Written English 5: the Inverted Commas, the Brackets and Capitalization

Inverted commas or punctuation marks are used to enclose direct speech or a quotation.

These tutorials aren’t meant to be all exhaustive. They’re just simple pointers to put you on the right track to using proper punctuation.

 I’m sure you’ve seen examples of two different schools of thought.  One says that double inverted commas should be used for direct speech, while the single inverted ones are meant to be for quotations.  However, the other says the opposite. I don’t think it matters which one you follow, as long as you’re consistent throughout your writing so that your readers are clear about what you mean.

1. Use inverted commas to enclose speech

   •  Triond’s editor said, “Your £1,000 cheque is in the post.”

   Notice that the comma comes before the start of the direct speech.  Next, comes the first part of the inverted commas, followed by the person’s direct words.  Once you’ve written down what the person actually said, remember to put a suitable punctuation mark, then end off with the second half of the inverted commas.

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   Any punctuation like a question mark, exclamation mark, full stop etc., are always enclosed within the inverted commas.  For example, you would not write,

   •  My Dad said, “Stop it now”!

   Dad’s entire speech needs to be inside the quotation marks and this includes the exclamation mark which relates to what he said. 

   •  “Are you going to finish that?” Shrek asked Fiona.

   Shrek’s question – including the question mark – are all nicely encased within the inverted commas.  ‘Shrek’ the word that follows the inverted comma, is a proper noun so it naturally begins with a capital letter (and it also follows a question mark).  However if you wrote,

   •  “Yes, you can have it,” answered Fiona.

   ‘Answered’ would not be capitalised after the inverted commas because it is not a proper noun, it came after a comma (not a full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark), and it does not start a new sentence. A different way to write the above sentence is set out below.

   •  Fiona answered, “Yes you can have it.”

   The reason ‘Y’  in ‘yes’ is capitalised is because it starts a direct speech.  The first word of a direct speech is always capitalised – proper noun or not. (Note that this is still a bone of contention within several writing groups and courses). Notice again that all punctuation marks are enclosed within the inverted commas

2. Use inverted commas to enclose quotations

    Shakespeare did not know how popular he would make Hamlet when he penned that mighty phrase, ‘To be or not to be.’

    Remember to stick with whatever (double or single inverted commas) you’ve chosen, so that your writing is consistent throughout.

When to Use Brackets

1. Use brackets to enclose a statement inserted into a sentence

   •  He complained for hours (even though I expressed no interest) about his wife’s love of reality TV.

    If you’re having problems in placing brackets correctly, check to see if removing the phrase you inserted would leave you with a sentence that makes complete sense.  If this is so, then you’ve placed the brackets in the right place.

    Brackets are especially useful if you wish to add extra (though not crucial) information to your sentence.

2. Brackets are useful for enclosing numbers in your writing

A first-time camper should possess two types of skills

     Indifference to comfort

     (i) There are no indoor toilets.

     (ii) Bedding get soaking wet when it rains.

     (iii) There are no reading light

     (iv) The nights get colder than you think.

     Indifference to privacy

     (i) Changing rooms are always filled with staring people.

     (ii) You can’t let off wind in the cramped toilets.

     (iii) Someone is always waiting outside the shower room you’re using.

     (iv) Cramped conditions means that you sleep within shouting distance of strangers.

I think that I’ve now beaten this one to death, so we’ll move on.

When to Use Capital Letters

1. Always start a sentence with a capital letter.
2. Always write the pronoun ‘I’ as a capital letter.
3. Always begin proper nouns (Lincoln, China, Cassie) with a capital letter.
4. Use a capital letter to start days of the week and months of the year.
5. Use a capital letter to begin reporting a direct speech.
   This has to be done even when the direct speech is not the beginning of a sentence.
6. Use a capital letter for the main words in titles of films, books, poems, songs etc.
   ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ or ‘Bleeding Love’ (for example). Conjunctions (with, to) and articles (the, an) in titles need not be capitalised, unless of course, they appear first in the title.
7. Use a capital letter for abbreviations if they are also used for the full words.
   For example ‘FBI’ is always capitalised because if you write ‘Federal Bureau of Investigation’ you would need to use capital letters.

We have now come to the end of our refresher courses, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed this series.  I plan to come back some time in the future and do some work with spelling rules. Happy writing until then.

Here are the rest of the lessons in this series.

• Lesson 1 – The Apostrophe
• Lesson 2 – The Comma and the Full Stop
• Lesson 3 – The Colon, the Semi-colon and the Hyphen
• Lesson 4 – The Dash, the Exclamation Mark and the Question Mark

Don’t forget to check out my writing blog ‘A Blogger’s Books’ for more writing tips.