Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT
Sometimes the absence of quotation marks can make a sentence
outright difficult to follow, as the reader struggles to figure out what
part of speech an unfamiliar word represents. For example:
A transom is a horizontal crossbar in a window; over the transom is a
publisher's term for unsolicited manuscripts.
BETTER: A transom is a horizontal crossbar in a window; "over the
transom" is a publisher's term for unsolicited manuscripts.
Quotation marks make it clear that these words make up a phrase.
In a questionnaire, skip instructions tell the respondent to skip certain
questions if they are not relevant.
BETTER: In a questionnaire, "skip instructions" tell the respondent to skip
certain questions if they are not relevant.
Quotation marks make it clear that skip is part of a compound
noun, .not a verb.
Check any utilities issuing blocking ineligible warnings.
BETTER: Check any utilities issuing "blocking ineligible" warnings.
Quotation marks make it clear-or at least clearer-that "blocking
ineligible" is the type of warning that certain utilities are issuing.
With technical and academic terms, note that esotericism is a
relative matter. Words that would be unusual to the layperson may
be basic terminology to a specialist, so know your audience. It could
verge on insulting to set off a term your readers consider standard,
as it would imply that you thought they wouldn't know it.
Quotation marks may also be appropriate for terms that you want
to acknowledge as special or unusual in some way, even if they are
familiar enough not to have to be defined. For example, they may
serve to set off literary references.
The language of "Newspeak" is alive and well in political circles today.
On the surface all was friendliness, but the "green-eyed monster" was
starting to raise its head.
WORDS USED IN A SPECIAL SENSE
If you are introducing a word or phrase that is not unusual in itself,
but which you intend in some specific or nonstandard sense, enclose
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