User:Trav1085/QuotationMarks

WARNING! Quotation Marks may possibly be the COOLEST THING ON EARTH - far above JESUS and GOD and even RUSSELL PETERS (WHO IS THE WORLD'S FUNNIEST COMEDIAN!)

Quotation Marks, also called Quotes, are so awesome. Here are some

" " " " " " " " "

They can be used to re-write things people say without it being PLAGIARISM or having the implication of it being YOUR OWN WORK. Here is an example.

"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his."

THESE QUOTES MEAN that the words are not mine but property of someone else. I don't really have to add the person's name in casual writing (Email signatures, et cetera) but in essays and such I would CITE my work

"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." -General George S. Patterson. He deserves that credit, by the way.

QUOTES can also be used to mock people and make words more powerful or impacting, or perhaps even make it the opposite.

George bush said that he would be "cutting" taxes really soon.

The "cutting" implies Bush is lying or using the word "cutting" to imply doing nothing at all or making taxes higher. See how it can imply a modification of words depending on the context?

My dad said he can still do 50 "pushups" in under one minute.

Pushups are a noun, which means quotes can also modify nouns like this. He's going to do some sort of weird thing that he calls "pushups"

HOW DO YOU USE QUOTES IN QUOTES?

This sentence is INCORRECT

"Bob got a good "discount" at the store when he bought some milk."

The end quotes on "discount" practically end the whole quotation as well! You need to use an APOSTROPHE! Here are some apostrophes:

' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '

Here is how to use them correctly when quoting inside quotes:

"Bob got a good 'discount' at the store when he bought some milk."

That is GREAT!

OK, MR. SMARTYPANTS, HOW DO YOU USE UNDERSCORES?

You might think that underscores are not used in the English language properly. What words are spelled with underscores? Nothing! These are underscores,

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Probably the only use is for email addresses, since you cannot use spaces in your username, even though you can use periods (. . . . .) that wasn't introduced until recent. Or at least nobody knew about the possibility in the 90's. Here is an example of proper usage:

Carl _was_ the murderer!

Think of _[word]_ as italics. These can be used when you cannot use italics (IE, in a plain text editor) or are writing on paper (physically printing italics is not easy if your a messy writer). It makes words stronger and more powerful. I'll talk about Italics later. It is also able to imply Bold, so is not exactly Italics. Here is one for bold

Marked by: _Travis_

By doing that, it makes the fact Travis was the "Marker" more (most) important.

HOW DO I USE ASTERISKS?

Asterisks (informally called "stars")



When do you use these? Maybe if your writing the title M*A*S*H they are practical. Think about it as a stronger version of _[word]_.


 * Bob* and *Joe* are _best_ friends.

It can be used for Nouns more than the underscores can. It makes them important, stand out from the rest, or possibly like this:


 * Bob* and Joe are _best_ "friends".

Those asterisks make Bob more important than Joe, sort of like bold but less italics. I also used an underscore on best, it is a verb that describes Bob and Joe ['s relationship] and even "friends" that means they are more of enemies or something like that. It's all in the implication.

HOW DO I USE [BRACKETS] WHAT EXACTLY DOES [SIC] MEAN?

You might see in online newspapers that they use "[SIC]" in someone's quotes, notice how they follow improper grammar or mistakes?

"My naighbor [SIC] alerted me of the presence." Frank wrote to us via Email.

Frank wrote an email, that was a quote with his words. The newspaper didn't want to change it, because then it wouldn't be a quote! [SIC] signifies that it is the writers mistake and not the papers, so don't start sending them mail saying their editors suck.

"[The attack was] very strong and strategic. They had us surprised for sure." commented an FBI agent.

What does the text in the brackets mean, anyways? Anything in brackets in quotes are words added by an editor or someone else, they are not what they said. This is done for the reader when the context is unclear. Think about the headline that this quote was in as "Chicago airport bombed by terrorists." but still does just "very strong and strategic." make any sense? Why did they just say that, would someone being interviewed us this bad grammar? No. Because they are asked questions and only their comments are quoted, not what the report said.

"So, can you comment about the attack on the airport?"

"Very strong and strategic. They had us surprised for sure."

Notice the FBI agent used proper grammar? You don't have to include the subject; the attacks; if it is already known, as the reporter asked to comment on the attack, what else would he comment on? The reporter's tie? I think not.

Brackets can also be used to add words that the person didn't use, maybe if they were asked multiple questions and the editor wanted the comment into one line.

"He [Hitler] shot himself in 1945. Are you [Dr. Ren] an idiot for asking that?"

We somehow don't know what he was talking about as the context was clearly implied, so they add [Hitler] to make it the subject. Often associated with people pronouns and titles.

LAST QUESTION (FOR NOW) WHAT ARE PARENTHESIS AND HOW DO I USE THEM? (IMPROPERLY CALLED BRACKETS)

Parenthesis:

Think about these as little notes that one makes in writing, it isn't exactly related or that important to the subject, but still should be added. Here is an example:

I found the keys (they were on the nightstand), went into the car (the door was already unlocked), and drove off into the night (Technically morning as the clock passed midnight as I was writing).

Those notes aren't really important, does it matter where they were? Some authors, such as Dostoevsky use parenthesis in an interesting way, via speech. Although normally you would use Brackets, when the speaker wants to make a note to the READER or purposely show his own thought to reader, especially during dialog, it works fine. Trust me, Crime and Punishment had a dialog of 7 pages, I don't know if that's the longest in book as I haven't finished yet.

"Joe I swear to god this is the tenth time (maybe I lost count) you've said that. Are you can idiot or what!? (I probably answered that myself)."

He didn't speak what was in the parenthesis, but merely used them as notes for the reader. I believe Nabokov also used this as well in some of his works.