Using quotation marks correctly is a very important requirement of Night of Notables.
Education Scotland explains it well:
Speech marks – which are also known as inverted commas – simply separate the words someone in a sentence actually says from the rest of the sentence.
These words are called direct speech. For example:
"I’ll be back home soon," Jim shouted to his mum.
There are some simple rules to follow:
- Put every word that was said inside speech marks.
- Always use a capital letter for the first word of each sentence inside the speech marks:
- "I’m going out now. Is that OK?" he asked.
- Mum said quietly, "Please sit down."
- Separate the direct speech from the rest of the sentence, usually using a comma:
- Mum said quietly, "Please sit down."
- "Please sit down," Mum said quietly.
