Grammar, Punctuation and Capitalization - Handbook for Technical ...

Chapter 3. Punctuation Page 71If a document quotes extensively from other sources, consult an authority, such as Chicago Press (1982), chapter10, for details of correctly setting up quotations.Quotation marks enclose material taken verbatim from another source. The quote can be of any length, from aphrase to several paragraphs:Diehl argued that a transonic research plane was necessary to demonstrate that the sound barrierwas "just a steep hill."As Richard P. Hallion has explained: "They gave the fuselage a pointed nose then graduallythickened the body--that is, increased the cross-sectional area--until the fuselage reached itsmaximum diameter near the middle."• The source of a quote should always be clear, either from the context or with a reference citation.• Long quotations are usually set off from the text and set in smaller type if typeset. Such block quotations are notenclosed by quotation marks:Stack allowed Whitcomb to present his area rule at the next meeting of Langley's elite technicalseminar.At the end of presentation there was silence. Finally, Adolf Busemann stood up. Turning to hiscolleagues, the pioneer of sweptwing technology remarked, "Some people come up with halfbakedideas and call them theories. Whitcomb comes up with a brilliant idea and calls it a rule ofthumb."Note the double quotes within the quotation. If the quotation had not been set off but had been run in the text andenclosed in quotation marks, then single quotes would have enclosed Busemann's remark.3.14.2. Words Requiring DifferentiationQuotation marks may enclose words that need to be differentiated from the text in order to make meaning clear.Italics are used for much the same purpose (see section 3.9.3) and are sometimes interchangeable with quotationmarks.• Enclose in quotes a word or phrase whose meaning is being referred to:The operator presses the letter nto indicate "no" and the letter y to indicate "yes."The word pultruded is defined to mean the opposite of "extruded."Words used simply as words are usually italicized:A colon is not used after that is, for example, or such as.• Enclose words or phrases following entitled, the term, marked, designated, classified, named, enclosed, citedas, referred to as, or signed, but do not enclose an expression following known as, called, or so-called unlessthe expression is slang (G.P.O. 1984). Of course, an italicized phrase or word (for example, a title) would not befurther differentiated with quotation marks.• Do not routinely enclose slang or technical jargon (if used) in quotation marks, unless it is expected to beforeign to the vocabulary of the reader: