Reduct Transcription Guidelines - Quotations and Single Inverted Commas
- Quotations and Single Inverted Commas
If someone indicates that they said something to another person, indicate this with double quotations and use proper punctuation.
For example:
Incorrect
Then I said to him you shouldn’t do that.
Correct
Then I said to him, “You shouldn’t do that.”
Double quotation marks "" are used whenever there is a direct quotation.
Example:
She said, "Don't bother telling me." Quotations are introduced by a comma, not a colon.
Internal dialogues are seen as direct quotations as well.
Example:
And then I thought to myself, "What if I can't make it?" (Notice how the question mark is inside of the quotation. This is because the quotation itself is a question.)
Example:
When Simon was telling me his story, I was like “Wow, that’s incredible.”
However, if the rest of the sentence is a question containing a quotation, then the question mark would be outside of the quotation marks). For instance: What makes you say, "It's horrible"?
Do not use quotation marks in indirect quotations (when the speaker paraphrases what has been said).
Example:
The man said that he was in a hurry.
Single inverted commas
When the speaker emphasizes something or highlights the term, use single inverted commas.
Example for single inverted commas:
When I said ‘immediately,’ I meant sometime this week.
While ending a sentence always put the full stop before the single or double inverted commas.
Tatiana during an interview said, “I want to raise my children in the suburbs.”
