag/quotation-marks-punctuation/ Writing workshops, communication consulting and writing services Mon, 01 Jan 2024 13:02:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://www.wyliecomm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cropped-wci-favico-1-32x32.gif quotation marks. punctuation Archives - Wylie Communications, Inc. https://www.wyliecomm.com/tag/quotation-marks-punctuation/ 32 32 65624304 How to use air quotes https://www.wyliecomm.com/2022/10/how-to-use-air-quotes/ https://www.wyliecomm.com/2022/10/how-to-use-air-quotes/#respond Tue, 04 Oct 2022 13:09:30 +0000 https://www.wyliecomm.com/?p=30632 Don’t.

No punctuation transgression amuses me quite as much as the extraneous quotation mark. Because, “really,” when you inexplicably put “quotes” around a word or phrase, what is it that you’re “trying” to “say”?… Read the full article

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No punctuation transgression amuses me quite as much as the extraneous quotation mark. Because, “really,” when you inexplicably put “quotes” around a word or phrase, what is it that you’re “trying” to “say”?

How to use air quotes
“Really,” when you inexplicably put “quotes” around a word or phrase, what is it that you’re “trying” to “say”? Image by VectorKid

Here’s how my favorite college professor tried to cure us of the offense: He’d assume that any verb with superfluous quotation marks was a euphemism for sex.

Absolutely, sir, I’d love to “talk strategy” with you this afternoon!

Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

So you can “imagine” how much I “love” Paste Production Coordinator Mark DiCristina’s “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. It documents egregious misuses of quotation marks with photos and annotates them with innuendos and other possible meanings.

Spend 20 minutes on this site, and you’ll likely be cured of superfluous quotation marks for life.

And you “know” what I mean by that.

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