Inverted commas are used to show direct speech. They are also known as speech marks. They are placed before and after the exact words a character says. “Shall we go to Grandpa’s house?” asked Sally.

The inverted commas, dashes, parentheses and capitalisation happen to be the last few items on our list of punctuation marks. In the above examples it is important to note the positioning of the ...

Reporting other people’s speeches or writings is a technical exercise in which punctuation marks play strategic roles. Whether it is in direct speech or the indirect, punctuation marks such as the ...

SOME British readers might wonder why a London-based publication uses double inverted commas like "these". And some American readers may wonder why commas and full stops (er, periods) sometimes appear ...