Direct speech - inverted commas
Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 12:29 am
Regarding the use of inverted commas around direct speech, I have been using single inverted commas ( eg: Jane said, 'Hello.' ) but someone commented on that and queried whether it is allowable. I looked at some other people's writing and saw that double inverted commas are used more often on FaithWriters posts (eg: Jane said, "Hello." )
It is the current convention here in Australia, in new publications, to use single inverted commas and apparently this is also so in Britain. Does FaithWriters have a 'style guide' type rule on this? And is America's current convention different so that double inverted commas are still usual?
And, after all that - which should I use.? My preference is to use what is acceptable by publishers and that is the single version here. In fact it would be quite hard to have to change back to the old way, and even harder to have to do some things one way and some the other.
Advice on this would be much appreciated. (As long as it's the advice I want to hear of course! )
It is the current convention here in Australia, in new publications, to use single inverted commas and apparently this is also so in Britain. Does FaithWriters have a 'style guide' type rule on this? And is America's current convention different so that double inverted commas are still usual?
And, after all that - which should I use.? My preference is to use what is acceptable by publishers and that is the single version here. In fact it would be quite hard to have to change back to the old way, and even harder to have to do some things one way and some the other.
Advice on this would be much appreciated. (As long as it's the advice I want to hear of course! )