Correcting Quotation Mark Errors - SAT Writing

Double quotation marks are conventionally used to indicate speech, and commas are conventionally used inside the quotation marks to separate a line of speech from its subsequent dialogue tag. Because “‘Can you?’” is a separate sentence from “‘I can’t believe he ate the entire cake,’ she said,’” there must be a period after “she said” to separate the two sentences.

“I was too tired to go out” is an indirect quotation; we know this because it’s preceded by the word “that.” Since indirect quotations don’t require quotation marks, and since a comma is needed before the conjunction (“but”) to separate these two independent clauses, the correct answer is “I told my friends that I was too tired to go out, but really I just wanted to catch up on my favorite TV series.”

Double quotation marks are conventionally used to indicate speech, and question marks are conventionally used inside the quotation marks to indicate the end of an interrogative sentence. Double quotation marks (without commas) are also conventionally used to indicate skepticism about a word or term, as with “fact sheet” here. However, because “fact sheet” is already within a set of double quotation marks, single quotation marks must be used.

This question is asking whether or not a phrase was said, and that phrase itself is not a question. If a question ends with a quoted statement that is not a question, the question mark will go outside the closing quotation mark.

The error in this sentence comes from the fact that the underlined phrase is a question and therefore should end with a question mark, even when it is inside double quotation marks; therefore, the correct answer is "What if the lost puppy really does below to Jane?"

The error in the above sentence is in the placement of the question mark. Larry's statement is not the question—the question is if Larry said the statement. Therefore, we need to remove the question mark from "I'm going to see the Queen?" and place it outside the second quotation mark to properly denote the correct question (Did Larry just say, "I'm going to go see the Queen"?)

The error in this sentence is the incorrect punctuation used to separate Elena's first sentence from her second sentence. Since both sentences are complete thoughts, we should change the comma after "said" to a period ("said. 'In fact, I think it was totally an accident.'")

Double quotation marks are normally used around a word or phrase to discuss that word or phrase in speech; however, when such a word or phrase appears in a sentence that is already within double quotation marks (e.g. direct quotes), we offset that word or phrase from the rest of the sentence with single quotation marks. Therefore, both "count your lucky stars" and "count your lucky star" should appear within single quotation marks in the above sentence ('count your lucky stars' and 'count your lucky star').

In the sentence above, what Kenny said is an indirect quotation and therefore does not require any quotation marks, double or single.

The current form of the sentence uses incorrect punctuation to separate Mom's first sentence from her second. We can replace the comma with a period to make connection between the sentences grammatically correct ("said. 'That's why you're grounded for the rest of the week.'").

With quotation marks, you want to place them before the first word of the quotation, and then immediately after the final punctuation of the quotation. Therefore, the best way to construct the phrase in the first part of the sentence is "'Oh, I don't really like the way Tom's been behaving,' she sighed." Please note that the comma at the end of the phrase "Tom's been behaving," is correctly contained within the quotation marks.

When quoting speech, the quotation marks should precede the first word of the quotation and also follow the final punctuation of the quotation. Therefore, the correct version of this sentence reads: "The child screamed, at the top of her lungs, 'I hate it here and I want to go home!'" The interrupting phrase "at the top of her lungs" may be confusing, but it does not grammatically alter the sentence.

Ensure that any quotation is surrounded by quotation marks, with the first set preceding the first letter of the first word of the sentence, and the last set following the final punctuation mark of the sentence. In this case, the second quotation is forming a new sentence, and therefore the entire thing needs to be enclosed in quotation marks. Additionally, because there is a period preceding it, and it needs to be treated as its own sentence, therefore it needs to begin with a capital letter. The best answer here is: "He's just too dangerous!"

Ensure that any direct quotation is surrounded by quotation marks, with the first set preceding the first letter of the first word of the sentence, and the last set following the final punctuation mark of the sentence. The best way to write the underlined portion of the sentence is: "I hate being stuck out in the woods, it's such a drag." Note that paraphrase (a summary rephrasing that does not feature the exact same words as the original statement) does not require quotation marks (but may require citation in an academic paper).

Quotation marks should always precede the first word of the quote, and follow the final punctuation mark of the quote; therefore, the best way to write the sentence above is "The teacher said, 'Everyone needs to turn their homework in on time, or they will not receive full credit.'"

Quotation marks should always precede the first word of the quote, and follow the final punctuation mark of the quote; therefore, the best way to write the sentence above is "I yelled at the rude man, 'Please leave the store immediately, or I will call security!'"

Quotation marks should always precede the first word of the quote, and follow the final punctuation mark of the quote; therefore, the best way to write the sentence above is "Mr. Jackson asked the clerk, 'Where is the nearest gas station?'"

When you use quotation marks within another quotation, you must use single quotation marks rather than double quotation marks. Therefore, "The self-styled 'Emperor' has been dealt with, Mr. President," is the correct answer.

The quotation in this sentence is not a question itself, but the sentence overall is a question. Therefore, the question mark should go outside of the quotation marks. The best answer is: "I never want to see you again"?