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In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes, talking marks, [1] [2] speech marks, [3] quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed on either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name.
Some people use the Oxford comma (also known as the Harvard or serial comma). This is a comma before "and" or "or" at the end of a series, regardless of whether it is needed for clarification purposes. For example: X, Y, and Z (with an Oxford comma) X, Y and Z (without an Oxford comma)
The serial comma (for example the comma before and in "ham, chips, and eggs") is optional; be sensitive to possible ambiguity arising from thoughtless use or thoughtless avoidance, and be consistent within a given article. Avoid comma splices. Picture captions should not end in a full stop (a period) unless they are complete sentences.
The two leading academic publishing style guides in the world do not use the comma. New Hart's Rules (in two editions, revisions of the Oxford Style Manual and Oxford Manual of Style, in turn revising the classic Hart's Rules) recommends no comma, and labels the comma an American practice (p. 109 in latest ed., p. 103 in 2005 ed.).
Do not follow quoted words or fragments with commas inside the quotation marks, except where a longer quotation has been broken up and the comma is part of the full quotation. Correct: "I began to change, opening the way to confidence and courage", said Turner. Correct: "I began to change," said Turner, "opening the way to confidence and courage."
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OK, that's it for hints—I don't want to totally give it away before revealing the answer! Related: 16 Games Like Wordle To Give You Your Word Game Fix More Than Once Every 24 Hours
Other authors [8] claim that the reason for this was an aesthetic one: the elevated quotation marks created extra white space before and after the word, below the quotation marks. This was considered aesthetically unpleasing, while the in-line quotation marks helped to maintain the typographical color , since the quotation marks had the same ...