Using Quotation Marks

Donna Miller

Purpose:     

 

To teach middle grades students to apply standard conventional writing  practices to their writing. 

 

Materials:

 

Black Board or Dry Erase Board

Dry Erase Markers

Quotation Rule Handout

 

Objectives:

 

Curriculum Competency Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.

 

Sixth Grade

6.01 Demonstrate an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression by:

 

·                      using a variety of sentence types correctly, punctuating them properly, and avoiding fragments and run-ons.

·                      demonstrating the different roles of the parts of speech in sentence construction.

 

NCTE/IRA Standard 4: Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

 

NCTE/IRA Standard 6: Students apply knowledge of language structure. Language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.

 

Script:

 

NOTE:  Before I begin the lesson, I will list in chart form on the board the headings, “When do we Use Quotation Marks” and “Examples”. 

 

“When do you use quotation marks?”  I begin  listing their reasons on the board under the heading, “When do we use quotation marks?”  (All responses are listed)  After we list the reasons on the board, I will then pass out the handout entitled, “When is the Right Time for Quotation Marks.”  I will read through the sheet and explain each use.  Then we will go back to the board and look for the corresponding reason.  If it is listed, I ask a student to come and write an example.  As a class, we review it and make any necessary corrections.  We continue on through the handout following the same process –  looking for the reason on the board and asking a student to write an example of its proper use.  We then go back to see what is left on the board.  I ask, “What about this reason.  Do you think we use quotation marks for this?”  More than likely, it will be an incorrect response.  I ask, “What should be done here?”  For example, if the  reason listed is, “Place single quotation marks around the title of a book,” I then explain that a book is underlined, not quoted.  I then remove the reason from the chart and write the reason under a heading “Improper Uses of Quotation Marks” and list the proper convention to use followed by an example.  We continue in this mode until all reasons listed are addressed.  We then go back through the handout for any we did not list on the board.  I then list those on the board, and ask for a student to write an example.  We review handout once more by going back and reading through each step and example.  “Is there any questions?”  I address the questions and ask for input from the students. 


Using Quotation Marks

 

1. Double quotation marks enclose direct quotation:

 

·                      “What was Paris like in the Twenties?” our daughter asked.

·                      “Ladies and Gentlemen,” the Chief Usher said, “the President of the United States.”

·                      Robert Louis Stevenson said that “it is better to be a fool than to be dead.”

·                      When advised not to become a lawyer because the profession was already overcrowded, Daniel Webster replied, “There is always room at the top.”

 

2. Double quotation marks enclose words or phrases to clarify their meaning or use to indicate that they are being used in a special way:

 

·                      This was the border of what we often called “the West” or the Free World.”

·                      “The Windy City” is a name for Chicago.

 

3. Double quotation marks set off the translation of a foreign word or phrase:

 

·                      die Grenze, “the border.”

 

4. Double quotation marks set off the title of a series of books, of articles, or chapters in publications, of essays, of short stories, poems, of individual radio and television programs, of songs, and short musical pieces:

 

·                      a series of books: “The Horizon Concise History”

·                      an article: “On Relexive Verbs in English”

·                      a chapter in a book: Chapter Nine, “The Prince and the Peasant”

·                      a short story: Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades”

·                      a poem: Tennyson’s “Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington”

·                      a television show: “The Bob Hope Special”

·                      a short musical piece: Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden”

 

5.  Single quotation marks enclose quotations within quotations:

 

·                      The blurb for the piece proclaimed, “Two years ago at Geneva, South Vietnam was virtually sold down the river to the Communists.  Today the spunky little...country is back on its own feet, thanks to ‘a mandarin in a sharkskin suit who’s upsetting the Red timetable.’” – Frances Fitzgerald

 

6.  Put commas and periods INSIDE quotation marks; put semicolons and colons OUTSIDE.  Other punctuation, such as exclamation points and question marks, should be put inside the closing quotation marks only if part of the quote.